ARLINGTON, Texas — Luther Burden III, a little more than an hour before the Cotton Bowl kicked off, ran out with members of the Missouri team and onto the field at AT&T Stadium. He was at the back of an approximately 20-person line, who had to move through stretching Ohio State players to get to their end.

They all jogged past Devin Brown, the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback for the game — the first start of his career.

They all jogged past Devin Brown, except for Burden.

The star wide receiver handed the QB the first Mizzou hit of the night, shoulder-checking him as he ran past. Brown smiled. Burden smiled back.

Somewhere, surely, Missouri defensive coordinator Blake Baker smiled.

Baker had similar plans for the OSU quarterback.

Brown left the game early in the second quarter after defensive end Johnny Walker Jr. forced the ball out of his hands and the quarterback to the ground, and seeming inevitably with all the pressure Baker and the MU defense was putting the fresh-faced QB under.

The Buckeyes replaced him with freshman Lincoln Heitholz. The Tigers gave him the same treatment.

No. 9 Mizzou’s defense carried the torch for most of the night as the Tigers staged one of the most remarkable nights in recent team history, downing No. 7 Ohio State on Friday evening in AT&T Stadium to win the Cotton Bowl.

In a scruffy New Year’s Six Bowl game, the scrappier defense got their flowers.

“It was definitely (our) grit,” defensive end Darius Robinson said. “The guys never gave up. We believed in the brotherhood, believed in the process and we just kept working and kept fighting. I mean, we just didn't stop. I mean, we see the confetti coming down, that’s when it was real. We just kept fighting, man.”

Missouri finished the game with 10 tackles for loss, which included four sacks between Brown and Heitholz. They outperformed Ohio State’s stingy defense, which entered the night allowing just 11 points per game.

The Tigers hurried the quarterbacks eight more times. Walker, named the Cotton Bowl defensive MVP, forced the fumble that forced Brown off the field, and Missouri perhaps should have had a takeaway, had the play that was ruled a recovery been reviewed.

No matter, as when it mattered most, MU safety Daylan Carnell came up with a strip sack late in the fourth quarter, and defensive end Joe Moore III recovered, putting any doubt about the result to bed.

The Tigers held the Buckeyes to 203 yards of total offense.

Robinson said Baker is the best defensive coordinator he's ever had.

Safety JC Carlies, who had a game-leading 11 tackles, shared some of the DC's message when their efforts still saw Missouri trailing.

“(Baker) just told us, ‘this is our game,’” Carlies said. “We're not doing anything different, they’re not showing us anything different. We’ve just got to keep playing our game and, at the end, we're gonna get the result.”

Drinkwitz agreed. He couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing from his defensive coordinator at halftime.

“At halftime, Blake (Baker) was ripping the defense about why we don't have a takeaway yet,” Drinkwitz said. “I mean — I'm like, ‘OK, but y'all are playing pretty good. Like, just hold on.’”

They sure did hold on.

For a long time, it looked a lot like Missouri’s offense wasn’t going to catch up to the defense. Between Cody Schrader, Burden and Brady Cook, the Tigers found some fourth-quarter inspiration to turn the tide.

And Baker’s lot never let up.

Robinson warned the world.

His message in the near-month leading up to the Cotton Bowl was that this game — his final outing as a Tiger — meant nothing if Missouri didn’t return to Columbia with a win.

He talked the talk, and for a long time, too. The bowl game was announced Dec. 3, and that was when he first mentioned the importance of winning to his class of seniors. He’ll have lost count how many times he’s been asked about the troughs Missouri (11-2) has been through in his five-year MU career.

Robinson doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.

The Tigers’ defense walked the walk.

“Cotton Bowl champs,” Robinson said. “Nobody can ever take that away from me.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Mizzou's defense brought heat all night long, led Tigers to Cotton Bowl title