Finally, the breakthrough Mizzou wanted: 7 thoughts on Missouri football's win over Kansas State.

Well, how about that?

The Missouri Tigers won a big, big game. The Tigers upset visiting Kansas State, the same program that washed MU out of Manhattan last season. Call it revenge, redemption or whatever you want, Missouri won.

Here are seven thoughts on Missouri football's 30-27 win over No. 15 Kansas State.

This was finally the breakthrough Missouri was looking for

About an hour after Harrison Mevis walked off Kansas State with a 61-yard field goal, one of the simplest things happened after a very complex day.

The rain stopped. The clouds that hung over Faurot Field dissipated.

The sun broke through.

The Missouri Tigers, the one team that I was convinced would never catch a break in the modern history of college football, broke through. The sun shined on an empty Memorial Stadium that just witnessed the biggest win of the Eli Drinkwitz era.

I'll be the first to say I was wrong. I said Missouri wasn't ready for Kansas State. There were too many issues. The Tigers got rid of those issues in the span of a week.

Missouri also ignored plenty of past issues, not just this season but also the issues from the four one-score losses from last season, and played one of the best games I've seen in my two years in Columbia.

That list includes Missouri women's basketball upsetting No. 1 South Carolina, the Missouri men's basketball NCAA Tournament win over Utah State and the Tigers' win over Florida in 2021 to clinch bowl eligibility.

This win feels like the turning point. The moment when all of the past moments from the Drinkwitz era, the recruiting wins and the almost-wins on the field, came together to push Missouri to 3-0.

Missouri might not have been ready to take this step before in losses to Auburn, Florida, Kansas State and Kentucky. That's okay. The Tigers are here now.

"We proved something, but only to y'all," MU defensive end Johnny Walker said. "We've been there. We can do this. I mean, there was a lot of doubters, but we just focused on the details. Everybody on both sides of the ball did their job ... I mean, we were confident."

Cook's toughness was most impressive to watch

Last year, Cook got hurt against Kansas State. The injury lingered all season as he learned to play with that shoulder injury before he eventually needed surgery.

This year, an injury hampered Cook again. It was a knee injury. It clearly affected him and the third quarter was evidence of that.

What happened in the fourth quarter was some storybook-type stuff.

Cook, the lifelong Missouri fan who dreamed of quarterbacking the Tigers, stood in the pocket on an injured knee and kept firing some of the best passes we've seen from him in a game situation.

Drinkwitz, clearly done with any questions that require him to explain Cook's performances, just sounded off post-game.

"In practice all the time," Drinkwitz said. "That's why he's the starting quarterback. Like, why are we still asking questions to defend Brady Cook right now? The dude's a good football player. He's a really good football player. Quit asking me about it."

So, we shouldn't expect to see Sam Horn for a series against Memphis?

All jokes aside, Drinkwitz deserved to sound off. His trust in Cook was absolutely validated. All those who would openly boo Cook need to sit down. They're being too loud for a sect of fans that had no reason to boo a college football player.

Go ahead and boo your favorite NFL team. They get paid millions. Cook isn't.

What Cook did Saturday was fight off pain that made it hard for him to run. He couldn't play his usual game that included his mobility. That's even harder as the Tigers' run game struggled, too.

Watching him stand tall and deliver pass after pass which silenced all doubters was very, very fun.

Cook finished the game 23 of 35 for a career-high 356 yards with three total touchdowns. He has yet to throw an interception this season. It's why MU is 3-0.

We can't talk about this game without talking about Ty'Ron Hopper

There was not a better defensive player on the field at Faurot Field this weekend.

Hopper had eight tackles, six of which were solo tackles, two quarterback hits and two pass breakups. Not pictured on his stat sheet is the near interception he had, the sacks responsible because of his play and how much better every player is because of his presence.

Everywhere the ball went, Hopper was seemingly either there or a step behind. It's clear that Hopper is playing at an All-SEC level. He was last year and he hasn't regressed at all.

To me, the question is here is his ceiling? If Hopper keeps playing like this he's got a chance to be an All-American. I'd argue that if one of his pass breakups was an interception and one of his quarterback hits was a sack, you might be looking at the SEC Defensive Player of the Week.

Hopper really is the backbone of a really, really good defense. He can do it all.

Don't discount validation for other Mizzou players

Drinkwitz could have quoted the Shakespearean character Deion Sanders, "Do you believe now?" He did not. I commend his patience.

But, plenty of other Tigers could have done the same.

Mookie Cooper, who struggled to be a consistent part of the Tigers' offense during his prior two years in Columbia, had one of his best games at MU. He caught four passes for 79 yards with a long catch of 41 yards.

"It always feels great to touch the ball," Cooper said. "We got the dub and to know I played a part of that, it makes it feel a lot more better for sure."

Kris Abrams-Draine finally got the defense's first turnover on a first-quarter interception. It was a complete defensive play, as the pass rush forced a bad throw, which led to the interception.

The defense also held Kansas State to two three-and-out drives in the fourth quarter, The Wildcats' final drive gained seven yards across six plays.

Vindication of the highest degree that this defensive unit can make plays when it needs to in order to get off the field.

