College football final: Missouri Tigers 38, Kentucky Wildcats 21

Hoping to rebound from last week’s beatdown at Georgia, No. 24-ranked Kentucky football returns home Saturday to take on the Missouri Tigers in an SEC East battle. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The game will be telecast on the SEC Network.

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Final score: Missouri 38, Kentucky 21

After trailing 14-0, Missouri outscored Kentucky 38-7 to improve to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. Kentucky dropped to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC.

Kentucky-Missouri final stats

Missouri now up 38-21 with 3:17 left

Devin Leary threw his second interception of the night — on back-to-back possessions. Missouri turned this pick into three points when Harrison Mevis booted a 29-yard field goal with 3-17 left.

Since being up 14-0, Kentucky has been outscored 38-7. Total collapse.

Missouri extends lead to 35-21

After Missouri scored to go back in front, Kentucky experienced a disastrous offensive possession. Devin Leary was sacked twice. On the second, he was lucky to recover his own fumble. A poor Wilson Berry punt followed. Missouri took over on the UK 34-yard line. A pass interference penalty on UK’s Andru Phillips moved it to the 19. Two plays later Cody Schrader zipped 19 yards for the touchdown and a 35-21 Missouri lead with 11:07 left in the rain at Kroger Field.

Total yards: Missouri 296, Kentucky 212.

Missouri moves back in front

Just after Kentucky regained the lead, Missouri regains it right back. Drive covered 70 yards in nine plays. Brady Cook completed all five of his passes, totaling 54 yards. Cook scored on a 1-yard run on third-and-goal with 14:13 left in the fourth quarter. On the two-point try, Missouri at first failed on a pass. But UK’s Kahlil Saunders was called for roughing the passer and unsportsmanlike conduct. On the second try, Cody Schrader scored, making it Missouri 28-21.

Cook is 19 of 28 for 167 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

End of third quarter: Kentucky 21, Missouri 20

But Missouri has the ball at the Kentucky 3-yard line as we end the quarter.

Stats through three quarters

UK fights back to retake the lead

Kentucky scored the game’s first 14 points. Missouri scored the game’s next 20 points. But Kentucky goes up 21-20 on a 4-yard TD pass from Devin Leary to Anthony Brown-Stephens with 3:39 left in the third quarter. UK got a break in the drive in what looked at first like a Missouri interception of Leary was ruled an incomplete pass on video review.

Before the Kentucky scoring drive, Missouri’s Harrison Mevis missed a 46-yard field goal that was partially blocked by the Cats.

Missouri gets three points from a Kentucky fumble

On the first play of the second half, UK’s Barion Brown fumbled after taking a pop pass from Devin Leary. Missouri recovered at the Kentucky 31-yard line. The Wildcats defense did hold. Mizzou’s Harrison Mevis booted a 31-yard field goal — his second of the game — to give the Tigers a 20-14 lead with 11:54 left in the third quarter.

Both teams now have one turnover. UK’s Maxwell Hairston intercepted a Brady Cook pass in the first quarter.

Halftime: Missouri 17, Kentucky 14

After taking a 14-0 lead with 2:09 left in the first quarter, Kentucky found itself trailing 17-14 at the half. Missouri scored with 15 seconds left in the second quarter to take the lead. Quarterback Brady Cook completed a 61-yard, eight-play drive by completing an 18-yard TD pass to Theo Wease to give Mizzou the lead.

Kentucky outgained Missouri 151-16 in the first quarter. Missouri outgained UK 171-16 in the second quarter.

UK quarterback Devin Leary was 7 of 12 for 43 yards and a touchdown in the first half. Running back Ray Davis gained 96 yards on 13 carries.

Halftime stats

Missouri cuts Kentucky lead to 14-10

The Tigers drove 56 yards in 13 plays to cut UK’s lead to four points. Harrison Mevis booted a 25-yard field goal with 4:44 left in the first half. Missouri quarterback Brady Cook is 5 of 12 for 38 yards with an interception. But Cook has carried the ball four times for 26 yards.

Missouri scores on a fake punt

On a fourth-and-10 from the Kentucky 39-yard line, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz hit Kentucky with a fake punt. And it worked. Punter Luke Bauer threw a rainbow that Marquis Johnson came down with and then scored with 11:38 left in the second quarter. That cuts Kentucky’s lead to 14-7.

End of first quarter: Kentucky 14, Missouri 0

Kentucky outgained Mizzou 151-16 on the way to a two-touchdown lead at the end of the first quarter.

First quarter stats

Kentucky off to a quick 14-0 lead

After UK’s Maxwell Hairston intercepted Brady Cook’s pass at the home team’s 37-yard line, the Cats cashed in with a nine-play drive. They converted a third-and-5 and a third-and-11 before Devin Leary scored on a quarterback draw from 13 yards out. UK up 14-0 on Missouri with 2:09 left in the first quarter.

Kentucky gets on board first

After a three-and-out by Missouri to start the game, Kentucky drove 65 yards on nine plays for a 7-0 lead. Ray Davis got things started with runs of 5, 3, 13 and 14 yards. Barion Brown went 17 yards on an end around. Devin Leary’s 6-yard touchdown run was nullified by a Josh Kattus holding penalty. No problem. Two snaps later, Leary hit Davis with a perfect 7-yard scoring pass with 8:32 left in the first quarter.

Pregame information

Kentucky (5-1/2-1): Kentucky got caught in a Bulldogs blitz last week, losing 51-13 to No. 1-ranked Georgia in Athens. It was the first loss of the season for Mark Stoops’ team after a 5-0 start. Stoops is 7-3 versus Missouri as UK’s head coach. That includes a 21-17 victory in Columbia last season.

Kentucky’s football roster

Kentucky’s statistics

Missouri (5-1/1-1): Leading 22-7 in the first half, Missouri lost 49-39 to visiting LSU last Saturday. It was the first loss of the season for Eli Drinkwitz’s team after a 5-0 start. Drinkwitz is 1-2 versus Stoops. His Tigers beat UK in 2020, then lost 35-28 in Lexington in 2021 before the loss to the Cats last season.

Missouri football roster

Missouri football statistics

Kentucky vs. Missouri stat comparisons

The pregame per-game averages for both Kentucky and Missouri heading into Saturday night’s game:

Devin Leary vs. Brady Cook

Kentucky quarterback Devin Leary comes into Saturday’s game having completed 92 of 168 passes (54.8%) for 1,257 yards with 12 touchdowns and five interceptions. Leary is 68th nationally in passer rating at 135.23.

Missouri quarterback Brady Cook comes into Saturday’s game having completed 135 of 188 passes (71.8%) for 1,879 yards with 13 touchdowns and two interceptions. Cook is ninth nationally in passer rating at 176.46

Here’s a game-by-game breakdown for each quarterback: