The Massachusetts football team suffered a 45-3 defeat to the No. 21 Missouri Tigers on Saturday. UMass (1-6) couldn’t piece things together in both its first battle against the Tigers (5-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference), and the first time that the Minutemen have ever hosted an SEC opponent on campus.
UMass got its first defensive stop of the day at the end of the second quarter, forcing a punt that T.Y. Harding fair caught at the Minutemen’s 15-yard line. After one first down, the drive stalled out, but UMass decided to fake a punt on a fourth and one from its own 39-yard line.
John Burton received a direct snap on the play, handing the ball off to Te’Rai Powell who ran down the right sideline for a 39-yard gain. CJ Hester took a carry up the middle for a 13-yard gain on the ensuing play, setting the Minutemen up with its best scoring opportunity of the afternoon.
Just a few plays later, on a third and goal from the nine-yard line with under 30 seconds in the first half, Taisun Phommachanh threw a ball intended for Sterling Galban, coming across the middle of the field on a slant. Missouri linebacker Corey Flagg stayed put in his position underneath the route, snatching the pass out of the air for an interception that he returned all the way back to the UMass 15-yard line.
The turnover prevented the Minutemen from scoring, and allowed the Tigers to add three more points to their lead as time expired in the first half, sucking the momentum out of the UMass crowd in the process.
“I thought [the fake punt] obviously gave us some juice, [but] then we give it right back to [Missouri],” head coach Don Brown said. “So that was disappointing … We just give too many plays away.”
The Minutemen’s lengthiest drive of the day came in the back half of the second quarter, with Jakobie Keeney-James accounting for 51 of the team’s 65 yards on the 10-play drive. His three catches brought UMass down into the redzone, where Jacob Lurie came onto the field to boot through a 28-yard field goal for the team’s only points.
Missouri received the opening kickoff and didn’t wait long to put points on the board. Wide receiver Luther Burden III took a jet sweep around the left side on the second play of the game, stiff-arming a defender in the backfield on his way to the end zone for a 61-yard touchdown, just 53 seconds into the game.
“We struggled coming right out of the gate,” Brown said. “I almost think the speed of the game kind of surprised us a little bit.”
Marcus Carroll had a big day in his own right for the Tigers, taking 15 rushing attempts for 91 yards on the ground. The senior running back found the endzone on three different occasions, including taking one carry in from 35 yards out in the third quarter.
Offensive line play was one of the biggest discrepancies between the two teams on Saturday, with Phommachanh much less comfortable in the pocket than Brady Cook, being pressured on a large number of his dropbacks.
“We’ve got to do a better job protecting [Phommachanh],” Brown said. “I don’t care who you are, if you’re getting racked around pretty good, it’s hard to make good throws.”
The defensive line for Missouri had success in both pass rush and run defense against UMass, totaling three sacks and six tackles for loss, compared to one sack and four tackles for loss for the Minutemen.
The weather played a big factor in Saturday’s contest, with 25 mph gusts coming from the North end zone toward the South side. This led to a few underthrown passes by Phommachanh when attempting to get vertical, as well as some struggles in the punting game for UMass.
After seven straight weeks of football to start the 2024 season, UMass gets a break with a bye week coming up. Following the bye, the Minutemen will host Wagner on Saturday, Oct. 26. Kickoff from McGuirk Alumni Stadium is set for 3:30 p.m.
“There’s nothing wrong with their effort,” Brown said of his players. “There’s nothing wrong with how they go about their business. The bottom line is, we got beat by the better team [Saturday].”
Mike Maynard can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @mikecmaynard.
