The Replay: Missouri

Thomas Castellanos stood behind two receivers placed in an unconventional formation behind the offensive line. A quiet cadence and silent snap count allotted him a tunnel vision to center Drew Kendall, but a misinterpretation of the count forced Kendall into a snap while Castellanos wasn't looking. In an instant, the football that flew under the Boston College quarterback created a live play akin to recess on a school yard as he picked up the ball and looked up at the yellow jerseys bearing down on the backfield.

Reed Harris had been one of the backfield options before he broke through Missouri's bull rush. He broke containment as Castellanos scrambled to his left, and the off-balance pass to the deepest recesses of the Tiger defensive backfield found him streaking down the sideline without anyone within two or three yards. The ball landed softly against his body as the BC sideline exploded, and though it wasn't the prettiest execution, a play designed to break Harris deep ended exactly how head coach Bill O'Brien hoped.

Harris could have run straight to Arkansas. He was gone, and he didn't stop until he reached the black-and-yellow paint of the Faurot Field end zone. A 67-yard touchdown was the apex of 24th-ranked BC's afternoon and a potential coup de grace against the No. 6 team in the nation. Missouri hadn't trailed by two scores since last year's game against top-ranked Georgia, and while Memorial Stadium wasn't in Athens, the stunned crowd might as well have run between the hedges.

Missouri eventually rallied, but the glory associated with the dormant powerhouse on the opposite sideline conclusively restored its identity when it broke out to a 14-3 lead. BC fell, 27-21, for its first loss of the O'Brien era, but the inroads gained on Saturday night point to a success that's now awaiting a team that still feels altogether different.

"I was very proud of these guys to come on the road in the SEC [and play well]," said head coach Bill O'Brien. "We're never going to accept losing. This is not a moral victory. I want to be really clear about that. But even with the adversity that we dealt with, with turning the ball over, having trouble stopping the run, at the end, we were in the game. If we stop them on that last second third down, we get a shot to get the ball back, you neve rknow what's going to happen. I think we have a lot to build on here, and I'm really proud of these guys. I'm looking forward to getting back to work."

The storyline running up to Saturday rang with bells from two perspectives surrounding BC's first two results. Optimism flowed after the wins over Florida State and Duquesne, but Mizzou's reputation felt impenetrable in comparison to both of those opponents. An undefeated team from its own first two weeks, the Tigers ended last season by crushing Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. The Buckeyes' field goal with 3:12 remaining in the first quarter had been the last points surrendered by the "Death Row" defense with the last touchdown allowed coming one game earlier in late November when Missouri destroyed Arkansas, 48-14, after leading 41-0 through three quarters.

The last competitive touchdown was in the middle of the fourth quarter of a November 18 game against Florida, which meant a streak of 16-plus quarters passed without a team playing any type of cutthroat football. Few teams stacked up against that resume, which is why BC's bona fides punched Missouri right in its proverbial mouth with Thomas Castellanos' touchdown pass to Jerand Bradley on the first drive of the football game.

The scoring drive chewed seven-plus minutes away from the first quarter and summarily forced Missouri to operate from a quicker pace when it finally touched the football, and the frustration facing Faurot Field surfaced immediately after the Tigers stalled to a field goal on their first drive. A later 10-play drive likewise stalled out ahead of a second Blake Craig field goal, and with Harris' touchdown catch sandwiched into the start of the second quarter, the atmosphere surrounding the gold-clad crowd carried a nervous energy unseen for well over a year.

"I was happy to see [the fast start]," said O'Brien. "I think the big thing is really that both sides of the ball is about sustaining and putting drives together. We had too many three-and-outs, too many yards on the ground running from Missouri. That's not us. They did a great job with their stretch and cut scheme, so we have to be ready to do a better job on that. Like I said, I was very proud of the way the guys fought [at the start]."

BC wasn't shy about executing its goals, and holding the ball for 10 minutes through the first quarter led to another 120 yards when Castellanos moved through the second quarter with impunity. The touchdown pass to Harris broke the defense, albeit temporarily, and the shifty quarterback avoided taking more than one sack by slipping, spinning and sliding away from one-on-one battles.

He broke containment and made the most of his opportunities, but an ill-timed interception flipped the field by giving Missouri an opening that didn't exist for much of the first half. An awakened Luther Burden struck for a touchdown with three minutes remaining to tie an eight-point game before a go-ahead field goal at the end of the second quarter and a Brady Cook touchdown sunk the Eagles' hopes for a program-defining upset.

"It's going to come down to the team that executes the best," said O'Brien. "It was a close game and a great college football game. It felt like it was a really good football game, and those types of games come down to who executes the best. They executed better than we did, and give them a lot of credit because they have a good football team."

Even after Missouri took a 13-point lead of its own, though, BC refused to simply board its flight to return to Massachusetts. A 38-yard touchdown pass to Kamari Morales kept hopes alive in the last four minutes by slashing the lead to 27-21, and while disappointment rang through the final bell, the performance felt more like the Eagles were ready to anchor into the national rankings over fading into a one-week stretch.

"We struggled tackling [for various] points in the game," said O'Brien. "We gave up too many yards rushing, we turned the ball over too much. How do we correct it? We go back to work. We go back to practice. We're never going to accept losing at Boston College, but these guys fought hard. I'm very proud of these guys. We have to coach better, and all of us have to give a collective effort to get back and go right back to work. That's what football is."

Related News

Players Mentioned

Jerand Bradley

Reed Harris

Drew Kendall

Kamari Morales

Related Videos