Other players, like Chad Bailey and Mekhi Miller, saw time and fought through injury to do so. Drinkwitz described Miller's injury, which was unpleasant to hear. I can only imagine how much worse it must have felt.

"When he got hurt, he put his finger on the helmet and it bent it all the way back," Drinkwitz said. "He had 11 stitches in the forearm of his finger. I mean, it was completely ripped and it was puffy. He actually had one (stitch) pop out in the first half. And he played the entire game."

Missouri is a tough team. As long-time coach Buddy Ryan once said, smart and tough players win you games. That was on display Sunday.

If Florida is a Top-25 team, why isn't Mizzou?

Compare, if you will, these two teams:

Team A. 2-1, 1 win over a top-15 team, 47 points allowed.

Team B. 3-0, 1 win over a top-15 team, 56 points allowed.

Team B is Missouri, if you couldn't tell by the 3-0 record. Florida, at 2-1 has a good win over Tennessee but a loss to a ranked Utah team.

In fact, there are four teams in the AP Top 25 that have one loss. All four are SEC teams: Florida, Tennessee, LSU and Alabama. The Tide and Tigers lost to teams in the top four, Texas (3) and Florida State (4), respectively.

Tip your hat to Florida for having a more impressive win, beating No. 11 Tennessee 29-16. Gators' defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong did a heckuva job making the Volunteers' offense struggle.

I hold MU has a better resume because the Tigers are 3-0, but I can see how two underwhelming wins combined with a massive win equal out. I’d rank both Missouri and Florida.

But, I don't have an Associated Press Top 25 vote. It sounds like it would be fun, but I don't stress about it too much because. I believe the regional voter is my friend, well-respected colleague and Kansas City Star sports writer Blair Kerkhoff.

Blair had Missouri at No. 24, which is exactly where I would have put them.

AP voters had the Tigers at No. 27 overall. After Florida at No. 25, the point count went as follows: Clemson with 76 points, Missouri 72 with points and Kansas State with 54 points.

The only way you can get more points is by getting more votes. You get more votes by winning more games. Missouri has a chance to do that with Memphis and Vanderbilt next up. MU knows this, and it's just more motivation.

"Lol what a joke," MU safety Daylan Carnell posted on X (formerly known as Twitter). "More fuel to the fire."

This was a real email I received at 11:32 a.m.

Imagine, Missouri is tied with Kansas State 7-7. Kris Abrams-Draine just intercepted Will Howard and would go up 10-7.

Of course, MU would go on to win.

I forgot this email popped into my inbox. I want to share it with you now.

"Hello I'm writing to you from Fairbanks Alaska I'm from Columbia," the email read. "I am more than just disappointed in mu's football team.. we need a new head coach fire him asap."

After a win like that, Eli would need to lose the next nine games to get fired. Not happening. Let's close the book on asking Drinkwitz if his job security is in jeopardy. He was asked about the pressure to win at SEC Media Day.

"We're competitive," Drinkwitz said in July. "We all sign up to play for championships. That's the goal every year. And when that doesn't occur, we feel pressure to perform."

Drinkwitz and the Tigers performed on Saturday. We can stop any conversation on Drinkwitz's job security. He's 3-0 in Year 4. That's the progress expected of him. He's fine.

Three-word reactions

After the game, I posted in a Missouri Tigers' Facebook group asking for fan reactions to the win over Kansas State.

Just Three-word reactions. No more, no less, just three words that best describe what happened at Fuarot Field Saturday afternoon.

I wanted to put the best ones here:

Tears of joy - Jane Hicks Shelton: I'd believe it. I didn't see any but you can't understate how much this win meant to MU.

Thicker Kicker heaven - Charles Cole: I can't imagine how many kickers get to live out a dream

Burden is KING - Nathan Herren: I think his teammates prefer to call Burden "Him." As Cooper said, "Him. Himmy Turner. However you want to call it. Him for sure."

holy *censored censored* - Roger Ship: I can imagine what those words are.

Holy Freaking Mevis!!! - Luke White: Indubitably.

Get behind cook - Mathew Vroman: Agreed. Not sure who booed Cook (which, I will reiterate, was gutless by the way) but the kid slang it. He passed Missouri to a win.

SEC Record Field-Goal!!!!! - Wendy Phillips Williams: Well, field goal is two words but I'll give it to you with the sneaky hyphen. Lost in this a bit is that Mevis' kick is the SEC record, but not the Missouri record. That belongs to Tom Whelihan.

Hate Spectrum & ESPN! Can’t watch!! - Raymond Sudheimer: Not three words but agreed. Not cool.

Eating my words!!! - Joe Vlasak: Me too. I said the Tigers weren't ready for K-State. As sure as Mevis has incredible range, I was wrong.

An unpredictable script - David Tornatore: This is my favorite. If you said MU is walking off KSU with a 61-yard field goal in the rain, how could I believe that? How could anyone? This team made that happen.

Extra: shout out to Tribune videographer and photojournalist Abigail Landwehr, who made arguably the best piece of content from this weekend regarding the Faurot Field Storming.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 7 thoughts on Missouri football's win over Kansas State.