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COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri quarterback Brady Cook returned from a midgame trip to the hospital to have an MRI exam on his ailing ankle and led his team to two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including the go-ahead run by Jamal Roberts with 46 seconds remaining that gave the Tigers a 21-17 victory over Auburn on Saturday.
Cook was hurt on the opening series and did not return until late in the third quarter, after his hospital trip and a session in the nearby indoor practice facility, where Missouri coaches wanted to see whether his ankle could properly function.
“It was a long hour-and-a-half for sure. I did not think I was going to come back to play in the game. My stuff was off, my pads were off,” Cook said later. “Ultimately, I realized I had 2 1/2 games left to play in Faurot Field. We were going to find a way.”
The comeback began with Auburn leading 17-6, and Cook hit Mookie Cooper with a 78-yard pass, setting up Marcus Carroll's TD run. Then, as time was slipping away, Cook led a legacy-making drive that kept his team's College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Taking over at his own 5-yard line, and with 4:26 to go, Cook converted one third down by running on his sore ankle, then hit Luther Burden III on fourth-and-5 for another first down. Cook hit Wease later in the drive on third-and-10, then found Mekhi Miller inside the 10-yard line with just over a minute to go, setting up Roberts' go-ahead touchdown run.
“He could have sat out and watched the game from the sideline, or on TV,” said Roberts, who stepped up big himself in place of injured starter Nate Noel, “and that showed the brotherhood we have here.”
Cook finished with 194 yards passing in less than two quarters of play, while the Missouri defense repeatedly shut down Auburn (2-5, 0-4) when it had a chance to put the game away, holding coach Hugh Freeze's team to 286 yards total offense.
Payton Thorne finished with 176 yards passing and a touchdown. Antonio Kite recovered a muffed punt for Auburn's other TD.
“We seem to not make the right call as coaches or the right play from time to time in critical moments, and that’s kind of been the story the whole year,” said Freeze, whose team lost its first four SEC games in consecutive years for the first time.
What should have been a showdown between two efficient offenses — Auburn averaging 444.5 yards and Missouri tops in the SEC in time of possession — turned into a defensive slugfest thanks in part to injuries that ravaged the Tigers.
The biggest was to Cook, their steady senior, who slipped to the turf on the first series of the game. He got up and hobbled to the sideline, then up to the tunnel to the locker room — and eventually the hospital and indoor practice facility.
It was tied 3-all early in the second half when Auburn tried to seize control.
Cam Coleman ran past Missouri's Dreyden Norwood and Marvin Burks Jr., and Thorne hit him in stride down the middle of the field with a 47-yard touchdown strike to make it 10-3. Moments later, after Missouri had forced a punt, Burden was hit trying to field it and the ball skipped into the end zone where Kite pounced on it for another score.
Cook didn't know what had transpired — cellphones weren't allowed in the hospital — but he knew his team needed him, and the training staff did everything in its power to get him back on the field with time to make some magic happen.
“There's a lot of toughness in that team. A lot of young guys in that team that have never won like that before,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “There's a lot of fight in that team. And to figure it out like that bodes well for the rest of the year.”
Auburn's only wins this season remain against Alabama A&M and New Mexico. Turnovers have been the biggest problem, and Auburn lost another fumble on Saturday, though it also recovered two fumbles of its own.
Missouri won thanks to some heroics from Cook, though his health will be something to monitor going forward.
Auburn concludes its three-game SEC road trip at Kentucky next Saturday night. Missouri returns to the road to face seventh-ranked Alabama next Saturday.
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This story has been corrected to show that Brady Cook hit Mookie Cooper with a 78-yard pass, not Theo Wease Jr. with a 72-yard pass, as Missouri began its comeback against Auburn.
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