Texas A&M's injury-riddled defense was no match for Russell Hansbrough.
Hansbrough ran for a career-high 199 yards and two touchdowns to help Missouri to a 34-27 win over Texas A&M on Saturday night.
The Aggies gave up 587 yards playing without linemen Myles Garrett and Ivan Robinson who missed the game with injuries. Coach Kevin Sumlin wouldn't say what their injuries were but said that middle linebacker Josh Walker broke his foot in the second quarter.
"Obviously you have one of the better players in the league that was out and a guy that's played very well for us inside, it had to affect us some," Sumlin said. "But we've got other players that need to step in this time of year and play."
Garrett is second in the SEC with 11 sacks and leads the defensive line with 47 tackles.
Missouri (8-2, 5-1 SEC) scored 28 points in the third quarter to erase a seven-point halftime deficit and take a 34-20 lead.
The Aggies got within a touchdown early in the fourth quarter and had a chance to tie it with less than three minutes remaining, but lost a yard on fourth down from the Missouri 1.
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"Devastating is the word because that was to tie the game," Sumlin said. "It was a play that we had practiced a lot and had held and they made a play on it."
The Tigers then ran out the clock to secure their fourth straight win and remain in first place in the SEC East.
Hansbrough ran for touchdowns of 49 and 45 yards in his fifth career 100-yard game in front of a crowd of more than 100,000 which included former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara.
Kyle Allen threw for 237 yards with three touchdowns and an interception for Texas A&M (7-4, 3-4).
He tossed a 4-yard pass over the head of safety Duron Singleton to Malcome Kennedy for a touchdown to cut Missouri's lead to 34-27 early in the fourth quarter.
Andrew Baggett's 49-yard field-goal attempt bounced off the right upright, giving the Aggies the ball back with 5 1/2 minutes remaining, but they came away empty after the fourth-down stop.
Sumlin lamented his team's inability to stop Missouri on third down on a night when the Tigers converted 13 of 21 third down attempts.
"The story was third downs," Sumlin said. "For the whole game we could get them to third down, they converted and we did not. So they were able to stay on the field and we weren't."
The Tigers tied it at 13-13 when Maty Mauk found Darius White in the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown reception early in the third quarter.
A&M responded quickly with Allen finding Josh Reynolds for a 56-yard touchdown catch three plays later to put the Aggies back up 20-13. The score gave Reynolds 12 touchdown receptions this season to tie a school record. He finished with five receptions for 125 yards.
Hansbrough knotted the score once again when he burst up the middle 49 yards for a touchdown less than two minutes later.
"I think they just saw a hole in our defense and exposed it," defensive lineman Julien Obioha said. "They had their go-to play that we couldn't really stop."
Missouri forced a punt and Hansbrough did it again on the next drive, this time evading three tacklers on his way to a 45-yard touchdown run to make it 27-20. A 16-yard touchdown run by freshman Ish Witter pushed the lead to 34-20 with about a minute left in the quarter.
Reynolds grabbed a short pass from Allen, slipped from one defender and flipped over another and into the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown to give A&M a 10-3 lead about 10 minutes before halftime.
That score came after the Aggies got a fresh set of downs when Missouri was penalized for roughing the punter.
Bud Sasser had a 2-yard touchdown catch wiped out when he was called for pass interference and the Tigers settled for a 35-yard field goal to cut the lead to 10-6. Sasser finished with 83 yards receiving.
The Tigers were driving late in the second quarter when Armani Watts intercepted a pass and returned it 36 yards. Reynolds had a 32-yard reception to set up a 31-yard field goal to leave A&M up 13-6 at halftime.
