Missouri had everything to lose when it hosted Arkansas in its home finale, as a berth in the SEC title game was at stake. With a win, the Tigers could clinch the SEC East, granting them a spot in the conference championship in Atlanta next week.
Arkansas vs. Missouri final score: Tigers clinch SEC East with 21-14 win
Mizzou now waits to see whether it will face Alabama or Mississippi State in the conference championship.
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On the other hand, the Razorbacks didn’t have much to lose in this one after winning two straight to climb to 6-5 and gain bowl eligibility. All they could have gained with a win here was a shot at a slightly better bowl game, as they’d already clinched a last-place finish in the SEC West so a loss would be irrelevant.
Unsurprisingly, Arkansas looked like a team playing loose and without fear of defeat for much of this game, while Missouri looked tight and out of sync for most of the first three quarters. The Hogs jumped out to a 14-3 lead, and took a 14-6 advantage into the fourth quarter.
The Tigers rallied, though, with a pair of fourth-quarter scores to take a 21-14 lead. Marcus Murphy scored the go-ahead touchdown:
Via CBS
The Razorbacks made one final push that got them into Mizzou territory, but Alex Collins fumbled the ball away and the Tigers recovered and ran out the clock to seal the 21-14 win.
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Three things we learned
1. Missouri is going to the SEC Championship.
The Tigers needed a win here to clinch the SEC East and a spot in Atlanta next week. If they had failed to do so, Georgia would have won the division and a spot in the SEC Championship. The Bulldogs went into Columbia and manhandled Missouri earlier this year, 34-0, but had a couple of slip-ups against South Carolina and Florida.
Those are two teams the Tigers were able to beat in order to put themselves in position to win the East. Mizzou got the job done by rallying past Arkansas to improve to 10-2, and 7-1 in SEC play, a shade ahead of Georgia’s 9-2 overall record and 6-2 SEC conference mark.
2. Arkansas still has one of the nation’s best defenses.
Entering the fourth quarter of this one, Arkansas had held Missouri to just two field goals, meaning they had gone 11 straight quarters without surrendering a touchdown. The last TD they’d given up was the game-winning score by Mississippi State in the fourth quarter of their Week 10 matchup.
That game saw the Hogs lose 17-10 at then-No. 1 MSU, and they then proceeded to go eight quarters without allowing a single point in wins over LSU and Ole Miss. Missouri did manage to get a first-quarter field goal in this one before finally reaching the end zone in the fourth quarter.
This Razorbacks unit held Alabama to 14 points, as well as holding MSU to 17 points in Starkville. In an era when great defenses are hard to find, Arkansas may have had the best in college football this season, at least down the stretch.
3. Missouri’s defense makes it an elite team.
Though the Tigers defense gave up two scores, that shouldn’t damper the tremendous game they played to keep Mizzou in this one -- it was their offense that let them down. Prior to Missouri’s game-tying score, the offense had managed just six points and 217 total yards.
The offense's inability to at least move the ball kept Missouri's defense on the field far too long, but they did just enough to hold the Hogs down and keep the score within striking distance. After Missouri scored to take the lead in the fourth quarter, Arkansas got one last chance to tie the game, but Markus Golden stripped Alex Collins of the ball and recovered it to seal the win.
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