(MIZFB)—The Missouri 15-game home stadium win streak is over. The six-game home stand is done. And the hard part of the season is facing them. But they served notice in their 27-14 loss to Alabama Saturday that they will be reckoned with.
Alabama had one more clutch play than the Tigers had and got the big stop it needed with time falling off of the clock to leave Columbia with a 27-24 win. Alabama, ranked 8th coming into the game, now has three straight wins over ranked opponents.
Missouri had a chance to get a tying field goal, at least, or get a last-minute touchdown at best. But Alabama got its second interception of a Beau Pribula pass to end it.
Alabama controlled Missouri’s running game as well as the clock, holding Ahmad Hardy to 52 yards on a dozen carries, snapping a 7-game streak in which Hardy had gained at least 100 yards. Alabama had the ball for 17-minutes longer than Missouri had it, a reversal of he usual Missouri game this year.
Tide quarterback Ty Simpson lived up to his credentials with three touchdowns, going 23 ogf 31 despite a lot of pressure from the Tiger defense that got to him four time for sacks and applied pressure fourteen times.
Coach Drinkwitz said afterwards he was “disappointed because we had an opportunity.” But Missouri was only one for ten on third downs
Missouri plays its first road game of the year next weekend against Auburn and follows that with Vanderbilt, which went into the weekend as a top-20 team. They have another week off on November 1 before facing Texas A&M, which started the weekend at number 5 in the polls, Missisisippi State, their first game against Oklahoma since leaving the Big 12 (Oklahoma was 6th last weekend and then finishing against Arkansas.
(MIZPOLLS)—The Alabama-Missouri game provided slight changes in the national rankings for both teams. Alabama moved from 8th to 6th in both polls. Missouri dropped from 16th to 18th.
(MIZBB)===Basketball season is a little more than three weeks away for the 2025-26 edition of the Missouri Tigers. Central Arkansas is the first potential victim on November 3 with Tulane three days later and Arkansas State on Veterans Day.
The annual game against Illinois is December 10. The SEC season begins with a game against Texas on New Year’s Day.
Missouri has a half-dozen returning players: Guards Anthony Robinson II and T.O. Barrett, Forwards Mark Mitchell and Trent Pierce, 7-5 center Trent Burns (who was on the bench all year last year) along with Jacob Crews and Annor Boateng. They’re joined by transfers and freshmen Javon Porter, Shawn Phillips, Aaron Rowe, Sebastian Mack, Luke Norwether, Jayden Stone and Nicholas Randall.
(CHIEFS)—-The Chiefs are fun to watch again and they’re expected to look even better next week when Rashee Rice returns from his six-game suspension. Kansas City whipped previously-unbeaten Detroit last night and the Lions didn’t like it so much that a fistfight broke out as the teams shook hands after the game.
One of the hands was the fist of Lions safety Brian Branch who slugged Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith, starting a brief scrum, quickly broken up with nobody hurt. All of the players were still in full uniform, including helmets.
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The Chiefs now have evened their record at 3-3 with a game against the Raiders next Sunday. Detroit falls to 4-2.
The Chiefs controlled the highest-scoring team in the NFL up to this point. They played all four quarters without a penalty. They took away the ground game, holding Jahmyr Gibbs to only 65 yards. But it took him 17 carries to get that much. And quarterback Jared Goff had only 203 yards passing.
Mahomes ran for a touchdown and passed for three more, giving him 302 passing TDs in 139 games, faster than anyone in NFL history. It took Aaron Rogers 147 games.
(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks, the most popular team in the United Football League have survived the league’s latest realignment.
The UFL will remain a eight-team league but the Columbus Aviators, Louisville Kings, and the Orlando Storm are new. The Arlington Renegades will be the Dallas Renegades next spring wile the Houston Roughnecks will become the Houston Gamblers.
They replace the Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers, and the San Antonio Brahmas.
The Birmingham Stallions and the DC Defenders join the Battlehawks in keeping their names and their cities.
That’s the roar of the crowd part. Now, the other roar—
(NASCAR)—You are looking at the eyes of Denny Hamlin, who has won more races than any driver without a NASCAR Cup championship. But now he can see it. He’s the first driver to earn a spot in the final runoff race for the title in just three more races. Three weeks from now, he will have a one-in-four chance to make his dream come true.
He also can see the end of his career. It’s coming after two more years because he doesn’t want to linger as a back-marker. He hasn’t said it, but others will agree that he has earned he right to have a year as champion before he hangs up the helmet for good.
He’s 44, old for athletes in top-level competition and he knows it. But behind those eyes, the competitive fire still burns strongly and his stirring fight to claim the win at Las Vegas on Sunday shows it.
It was the 60th of his career, moving him into a tie with the retired Kevin Havick for tenth on the all-time wins list. Next up is Kyle Busch, with 63.
Hamlin started from the pole but did not lead the race on the first lap. In fact, h led only eight of the 267 race laps, including the last four. He started sixth with fourteen laps left after the final caution period, got past Chase Briscoe with four laps left and claimed an emotional victory that he dedicated to his father, who is facing health issues.
The win is Hamlin’s sixth of the year, the most of any Cup driver.
(INDYCAR)—The last time David Malukas drove at World Wide Technology Raceway, he was driving for A. J. Foyt’s team, one of fourteen leaders in the race (he led 67 of the 260 laps, the most laps led by any driver) although he ultimately finished twelfth.
Last week he was back but was driving one of the elite cars in the IndyCar series—the #12 Penske car that had been handled by Will Power for seventeen years. Power’s contract was not renewed for 2026, after driving the 12-car to an Indianapolis 500 win in 2018, two season championships and 42 wins. Malukas using the fall Firestone tire testing sessions to get comfortable in the car.
The test at World Wide Technology Raceway was his first drive in the car since inheriting the Power seat. “It was incredible…I’m trying to keep my composure, but it’s very difficult to do.” He turns 24 this week. Four years ago he got a test session in a Penske car on the Indianapolis Speedway road course and referred to it as “a Rolls Royce of IndyCar.”
He’s been in IndyCar for only four years, starting with Dale Coyne Racing, where he gave he team three podium finishes. A slow-healing broken wrist from a mountain biking accident short-circuited his career with the Arrow McLaren team. He did get in ten races with Meyer Shank last year before joining the Foyt team, which had a technological relationship with Penske.
He finished second to Alex Palou at Indianapolis last May.
Power, meanwhile, is branching out. Next weekend he will drive his first sports car race but he’ll do it on familiar territory. He’ll be one of three drivers of a Mercedes-AMG in the eight-hour GT Challenge race on the Speedway road course. He might be in a new kind of car but he’ll be driving on familiar territory. He had five wins on the road course while driving for Penske.
He quickly moved to Andretti Global after leaving Penske and hopes to build on his IndyCar record of 71 poles and 45 career victories, which puts him third on the all-time list.
Several IndyCar drivers have moved to sports cars during the off-months, as have several NASCAR drivers. Fellow 500 winner Scott Dixon will race in the 10-hour finale of the IMSA Championship season next weekend.
(Photo Credits: Helmet–The Business Journal; Eyes—Bob Priddy; Malukas–IndyCar; Schedlue–Mizzou)