Battle of the Columbias!
There’s a battle about to happen. A battle of Columbias!
THE Columbia versus this other weird Columbia in a weird state.
I kid of course, because of all the Rivalries within the SEC, the one that seems to be happening the most naturally is the one with South Carolina. The Gamecocks football program mirrors Missouri in a lot of ways, and the winner of this game seems to be able to look back up on their season as it being a success. Since joining the SEC Missouri is 4-5 in this matchup, having won the last two matchups. They lost the previous three as Missouri struggled through the Barry Odom era. And won the two at the end of the Gary Pinkel era.
It’s a pivotal game for both teams. A win for SC puts them at 6 wins, and at bowl eligibility.A win for Missouri gets them back to .500, and keeps bowl eligibility on the table.
#MIZ pic.twitter.com/vAnK0QbjWa
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) November 12, 2021
Missouri-South Carolina football: Time, Location
TIME: 3:00 p.m. CT
DATE: Saturday, November 13th, 2021
LOCATION: Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium; Columbia, MO.
Missouri-South Carolina football: Follow the game, TV Channel
TELEVISION: SEC Network
STREAM: WatchESPN
TWITTER: @MizzouFootball
FACEBOOK: MizzouFootballShowMe
ESPN+: ROCKMNATION
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Missouri-South Carolina football: Betting odds, predictions
As of Friday evening, Missouri is a 1.5-point underdog to South Carolina, according to DraftKing’s Sportsbook. The total points (over/under) is 55.
Nate Edwards: Let’s not dance around it; the engine that makes this offense go is Tyler Badie. If he doesn’t have a good day this offense doesn’t have a good day. If Missouri wins he needs at least 25 combined touches and certainly over 100 yards and few touchdowns to give the defense a chance. Speaking of that defense, the line needs to get good push to throw off the Gamecock ground game and Chad Bailey, specifically, needs to be ready to clean up the messes that disruption creates.
Josh Matejka: No need to overcomplicate this one. If Tyler Badie has another Tyler Badie-esque performance, Missouri has a great shot to take home the Mayor’s Cup. They’ll, of course, need more than just that but getting your star running back going would be an immense help. I have no idea if Mizzou can beat the spread again, but it would be rad for Mizzou’s two wins ATS in 2021 to be a game in which they lost by 37 points and a last-minute winner that put them over by one or two points.
Brandon Kiley: This is pretty simple. Missouri will win the game if the defense has a similar performance against the run as it did last week and if Tyler Badie looks (once again) like the best player on the field. The defense needs another strong performance out of Chad Bailey and Blaze Alldredge, the offense is going to need someone on the outside to come up with an explosive play (can Boo Smith get on the field this week, please?) and it’s time to continue another streak for the Thiccer. If all of that happens, the Tigers have a real chance to win this game.
I’ve got Missouri winning this one 27-26 at home. If this was in the Other Columbia, I would take South Carolina. Home field wins out and the Tigers take another step toward bowl eligibility.
Ryan Faller: I’ll take the committee approach. If the line can perform, I want to see Brady Cook (presumably) take the top off here and there with some deep shots. Why not let it hang out? Badie will get his touches, but show out, Dominic Lovett. Give me some tough third-down catches by Chance Luper and the old man of the group, Barret Banister. On the other side, if that run defense that made the trip to Athens shows up, you’ll get the Gamecocks in a plethora of predictable third-and-longs to flip the field-position game in your favor.
KT: This is definitely toss-up territory. Frankly, I’m nervous as hell, because South Carolina has traditionally followed up statement wins with total faceplants, even against beatable competition. If Beamer is truly the guy for South Carolina, he’ll find a way to start flipping that script. If not, well — that doesn’t mean he’s destined for failure, but it would certainly be a discouraging setback and more of the same for a very tired fanbase. It’s unreal to me that this team is staring at the possibility of a bowl after how horrendously the season started, but it’s in play, and Mizzou is definitely their best chance to reach it. The optimistic part of me thinks South Carolina can keep it going and pull it off, but the traumatized part of me fears the worst. I’m gonna stop short of making a prediction, but I see this being a one-possession, 31-28 type of battle in the end.
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