The Missouri Tigers are 1 victory away from being bowl-eligible after they defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks, 31-28, on Saturday.

There was a lot of good to talk about in this game, but also a lot of bad and plenty of ugly. So let’s get into it!

The good

To sum up Mizzou’s victory: It was Tyler Badie left, Tyler Badie right, Tyler Badie up the middle.

Coming in, Badie needed to have about 200 yards per game against his next 3 opponents to set a school record for a season. He got off to a good start Saturday, rushing for 209 yards and 1 touchdown.

Once again, he was the workhorse for this Mizzou offense. It needed him to close out this game when the Gamecocks got withing 3 with minutes to go.

Badie sealed it with an impressive 3rd-down run. He no doubt has been the best player on this team, and because of him, the Tigers are a step closer to getting to that magic number of 6 wins.

Mizzou wound up with 458 yards of total offense — not bad for a team that struggled finding points against Georgia last week.

Quarterback Connor Bazelak also had a decent game, passing for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The defense did a pretty good job, holding the Gamecocks to 250 yards and creating 3 turnovers.

Overall, a good day for the Tigers. But with some good, there was some bad …

The bad

Let’s start with that same offense turning the ball over 3 times. The Tigers giveth, the Tigers taketh away. Two of those turnovers were Bazelak interceptions.

Bazelak of late has been a turnover machine. He might have been a little rusty after missing last week’s game, but a lot of that had to do with him making poor decisions.

Also bad: Despite holding the Gamecocks to 250 yards, the defense almost gave the game away with its poor play. It allowed South Carolina back into the game, and if it weren’t for Badie in the end, this would have been a total collapse.

This team, or at least its defense, still hasn’t learned how to close teams out. Luckily, the Tigers have some beatable teams left on the schedule — yes, Tigers fans, including Florida, which has looked very beatable the last few weeks. But it won’t end well for Mizzou if it doesn’t know by now how to close teams out.

The ugly

That has to be when Eli Drinkwitz had to pull his starting quarterback and put in the backup to finish the game.

Drinkwitz clearly created a quarterback controversy by pulling Bazelak for Brady Cook. Bazelak seems to have lost his mojo, and it appears from this standpoint that Drinkwitz might finally be ready to put someone else in charge.

You can’t have your starting quarterback being picked off late in the game, almost costing his team the victory. Something has to be done, and when your head coach trusts your backup to close out the game more than you, that says something about his lack of confidence in his starter.

It’s time for a change at quarterback, especially with a bowl game on the line.

At least the Tigers have a serious chance at making a bowl game if they can hold their own against the Gators and Razorbacks, which is a good possibility. A few weeks ago, you wouldn’t have thought this team would even make it to 5 wins.

Misssouri can’t continue to make the same mistakes it made Saturday and expect to win. Florida and Arkansas are much more talented than South Carolina, and if you make a mistake, more than likely you will pay.

But if the Tigers continue to give the ball to Badie, they may go bowling this season.