No. 14 Mizzou can’t tame the Tide, suffers first loss of season to No. 8 Alabama

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

No. 14 Mizzou football's home winning streak came to a halt at 15 games, on Saturday, as the Tigers suffered their first loss of the season to No. 8 Alabama Tide.

Although the Tigers stayed in the fight, the Crimson Tide rolled to a 27-24 victory at Faurot Field to improve to 5-1 on the year. Meanwhile, MU dropped to 5-1 on the season, coming off of their first bye week of the 2025 campaign.

"It's disappointing because we had an opportunity. I'm proud of the way our defense fought. I'm proud of the way our offense fought, but ultimately, we just had too many critical mistakes in critical situations to win," head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "They're hurting in that locker room right now because they believed we could do it and just came up short. So, we're gonna have to bounce back."

You can watch the full press conference with Coach Drinkwitz in the video player below.

The Tigers seemed to set the tone early, courtesy of a six-play, 78-yard opening drive which ended in a 26-yard touchdown pass to tight end Brett Norfleet. Drinkwitz and company led 7-0 out of the gates, but Alabama didn't wait long to respond. In fact, the Crimson Tide proceeded to score 17 unanswered points through the first and second quarters, with quarterback Ty Simpson tossing a pair of touchdown passes.

Down by 10 points with just minutes until halftime, quarterback Beau Pribula and his offense got to work. They marched 57 yards down the field to make it a one-possession ball game at the break, thanks to a 35-yard field goal off the leg of kicker Robert Meyer.

After halftime, MU came out swinging to tie the ball game.

On the first play of the third quarter, linebacker Josiah Trotter, defensive ends Zion Young and Damon Wilson all combined for a sack to force a fumble at the Alabama 19-yard line. That provided just the spark that MU needed.

Mizzou took advantage of that momentum-turning play, too, as Pribula ran in a for a five-yard score to even up the game at 17 points apiece.

Coach Drinkwitz and company could never seem to shake Alabama, though. The Tide took a three-point lead with less than 10 seconds to go in the third quarter and sealed the game with a Simpson two-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Hill near the end of the fourth quarter to go up by 10.

The Tigers had no shortage of fight, though. They did manage to get the game back within three points, after finally forcing the ball down the field through the air. Pribula found true freshman wide receiver Donovan Olugbode for a 27-yard gain to get to the three-yard line and ended the drive with a touchdown pass to Olugbode, as well, to make it a 27-24 ball game.

With a chance to get the ball back and win or tie the game, Mizzou's defense stood tall and shut down Alabama. However, Pribula threw his fifth interception of the season and second of the game to put MU's dreams of toppling the Tide out of reach.

Pribula finished the day completing 57 percent of his passes for 167 yards and a pair of touchdowns, as well as those two interceptions.

"Obviously, it wasn't good enough. We didn't win the game. My job is to lead scoring drives so we can score more points than them, and I wasn't able to do that. We just got to be better on third down. At times, I felt like we were going three-and-out too much, and we weren't on the field that much. We just let them control the ball too much. We just got to be better, and it starts with me. It's a good experience to learn from," Pribula said.

You can watch the full press conference with Pribula in the video player below.

Olugbode led all receivers with three receptions for 55 yards and one touchdown.

The Tide limited the Southeastern Conference's leading rusher's impact on the game, as running back Ahmad Hardy finished with his fewest amount of yards in a game this season. The sophomore tallied 52 yards on just 12 carries and no scores.

Despite less production from Hardy, Mizzou and Alabama kept it pretty even, in terms of total offense. The Tiger actually ended up out-gaining the Tide, 330-325 yards.

The difference-maker came in Alabama's efficiency on third downs. Right when the Tigers had them where they wanted them, the Crimson Tide worked its way out of a jam, time and time again. Head coach Kalen DeBoer's team went 6-for-15 on third downs against the Tigers.

On the flip side, Mizzou, a team that typically goes about 60 percent on third down conversions, went 1-for-10 against Alabama.

Linebacker Josiah Trotter led the defensive attack for Mizzou with a team-best eight total tackles. His fellow linebacker Khalil Jacobs was right behind him with seven total tackles, as well as a tackle for loss and a sack.

"There's definitely disappointment. You work all week to win, and then, you come up a little bit short," Mizzou center Connor Tollison said. There's definitely disappointment, but it's good because it means people care. If people just didn't care, I'd be more worried."

"We've got to learn from it. I feel like this is by far the best team we've played this year, so a lot of things to learn from. It's a good team. We fell short, but we're going to bounce back for sure. We're going to have a good week of preparation and bounce back next week."

You can watch the full postgame press conference Carnell and Tollison in the video players below.

Up next - No. 14 Mizzou will hit the road for the first time with a trip to Auburn on the docket for Saturday, Oct. 18. Kickoff is slated for either 6 p.m. or 6:45 p.m.