(This story was updated to correct a misspelling/typo)

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Kristian Williams sees it two ways.

The Missouri football defensive tackle, speaking after a 41-10, bad-as-it-looks loss to Texas A&M on Saturday at Kyle Field, said the coaches told the Tigers post game that they can “just live in the past, and just drop your heads and just not grow from this.”

Or …

“You can respond to it,” Williams said. … “So, in my opinion, we’re gonna respond. We’re gonna keep going. We’re gonna keep growing

“To us, our season just started after this.”

The problem is, the season was already a third of the way in the books before Missouri took to Kyle Field for the top-25 matchup. To that point, an unbeaten record had done little to tangibly harm the Tigers’ shot at making a meaningful December matchup.

That changed Saturday in College Station.

It changed because the Aggies ran for 236 yards, with tailbacks Le’Veon Moss and Amari Daniels combining for five rushing touchdowns. It changed, because the Tigers incorrectly assessed that Conner Weigman would not start this game, and he completed 18-of-22 passes for 276 yards.

It changed because Brady Cook and Co. couldn’t come close to matching that production, as the Aggies racked up six sacks by repeatedly roaring through Mizzou’s gaping offensive line. Cook completed just 13 of his 31 pass attempts. The Tigers rushed for just 68 yards on 2.3 yards a carry.

The outlook of Missouri’s year changed by the time the Albritton Bell Tower on the Texas A&M campus struck noon.

The Kyle Field crowd let their currently, but not for long, No. 9-ranked guests know, too, as chants of “overrated” surfaced intermittently throughout the fourth quarter.

“You can't listen to outside noise,” Williams said. “Either it motivates you, or you just block it out. … “We still haven't played our best ball. I haven't played my best ball. But the fact that we’ve got another chance to do it and another chance to get better, I feel like there's more hope in that.”

More: Here's how we graded Missouri football in blowout loss at Texas A&M

In a way, Williams is right. A new season does begin after the loss.

But it’s no re-do. The Tigers now need to be near-perfect all the way through November.

Missouri, if the College Football Playoff is still the goal, essentially must run the table as a result of Saturday’s ragging by the Aggies.

MU is going to nose-dive in Sunday’s polls. There’s an outside chance the Tigers even fall unranked.

A loss in College Station was never going to end that dream with the format expanding to 12 teams.

But a 31-point loss? That changes the conversation.

Going 10-2 now, in all likelihood, does not get Missouri (4-1, 1-1 SEC) into the field without some major style points. That record was already a question. One blowout later, and it’s barely up for debate.

An 11-1 mark, however, now requires beating Alabama on the road, which was a tall task before MU couldn’t hang with the Aggies (5-1, 3-0).

The Tigers turn and get some likely relief at UMass next Saturday. The Minutemen are 1-5 after a Saturday loss to Northern Illinois.

After that, Mizzou must knock off Auburn, Oklahoma and Arkansas at home, and South Carolina and Mississippi State on the road to stay relevant in the CFP conversation. The Tigers probably need to stage a few blowouts of their own in that run, and at a bare minimum need to keep their game in Tuscaloosa competitive.

“The season really starts today, and how we respond will determine what kind of football season we're going to have,” Drinkwitz said. “So I mean, at the end of the day, this is one loss, and it's a tough loss, because you're embarrassed by the performance. I'm embarrassed by the performance. But it's just that: it's one game.

“And there's really a whole heck of a lot of football left, and it's going to be up to us to either seek comfort by placing blame or have resolved to get it fixed.”

Mizzou has a lot to figure out. The offense didn’t stand much of a chance as the Aggies hammered them up front. The Tigers’ defense “didn’t do much of anything,” Drinkwitz said.

All of that needs fixed, and fixed fast.

“We got slapped in the face today,” Mizzou wide receiver Theo Wease Jr. said. “So, we’ll see how we respond next week.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Texas A&M blowout has changed Missouri football's season, CFP shot