Lock, Dooley, Missouri top Tennessee
MISSOURI 50, TENNESSEE 17
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Drew Lock threw two touchdown passes and Larry Rountree rushed for 135 yards Saturday as Missouri trounced Tennessee 50-17 for its third consecutive victory.
Lock went 21 of 30 for 257 yards and moved into second place on the SEC’s career passing yardage list. Lock has thrown for 11,599 yards in his career to overtake David Greene, who passed for 11,528 yards at Georgia from 2001-04.
The SEC record holder is Aaron Murray, who compiled 13,166 career passing yards for Georgia from 2010-13.
Missouri (7-4, 3-4 SEC) scored touchdowns on four consecutive possessions in offensive coordinator Derek Dooley’s return to Neyland Stadium. Dooley posted a 1521 record as Tennessee’s head coach from 2010-12 before getting fired during his third consecutive losing season.
Ty Chandler had two touchdown runs for Tennessee (5-6, 2-5), which lost starting quarterback Jarrett Guarantano to an injury. Keller Chryst replaced Guarantano early in the second quarter and went 7 of 19 for 173 yards with 2 interceptions.
This marks the second consecutive year that Missouri has beaten Tennessee by a 50-17 score.
Missouri outgained Tennessee 117-(minus 17) in the first quarter but only had a 6-0 lead to show for it after two drives stalled in the red zone, forcing the Tigers to settle for Tucker McCann field goals from 35 and 23 yards away.
The momentum briefly changed after Chryst entered the game. Chryst’s 41-yard completion to Jauan Jennings on a third-and-6 play set up a 5-yard touchdown run from Ty Chandler that put Tennessee ahead 7-6.
Missouri regained command by scoring touchdowns on its final three first-half possessions to grab a 26-10 lead at the intermission.
In other SEC/Top 25 games Saturday, Tua Tagovailoa passed for 340 yards and three touchdowns but No. 1 Alabama struggled for 30-plus minutes before putting away The Citadel 5017. It wasn’t until Alabama scored two touchdowns in a 12-second span on its way to a 27-point third quarter that the Tide could rest easy. … Freshman Justin Fields threw two scoring passes and ran for another touchdown, Tyler Simmons had rushing and receiving scores, and No. 5 Georgia protected its playoff hopes by overwhelming Massachusetts 66-27. Another freshman, James Cook, ran for 76 yards on only three carries, including his first two career scoring runs, from 26 and 27 yards. … Feleipe Franks passed for 274 yards and three touchdowns — all in the first half — and No. 13 Florida ran up 600 total yards to rout overmatched Idaho 63-10. Florida rolled to a 49-0 lead at halftime. … Mike Edwards had two takeaways leading to Kentucky’s first two touchdowns and the No. 20 Wildcats made several fourth-quarter defensive stops to escape Middle Tennessee State 34-23. … Seth Williams caught 5 passes for 109 yards and 1 touchdown, Kam Martin ran for 116 yards and Auburn’s defense pitched a shutout in a 53-0 victory over Liberty. Auburn (7-4) held a pass-happy Liberty (4-6) offense in check, recording its first FBS shutout in 10 years (34-0 victory over Louisiana-Monroe in 2008). … Trayveon Williams ran for 167 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead Texas A&M to a 41-20 victory over Alabama-Birmingham to snap the Blazers’ school-record eight-game winning streak. Kellen Mond threw two touchdown passes to Jace Sternberger as the Aggies (7-4) got their second consecutive victory. … Kyle Shurmur hit Kalija Lipscomb with a 5-yard touchdown pass in overtime, and Vanderbilt edged Mississippi 36-29 to keep its bowl hopes alive for another week. … Jake Bentley threw for 339 yards and four touchdowns as South Carolina became bowl eligible with a 49-9 victory over Tennessee-Chattanooga.