The last time Missouri beat a top-10 team was in the 2013-14 season, when Missouri went on the road to Athens and beat #7 Georgia, 41-26. The 13-year skid is officially over.

There was a lot of talk heading into this game of, “Should Missouri be ranked?” The statistic that Eli Drinkwitz was 7-20 against the AP top 25 flowed like a river across nearly every social media platform. None of that mattered. In roughly three hours, the critics have been silenced… for now.

When asked about what the win did in terms of the top 25 victory, Eli had this to say:

“Doesn’t mean anything. This is about the game. That’s just noise that people create on social media for no reason.” Drinkwitz said

Missouri scored 35 unanswered after Florida tied the game at 10 in the middle of the second quarter. Florida never got a chance to breathe. Here are my takeaways from tonight’s game.

1. The tackling effort turned a complete 180:

Against Mississippi State, the Tigers struggled mightily to bring Fluff Bothwell to the ground. Granted, so does everybody, but the point stands. Bothwell had 25 carries for 122 yards, and the Tigers treated tackling as if they were allergic to it.

This week, however, it was a much different story. Florida’s Jadan Baugh is touted as the nation’s best running back in the country and for good reason. Coming into the affair, Baugh had 600 yards in four games, along with 11 touchdowns. He seemed unstoppable.

Tonight, he looked very human. Baugh finished the day with nearly as many carries as yards, toting the rock 12 times for 13 yards.

The Missouri defense as a whole held the Florida offense to 25 rushing attempts for 42 yards.

In my game preview, I wrote about how Missouri needed to make ANYBODY, but Jadan Baugh beat them. They did just that.

2. Austin Simmons continues to look elite:

Austin Simmons looked like a 5-star chef the way he was dicing up the Florida defense tonight. Simmons finished 23-30, for 340 yards and 2 touchdowns. When the Tigers needed his best game yet, the man came through.

Simmons continues to make high-level throws, and he makes one every game that personally makes my jaw drop.

3. The AP poll chatter did not matter at all:

Drinkwitz said it himself in reference to the AP poll record, as he said: “I couldn’t care less.” A narrative was swirling before this game about Mizzou being unable to win big games. To the Tigers, the noise did not matter one bit.

Eli didn’t want to talk about it, and you can’t blame him. He also stated, “Our guys are allowed to get better,” referring to the vast improvement from last week.

Missouri could have very well listened to the noise and come out flat. Instead, they moved on from last week and just made a statement to the entire country.

4. Caleb Goodie coming into his own:

Through the first four weeks of the season, Caleb Goodie was only able to notch one reception. Goodie was tabbed as a speedy receiver who was a downfield threat, but there was no proof in the pudding.

Today, however, Goodie came up big with a touchdown grab and a chunk play in the 3rd quarter.

I’ve talked in length about this team needing to find weapons outside of Donovan Olugbode and Cayden Lee. Tonight, they found a dang good one. We will have to see if that can continue.

5. Jamal Roberts has an addiction to explosive plays:

Before Jamal Roberts decided to get a combined 157 yards on 2 carries along with a touchdown, Roberts’s performance was nothing to write home about. However, Roberts has a knack for those long runs, and he did exactly that tonight.

In summary, I could give you 20 takeaways. This is undoubtedly one of the best performances of the Drinkwitz era, and you have every right to be excited. If this can continue, the sky is the limit.