Missouri football coach Barry Odom needed a win after three consecutive losses and more speculation about his job security. He needed the kind of play call that could come to define the season, and his team’s gutsy conversion of a game-altering fourth-and-one might come to fit the bill.
Lock’s pass-catchers needed proof that an injured Emanuel Hall is not the only one in the receiver’s room capable of making big plays. Johnathan Johnson, who had been plagued by drops, caught that early fourth-down pass Odom bet on and won with. And by the end, Johnson and Albert Okwuegbunam and Jalen Knox had, for the first time in weeks, made folks forget about Hall’s hopefully short absence.