Missouri State football's nightmare continues with blowout loss to Southern Illinois

A year in which the Bears dreamed of winning a national championship has quickly become a nightmare. Now losers of four straight, Missouri State doesn't look like it will be in contention to even qualify for the playoffs.

Missouri State (2-4, 0-3) continued its slide in a 38-21 loss to Southern Illinois (4-2, 3-0) on Saturday afternoon at Plaster Stadium.

The Bears led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and found themselves down 38-14 well into the fourth quarter. Missouri State has a bye week next week before traveling to Northern Iowa on Oct. 22.

It started out well for the Bears until the Salukis found a rhythm to run away with Saturday's game.

Missouri State's game on the ground looked solid through its first two drives. An ill-advised Jason Shelley interception ended the first drive but a three-and-out gave the Bears the ball back at the 50. Running back, Jacardia Wright broke away for a 28-yard run on the drive's first play before later punching in a 10-yard touchdown for the game's first points.

More:How Missouri State football is reacting to its midseason collapse after fourth straight loss

A healthier Missouri State defensive line showed what the Bears had missed in previous weeks. With three rotational players back on the unit, the Bears sacked SIU quarterback Nic Baker twice on its first two drives.

On the Bears' third drive, Shelley connected with tight end Stetson Moore for a 35-yard reception and followed with a 26-yard pass to Ty Scott — who made a miraculous catch to get the Bears to the SIU 5. Shelley hit Carson Buddemeyer for a five-yard touchdown on the next play for a 14-0 lead.

More:Missouri State football vs. Southern Illinois: Takeaways from another disappointing loss

Near midfield, Missouri State and Southern Illinois exchanged drives ending with a turnover on downs. The Salukis capitalized off their short field with a five-play drive that included a trick play with the running back finding a receiver deep after a double pass for a gain of 28. Justin Strong followed with a 20-yard touchdown run to cut the Bears' lead in half early in the second quarter.

Momentum stayed in the Salukis' favor after forcing the Bears to a three-and-out and sacking Shelley for the first time in the afternoon. On a free play as Missouri State jumped offsides, Baker connected with D'Ante' Cox for a 37-yard completion to the MSU 1. The Bears made a stand to hold them to fourth-and-goal from the one but Javon Williams punched in a touchdown to tie the game.

On its final drive of the half, Southern Illinois took the lead by driving inside the Bears' 10. The Bears made a stand and forced the Salukis to kick a 25-yard field goal with six seconds left to take a 17-14 lead into the break.

Missouri State went from gaining 144 yards of offense in the first quarter to losing 15 yards over six total plays. The Salukis gained just 26 yards in the first quarter to gaining 171 in the second.

The bleeding for Missouri State didn't stop early in the third quarter. The Salukis drove down the field for an easy score with Baker connecting with a wide-open Cox for a 38-yard reception to the Bears' 1. Williams scored his second touchdown of the game to give the Salukis a 10-point advantage.

Southern Illinois kept it up by adding two more touchdowns in the third quarter to take a 24-point lead. After the Bears punted, the Salukis drove down for an easy Baker seven-yard touchdown pass to Bryce Miller. The Bears then followed with Shelley throwing his second interception of the game and the Salukis scoring on a 41-yard touchdown pass from Baker to Cox on the next play.

The Bears finally found themselves back on the scoreboard with 6:04 remaining in the game when a 10-play, 72-yard drive was capped off by a Wright two-yard touchdown run.

Scoring summary

• 1Q 10:10 — Wright 10-yard touchdown run. MSU 7-0.

• 1Q 7:00 — Shelley five-yard touchdown pass to Buddemeyer. MSU 14-0.

• 2Q 13:51 — Strong 20-yard touchdown run. MSU 14-7.

• 2Q 8:17 — Williams one-yard touchdown run. 14-14.

• 2Q 0:06 — Baumgarte 25-yard field goal. SIU 17-14.

• 3Q 12:21 — Williams one-yard touchdown run. SIU 24-14.

• 3Q 1:06 — Baker seven-yard touchdown pass to Miller. SIU 31-14.

• 3Q 0:19 — Baker 41-yard touchdown pass to Cox. SIU 38-14.

• 4Q 6:04 — Wright two-yard touchdown run. SIU 38-21.

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State football blown out by Southern Illinois