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Texas A&M Football exposes Missouri as a fraud. Are Aggies real?

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Texas A&M Football exposes Missouri as a fraud. Are Aggies real?

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  • The mask didn't so much slip off Missouri's face as Texas A&M ripped it off. Missouri is a playoff contender and the Aggies could be a contender.
  • Conner Weigman makes Texas A&M football even more multi-dimensional in return for Texas A&M.
  • Silver lining for Missouri: Florida should no longer covet Eli Drinkwitz after this dud.

The mask didn't so much slip off Missouri's face as Texas A&M ripped it off.

Missouri came through the offseason and September as a contender for the College Football Playoff.

The masquerade ball ended Saturday in College Station, Texas.

The no. 9 Tigers are contenders.

No. 21 Texas A&M defeated Missouri 41-10 with such relentless ferocity that I can no longer wonder if a playoff contender actually emerged. It just wasn't Missouri (4-1), whose eight-game winning streak ended in the noise of Kyle Field.

Aggies fans waved towels and chanted as the scores piled up and “Mo Bamba” played on a loop from the stadium speakers. In the fourth quarter, the home fans chanted, “Overrated!” Overrated!”

Do you believe? After this dismal performance, it would be generous for the Tigers to even be ranked at the end of the weekend.

Texas A&M, not Missouri, emerges as a playoff contender

Texas A&M (5-1) played like a transformed team after a season-opening home loss to Notre Dame. The Aggies have a playoff-caliber defense. Their linemen persistently penetrated the Missouri backfield.

The question hung — for years, actually — on whether the Aggies would commit an offense.

Quarterback Conner Weigman showed off some of the NFL talent that analysts have long claimed he possesses.

The Aggies won three straight games behind backup quarterback Marcel Reed while employing a run-first offense as Weigman recovered from a shoulder injury.

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But Mike Elko trusted his initial instincts when he put the reins back in Weigman's hands on Saturday. Weigman gives the Aggies more of a boost.

Weigman threw for 276 yards and rushed for another 33 yards, and my only criticism is that a guy who missed several games with injury over the last two seasons should slip up more often when he has problems.

Weigman enjoyed clean pockets and unleashed arrow after arrow from a quiver that never emptied. On the rare occasions he missed, his receivers took good care of him.

“That's what we expected from him today,” Elko, the Aggies' first coach, told ABC about Weigman.

I didn't know what to think of Missouri after going into double overtime against Vanderbilt last month, but I wasn't expecting it to be an absolute crapshoot. Missouri had made winning high-wire style an art form over the last 13 months before that spectacular free fall from the rope.

Brady Cook scored 27 yards on the first play of the game through Luther Burden III. Beginner's luck. The Tigers looked a complete mess afterward. On the rare occasions that Missouri found green space, it could expect to be derailed by a yellow hanky panky.

The Aggies more than doubled Missouri's offensive output.

“That’s how we’re going to play the rest of the season,” Weigman told ABC.

If that's true, the Aggies' season could include a playoff berth.

Silver lining for Missouri: Things are now looking a little worse for Eli Drinkwitz in Florida

Weigman's return as starter made the Aggies multidimensional while running back Le'Veon Moss continued to rage. On the first play after halftime, he ran 75 yards for a touchdown, with only one Tigers defender getting a paw on him.

By that point, it had become clear that Missouri had gotten away with cheating by going through September undefeated while baffled voters persistently placed the Tigers in the top 10.

As Moss trotted across the goal line, a Missouri fan in the stands laughed in disbelief at the deficit, which had grown to 34-0 just 13 seconds into the third quarter.

Another Tigers supporter buried his face in his arms, unable to bear any more witness to a team that faltered in its first road test.

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Attention, Missouri fans. There was a silver lining on the horizon.

No Florida administrator who saw this should want to hire Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz at an eight-figure-per-year rate when the Gators are looking for a new coach.

Drink up, Missouri. He's all yours.

Drinkwitz and his Tigers head home with masks in hand as the Aggies clinched their spot in the playoff conversation.

Blake Toppmeyer is the national college football columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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