COLUMBIA, Mo. — With a chance to save its season, all Auburn football had to do was prevent Missouri from driving 95 yards down the field for a game-winning score.

The numerous near-victories might have been forgiven, and the many turnovers that have plagued Hugh Freeze's second Auburn team would have been easier to forget. A marquee win over the No. 16 team in the country would have given the Tigers proof that they might be heading in the right direction.

But third down after third down later, Auburn couldn't get off the field. Missouri running back Jamal Roberts bounced off a tackler and ran into the end zone with 46 seconds left to hand Auburn a loss in the latest game it thought it let get away.

"We seem to not make the right call as coaches or the right play from time to time in critical moments," Freeze said. "That's kind of been the story the whole year."

The 21-17 loss on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri, dropped Auburn to 2-4 and 0-3 in SEC play. The near-wins against California, Arkansas and Oklahoma continue to pile up ahead of next week's trip to Kentucky.

Saturday's loss might sting the most when Auburn realizes how many opportunities it had. For nearly three quarters, Missouri played without its starting quarterback, but Auburn failed to deliver a knockout punch despite a 14-point second-half lead.

When Brady Cook re-entered the game, after a trip to the hospital across the street from Memorial Stadium, he immediately delivered a touchdown drive, stealing any momentum Auburn thought it had. To win the game, he delivered on clutch play after clutch play, going 95 yards in 17 plays for the game-winning score. He converted on two third-down conversions and one on a fourth when Auburn had chances to get off the field and pull off the upset.

"We have to be men about it. We know it's clutch time, and we know it's third-and-long and we have to get off the field," linebacker Jalen McLeod said. "We have to win third downs, and we're not doing that. We have to fix that. We just have to."

Auburn now enters the remainder of its season clinging to the idea of bowl eligibility when it's beginning to look like a distant dream amid a four-game losing streak. It's not like the remainder of the schedule gets any easier.

The Tigers have on deck a Kentucky game that has given good teams fits, and Vanderbilt isn't the team you circle on the schedule expecting an easy win anymore, either. Even a buy-game against an improved Louisiana-Monroe, whose lone loss is to Texas, isn't looking like the beatdown the school thought it might be when it first scheduled it.

After that? Texas A&M and Alabama, which should still be competing for College Football Playoff spots late in the season.

At this point, pulling out an Iron Bowl win over the Tide might be the only way to consider the 2024 season a success.

"It's a difficult year where it seems like nothing is going your way when you need it to," Freeze said. "It's just disappointing."

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football has to beat Alabama to salvage season after Mizzou loss