Auburn’s defense was doing its job.
It held Missouri to field goals. It forced a turnover. It consistently bent for the better part of three quarters, but never broke.
That was until Missouri starting quarterback Brady Cook returned to the game with just under a minute left in the third quarter.
Backup quarterback Drew Pyne replaced Cook, but never challenged the Auburn defense. He finished the game 10-of-21 passing for 78 yards and the offense‘s rhythm wasn’t the same with Pyne leading the way.
That was evident on a second-quarter turnover where an exchange between Pyne and running back Marcus Carroll was fumbled, leading to Missouri’s first turnover since Week 2.
After a third-quarter drive where Missouri moved the ball well into Auburn territory but stalled for a field goal, Pyne’s time was up, and Cook returned to the field to loud cheers from the Faurot Field crowd.
Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the game that Cook was taken to the hospital across the street during the game for an MRI, but Cook told the team, “I’m not missing this one in the hospital,” according to Drinkwitz.
It didn’t take much time for him to make an impact once he returned.
Missouri took a shot on Cook’s first play back in the game, but it was broken up down the field by Jerrin Thompson.
Two plays later, on third-and-10, Cook connected with Mookie Cooper for a 78-yard catch and run where a couple missed tackles set Missouri up at the two-yard line to start the fourth quarter.
“It was definitely a turning point,” Hugh Freeze said after the game of Cook‘s return. “I thought our defense was really hard for them to sustain drives of a long length, but man, when you give them explosive plays like that, they’re going to score points.”
Missouri had trouble sustaining drives for most of the game, but it put together a 17-play, 95-yard drive led by Cook with the game on the line.
It even seemed like Auburn’s defense might come up big again after a first-down sack by Jalen McLeod, but a 13-yard pass on third-and-18 and a fourth-down conversion kept Missouri alive and eventually Cook led the home Tigers into the endzone for a lead they never lost.
“Everyone knows he’s a good player. He was definitely making better throws than No. 6,” Auburn Buck linebacker Jalen McLeod said of Cook.
Cook finished the game 11-of-22 passing with 194 yards and no passing touchdowns, but his impact went far beyond the box score.
He hurt Auburn most on chunk throws and with his legs, giving Auburn’s defense familiar issues with containing a running quarterback.
“It’s just understanding our responsibilities in those moments,” Auburn linebacker Eugene Asante said. “Just holding contain and not trying to do somebody else’s job. It was a hard thing. But we’re gonna get that addressed and talk about it in film.”
Cook‘s heroics raise even more questions about Auburn in the midst of an already tough season. Why can’t Auburn finish games? Why do many of the same mistakes keep happening?
Right now, there are no answers.
“We seem to not make the right call as coaches or the right play from time to time in critical moments still,” Freeze said. “That’s kind of been the story of the whole year.”
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m
