The first Border War in Lawrence since 2005 delivered exactly what a rivalry game is supposed to: edge, chaos and a whole lot of noise. When it was over Friday night at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, No. 23 Missouri walked out with the bragging rights again, beating Kansas 38-21 for its fifth straight win in the series.
And Missouri didn’t just survive the moment. It showed off a passing game that’s starting to look dangerous, survived some self-inflicted mess, and let its defense take over when the game was still up for grabs.
Austin Simmons kept looking like the answer at quarterback. In his second strong performance since arriving in Columbia, he went 19 of 29 for 292 yards and three touchdowns.
Missouri leaned on Chip Lindsey’s play-calling and got the kind of production that can change how people view this offense. The Tigers’ best targets were obvious, and they kept feeding them.
Donovan Olugbode was a problem all night. He finished with five catches for 121 yards and a touchdown, with a huge 65-yard grab in the first quarter coming after Kansas miscommunication left him wide-open in the flat.
Cayden Lee was just as sharp, working both outside and in the slot and ending with six catches for 120 yards and a touchdown. Missouri also used motion to get him moving from boundary to field, giving him a head start against cornerbacks at the snap.
For now, the passing game looks like the most dependable part of Missouri’s offense.
The ground game had its moments, but the film will tell a rougher story than the box score. Missouri finished with 171 rushing yards, though Jamal Roberts’ 64-yard touchdown run helped make that number look cleaner than it really was.
Kansas kept getting into the backfield and disrupting runs behind the line. Roberts still managed 125 yards on 28 carries, and Xai’Shaun Edwards added 45 yards and a touchdown, but the run game never felt fully settled.
There was one encouraging sign up front: left tackle Cayden Green played well in his first game of the season after missing the opener with an undisclosed injury.
Even with the mixed bag on the ground, Missouri piled up 469 total yards, converted 21 first downs and went 7 for 17 on third down.
The early part of the night was messier than Missouri would have liked. The Tigers had two Blake Craig field goals blocked - from 36 and 27 yards - and the shorter one turned into an 88-yard touchdown return by Kansas cornerback Austin Alexander. Both the right and left sides of the line gave up penetration on those kicks.
That issue got cleaned up later, and Missouri handled its extra points. Still, the bigger concern was the 10 penalties for 86 yards. Kansas was flagged 11 times for 89 yards, but Missouri’s mistakes are the kind that can get expensive once SEC play starts.
Defensively, Corey Batoon’s group kept bringing pressure and eventually wore Kansas down. Missouri finished with four sacks, including 1.5 from edge Daeden Hopkins and one each from Donta Simpson and Nicholas Rodriguez. The Tigers blitzed Isaiah Marshall repeatedly, forced him off his spot and made life miserable for the redshirt sophomore in his third start.
Kansas managed just 255 yards, went 3 for 15 on third down and averaged 3.8 yards per play. Marshall finished 13 for 30 for 168 yards, and the Jayhawks gained only 85 yards on the ground. He had chances, too, but either missed throws or watched penalties erase plays that could have changed the feel of the game.
Missouri also won the turnover battle, and that mattered. Robert Woodyard Jr. forced a fumble and later picked off a pass, and the Tigers turned those takeaways into two straight scoring drives early in the third quarter to open up a 28-14 lead.
From there, the game tilted Missouri’s way for good. The Tigers added one last statement late, with Brett Norfleet catching a 13-yard touchdown on fourth down with about two minutes left.
He waved goodbye to a stadium that had already started emptying out. Missouri players also “waved the wheat” in response to Kansas’ touchdown celebration.
There had been plenty of trash-talk between players and fans all night, and the rivalry tone was obvious from the start. Kansas spent the week leaning into the history of the Border War, which carries deep ties to states’ rights, the Civil War and slavery. Missouri acknowledged that history but treated the Jayhawks like any other obstacle in its way.
When the dust settled, the scoreboard said enough. Missouri got the win, and in a game built on all the emotion that comes with this rivalry, that was the only thing that really mattered.
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A tight, physical Border War had barely settled into halftime with Missouri and Kansas deadlocked at 14 before Robert Woodyard turned the game on its head. The Missouri linebacker forced a fumble in the third quarter and later jumped a pass for an interception, giving the Tigers the kind of sudden, field-flipping momentum that can decide a rivalry game in a hurry.
Those two takeaways helped Missouri punch in a pair of touchdowns and stretch the lead to 28-14, a swing that landed with extra weight in a series that has already carried plenty of recent heat. With Troy coming next, the Tigers still have business ahead, but Woodyards third-quarter burst was the kind of sequence that can change how a night and maybe more gets remembered. [Read more 🡒]
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