24th-ranked Boston College faced off with 6th-ranked Missouri in one of only two ranked matchups on this week’s college football slate.
Missouri climbed to 6th in the AP Top 25 after defeating Murray State and Buffalo by a combined 89-0 margin in the opening two weeks. They started the season as the 11th seed before climbing to 9th after Week 1 and then 6th ahead of this week’s matchup. Boston College announced its presence on the national stage by upsetting Florida State, who are now 0-3 on the year, in the season-opener. They then blew out Duquesne 56-0 last week which was enough to crown them the 24th-ranked team in the country.
Both teams have had success early on in the season, each entering with a 2-0 record. With the home crowd behind them and a strong showing thus far, Missouri entered as 14.5-point favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Turnovers Sink Boston College vs Missouri
It was Boston College that struck first in the matchup. Quarterback Thomas Castellanos threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jerand Bradley with 7:31 remaining in the first quarter to open up the scoring. After Missouri answered with a field goal, the Eagles scored once again on a 67-yard touchdown from Castellanos to Reed Harris.
The game changed from this point.
Missouri answered with another field goal to push the score to 14-6. Castellanos then threw an interception with 4:30 remaining in the second quarter which was returned to Boston College’s 25-yard line. It took just 1:16 of game time for the Tigers to produce a touchdown as Luther Burden III caught a 19-yard strike from Brady Cook.
A successful two-point conversion tied the game at 14, but Missouri was not done before the half. Boston College was forced to punt the ball away following eight plays in which a drive was stifled. Missouri gained back possession with 46 seconds remaining and managed to add another field goal to take a 17-14 lead into halftime.
Missouri struck first following the half as well. A six-yard run from Brady Cook tapped off a 9-play 75-yard drive to push the lead to 24-14. Boston College had back-to-back unsuccessful drives before Castellanos threw his second interception of the game. The pass rush from Missouri became bothersome to the quarterback and the interception came on a play in which he escaped the pocket to extend the play.
The interception set up Missouri for another field goal which pushed the lead to 27-14. Boston College showed some life late and scored a touchdown with just over two minutes remaining. The successful two-point conversion pushed the score to 27-21, but Missouri was able to run out the clock from this point.
While Missouri was able to get the victory and win as -625 moneyline favorites, Boston College covered the 14.5-spread and the under of 52 hit in the matchup.
Missouri Strengthens Playoff Resume
The Missouri Tigers entered this season as dark horse threats out of the SEC. They looked as impressive as they possibly could in the opening two weeks, but the level of competition was a fair concern.
Producing this victory over 24th-ranked Boston College is an extremely notable result for Missouri. Boston College has looked impressive this year highlighted by their domination of Florida State in the opening game in which they outgained the Seminoles 263 to 21 on the ground. This was not the case for Boston College this week as Missouri outgained them 440-295 overall and 176-46 in terms of rushing yards.
Missouri is still set to get to the most difficult part of its schedule but has to feel great about its outlook right now. The Tigers entered the season with +4000 odds to win the National Championship, which was tied for 12th in all of college football. They also were +175 to qualify for the new playoff format and held a season-long over/under of 9.5 with the under favored at -160 odds.
The dust is still fully settling for the Week 3 slate of college football games, but expect Missouri to see the biggest shift in odds that has occurred following any of their games this year. Their upcoming matchups with Texas A&M, Auburn, Alabama, Oklahoma, and South Carolina will decide their true outlook as a team, but for the time being Missouri is one of the biggest success stories of the college football season.
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