KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to rally past BYU at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday night.

Drew Lock hit J'Mon Moore with a 4-yard touchdown strike with 8:09 left to play, and Tyler Hunt added a 1-yard plunge to help the Tigers (5-5) keep their hopes of a bowl-eligible season alive with a 20-16 win over BYU.

BYU (7-3) finished with a low offensive output, an overall solid defensive performance that was harangued by a handful of awful plays, and a few moments of coaching brilliance that were overshadowed by a lack of creativity.

Here's how the Cougars graded in their first loss in over a month.

Offense: D+

BYU only put up 39 yards on the ground in the first half, and Trevor Samson's 23-yard field goal was all the scoring the Cougars could muster out of the opening half.

But Algie Brown figured something out in the second half, scoring his team-high ninth touchdown of the year and finishing the game with 42 yards on the ground. Tanner Mangum added 244 yards on 23-of-41 passing with a touchdown and no interceptions.

Mitch Mathews caught four passes for 20 yards, but the lasting impression of him for the upcoming week will be a controversial uncalled penalty for facemasking on third down in the fourth quarter that forced BYU to punt. The Cougars never recovered.

BYU only produced 290 yards of total offense. Granted, Missouri came in with a top-tier defense playing for a good cause after coach Gary Pinkel announced he will resign following the season for health reasons. But BYU's offense froze several times on the field at Arrowhead Stadium.

Defense: B+

BYU's defense did as much as it could in the first three quarters, holding Missouri to two field goals despite being on the field for more than 20 minutes of the first half. The Cougars rang up six of their seven tackles for loss before the break, but also didn't get to the quarterback on a designed pass once.

In fact, it could be argued that the defense didn't make a mistake until linebacker Sae Tautu was ejected for targeting following a roughing the passer penalty on the opening drive of the fourth quarter — a play that directly led to Lock's 4-yard TD strike to J'Mon Moore with 13:03 left on the clock.

Tautu's discipline deflated the BYU defense's momentum, and Missouri took a 10-point lead on back-to-back touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. The defense lost steam on key downs, and Missouri converted on a season-best 13-of-20 third downs to pull ahead.

Even then, BYU's defense came up when it needed. After the Cougars pulled within four on Francis Bernard's touchdown scamper and a missed extra point, BYU's defense forced a three-and-out on the next series and gave the offense nearly five minutes to pick up the game-winning touchdown. Seen that script before?

This time, though, the offense didn't come through with the late-breaking miracle.

Special teams: B-

The kicker known as "Lucky" made a 23-yard field goal in the first half — but missed his first point-after touchdown of the season in the fourth quarter to keep BYU from pulling within a field goal late in the game. The early three points did little to offset missing what has become a routine play for Sampson, who was visibly shaken on the sideline after the missed PAT.

Jonny Linehan had another solid game with four punts for 186 yards, including a pair of 50-yarders. But BYU's punt return team finished with negative yardage in a reversal of Linehan's strong effort for an overall average effort on special teams.

Coaching: B-

A vanilla playbook in the first half opened up after the break. Offensive coordinator Robert Anae used a fake play action pass to the right by Tanner Mangum to set up Algie Brown's off-tackle run to the left for the game's first touchdown, an 11-yard score with 6:21 left in the third. The offensive staff then found a reliable target out of the backfield with Francis Bernard's grab to pull within four points late in the fourth quarter.

But the defensive play calling lacked something extra, especially in the first half, and Bronco Mendenhall himself admitted he was out-coached by Missouri's Gary Pinkel, who announced barely 24 hours before that he would resign following the season due to health concerns.

Overall: C+

In what is becoming a theme, BYU's defense was solid if not consistent, the offense was anemic with only a few flashes of brilliance, and the special teams didn't do enough to lose but also failed to win the game.

The Cougars return home for a 1 p.m. kickoff against Fresno State next Saturday in a Senior Day celebration that should finish off an undefeated home campaign. But BYU left plenty of chances on the field, and will take this loss hard until then.

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