The Missouri Tigers hosted the Boston College Eagles on Saturday afternoon at Faurot Field in what was the only matchup of ranked teams on Saturday’s Week 3 slate.

After falling behind early, the Tigers came roaring back, overcoming costly mistakes and big plays to improve to 3-0 on the season with an important 27-21 victory.

Now the Tigers get ready for SEC play, but let’s first dive into some of the biggest takeaways from Saturday’s victory in front of the home crowd at Faurot Field:

1. Mizzou committed too many costly first-half penalties

The Tigers actually played well defensively in the first half on Saturday, but a couple of costly penalties kept the Eagles’ offense on the field, leading to points.

Fortunately for Eli Drinkwitz and company, the defense got its act together midway through the second quarter. The defense played much cleaner in the third quarter, giving up

In the second half, though, it was the offense’s turn for some penalty issues. Luther Burden III ripped a player’s mouthpiece off his helmet (after the Boston College player ripped his mouthpiece off first). Later on the possession, Burden committed another penalty that cost his team 15 more yards.

Early in the 4th quarter, Mizzou had 8 penalties for 78 yards, and those were just the penalties that Boston College accepted. As the schedule gets tougher, the Tigers will need to play more disciplined football.

2. Getting the ball to Luther Burden III = good idea

Who knew that finding your best player was a good idea? Through the first quarter and a half of Saturday’s game, Burden didn’t have any touches. By halftime, he had a few touches and a touchdown.

He finished the game with 6 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown — a stat line we’ve become accustomed to seeing from him. He hadn’t gotten the same workload in the first 2 weeks.

Here was Burden’s touchdown in the second quarter. It was a thing of beauty with his head fake and spin move combo:

Though he committed some costly penalties, as mentioned above, he’s a special talent. The Tigers would be wise to keep feeding him the ball moving forward.

3. The “Middle 8” proved key once again

If you listen to Drinkwitz discuss the biggest keys to gams, he loves to talk about the “middle 8.” That refers to the last 4 minutes of the first half and the first 4 minutes of the second half. It’s where momentum can really shift in games.

Mizzou dominated the middle 8 on Saturday afternoon. Tied 14-14 with the Eagles late in the first half, the Tigers drove down the field and Blake Craig knocked a 56-yard field goal through the uprights:

The Tigers then started the third quarter with a Brady Cook TD run. That made it 24-14 and Boston College was never able to claw its way back into the game.

That’s about as good as it gets in the middle 8. Drinkwitz will have plenty to praise his team about for that key stretch of the game.

Mizzou will host Vanderbilt at Faurot Field next weekend before a Week 5 open date.