Missouri quarterback Brady Cook came back after a midgame trip to the hospital for an MRI on his injured ankle and led his team to two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. This included the game-winning run by Jamal Roberts with just 46 seconds left, giving the Tigers a 21-17 victory over Auburn on Saturday.
Cook got hurt during the first drive and didn’t return until late in the third quarter, after his hospital visit and some time spent in the nearby indoor practice facility. Missouri coaches wanted to check if his ankle was functioning well enough.
“It was a long hour-and-a-half for sure. I did not think I was going to come back to play in the game. My stuff was off, my pads were off,” Cook said later. “I realized I had 2 1/2 games left to play in Faurot Field. We were going to find a way.”
The comeback started with Auburn leading 17-6. Cook threw a 78-yard pass to Mookie Cooper, which set up Marcus Carroll’s touchdown run. As time was running out, Cook led a crucial drive that kept Missouri’s College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Starting from his own 5-yard line with 4:26 left, Cook converted a third down by running on his injured ankle, then connected with Luther Burden III on fourth-and-5 for another first down.
He found Wease on a third-and-10 later in the drive and then passed to Mekhi Miller inside the 10-yard line with just over a minute remaining, setting up Roberts’ game-winning touchdown run.
“He could have sat out and watched the game from the sideline or on TV,” said Roberts, who also stepped up in place of injured starter Nate Noel. “That showed the brotherhood we have here.”
Cook ended the game with 194 yards passing in less than two quarters. Meanwhile, the Missouri defense repeatedly shut down Auburn (2-5, 0-4) when they had a chance to secure the win, limiting coach Hugh Freeze’s team to 286 total yards.
Payton Thorne threw for 176 yards and one touchdown, while Antonio Kite recovered a fumbled punt for Auburn’s other touchdown.
“We seem to not make the right call as coaches or the right play from time to time in critical moments, and that’s kind of been the story the whole year,” said Freeze, whose team lost its first four SEC games in a row for the first time.
What should have been an exciting match between two strong offenses—Auburn averaging 444.5 yards and Missouri leading the SEC in time of possession—turned into a defensive battle, partly due to injuries that affected the Tigers.
The most significant injury was to Cook, their reliable senior quarterback, who fell to the ground during the first drive of the game. He got up and limped to the sideline, then went up the tunnel to the locker room, and eventually to the hospital and indoor practice facility.
The score was tied at 3 early in the second half when Auburn tried to take control.
Cam Coleman ran past Missouri’s Dreyden Norwood and Marvin Burks Jr., and Thorne found him with a 47-yard touchdown pass to put Auburn ahead 10-3. Shortly after, after Missouri forced a punt, Burden was hit while trying to catch the ball, and it bounced into the end zone, where Kite jumped on it for another score.
Cook didn’t know what was happening—cellphones weren’t allowed in the hospital—but he knew his team needed him, and the training staff worked hard to get him back on the field to help his team.
“There’s a lot of toughness in that team. A lot of young guys in that team that have never won like that before,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “There’s a lot of fight in that team. And to figure it out like that bodes well for the rest of the year.”
