COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Le’Veon Moss was asked if he thought No. 25 Texas A&M shocked ninth-ranked Missouri after his big game propelled the Aggies to a rout Saturday.
The running back laughed before answering.
“Most definitely,” he said before chuckling again. “They thought they was coming to get a piece of cake — easy.”
Moss ran for a career-high 138 yards with three touchdowns and Texas A&M handed Missouri its first loss with a 41-10 victory.
It’s the fifth straight win for Texas A&M (5-1, 3-0 SEC) and first-year coach Mike Elko after a loss to Notre Dame in the season-opener in his debut with the Aggies.
“We are in a growth mindset… we are trying to grow every single day,” Elko said. “We didn’t flinch when we didn’t get the job done against Notre Dame.”
Texas A&M was up 24-0 at halftime and padded the lead when Moss ran 75 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the third quarter. He burst through a hole in the line and evaded one tackle before simply outrunning everyone for his second score of the day.
“We just wanted to come out and continue to put our foot on their neck,” Moss said. “That’s it.”
When he scored his third TD on an 18-yard run early in the fourth quarter that made it 41-7, the crowd of 97,049 broke into chants of: ‘over-rated, over-rated.’
Brady Cook had 186 yards passing with a touchdown for Missouri (4-1, 1-1), which was playing its first road game of the season.
Coach Eliah Drinkwitz said he was “embarrassed” by his team’s performance.
“We weren’t competitive and that’s not Mizzou football,” he said.
Conner Weigman threw for 276 yards in his return after missing three games with an injury to his throwing shoulder and Amari Daniels added two rushing scores.
The tone was set early when the Tigers were stopped on fourth-and-2 on their first drive to give the Aggies the ball at their 40. Cook’s pass to Theo Wease was knocked down on the play and a flag was thrown, but it was picked up no penalty was called.
“We can’t let one play dictate the the rest of the game,” Drinkwitz said. “Obviously it was a momentum play but we had plenty of other opportunities.”
A 25-yard run by Daniels got Texas A&M to the 1 and he scored on the next play to make it 7-0.
Texas A&M led 10-0 when Luther Burden III looked to have scored on a 75-yard reception. But it was called back when the Tigers were flagged for having an illegal receiver downfield.
Another 1-yard TD run by Daniels extended the lead to 17-0 early in the second quarter.
The Aggies put together an 11-play, 88-yard drive, highlighted by a 40-yard reception by Jahdae Walker and capped by a 1-yard run from Moss, to push the lead to 24-0.
Missouri’s only touchdown came on a 59-yard touchdown pass from Cook to Wease that cut the lead to 34-7 with about five minutes left in the third.
Cook ruffled some feathers in College Station this week with his comments about the environment at Kyle Field.
“The noise at practice is actually louder,” Cook said before explaining that they put big speakers very close to him during workouts.
The Aggies took a chance to tease the signal-caller after a false start early in the fourth quarter, putting his quote on the big screens in the stadium while zooming in on him.
“I think the 12th Man certainly heard some of the statements made about how easy it was to play in Kyle Field,” Elko said. “And that was good. They were certainly riled up.”
After needing two overtimes to beat Vanderbilt in their last game, the Tigers were exposed on both sides of the ball in this rout. They had no answer for Texas A&M’s potent running game and failed to get anything going offensively until it was too late.
Drinkwitz was asked to share his message to the team after the loss.
“You’ve got one of two choices,” Drinkwitz said he told his players. “You can fall apart or you can dig deep and find a resolve to get better. The season really starts today and how we respond will determine what kind of football season we’re going to have.”
The Aggies seem to be getting better each week and the return of Weigman only made their already strong offense more dangerous.
The Tigers are certain to plummet in the poll and could even fall completely out of it after such a lopsided loss. Texas A&M should shoot up a few spots after the decisive win.
Missouri: The Tigers visit UMass next Saturday.
Texas A&M: The Aggies visit Mississippi State next Saturday.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
