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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Brady Cook knows what a loss would have meant for Missouri’s football team.

The quarterback and linchpin to then-No. 19 Mizzou’s 21-17 comeback win over Auburn on Saturday is why it happened. He’s not immune to why it mattered.

“We lose that game, the rest of our season looks a little different,” Cook said. “I recognized that.”

It’s part of why he came back from an ankle injury that knocked him out of the game, leading to a midgame hospital visit, before returning to lead MU’s rally. The stakes were high because the margin for error is slim.

A loss to Auburn, which entered the game having not won a game against a power conference opponent since Nov. 11 would have doomed Missouri’s chances at making the College Football Playoff — and maybe even have made consideration of the playoffs in any capacity look like a silly endeavor.

But thanks to Cook, a last-minute game-winning touchdown from third-string running back Jamal Roberts and a solid defensive showing, that’s nothing more than a pessimistic hypothetical that never came to be.

Any style points earned by beating Auburn as Mizzou did were the kind made mostly of blood, sweat, tears and whatever was given to Cook by MU’s training staff. There won’t be extra credit for glamor.

“Couldn’t be any prouder of that football team,” coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “I don’t know how they found a way. I really don’t, but they did. ... Wasn’t perfect, wasn’t clean, but man, those guys fight together.”

Saturday’s game was a tag-team effort at quarterback between Cook and backup Drew Pyne, who saw his first competitive and high-pressure snaps in a Missouri uniform.

Pyne entered the game on MU’s first offensive series and played until late in the third quarter, when Cook returned. In comparison to the starter, Pyne didn’t seem as mobile or have the same downfield throws in his arsenal, though offensive coordinator Kirby Moore might have shifted his play calling with the quarterback change.

Pyne’s final stat line was 10 for 21 passing for 78 yards. His only scoring drive was the team’s first, which Cook started and the backup finished.

“Drew came in a very tough situation, led us down for that field goal, which ultimately is the difference in us winning right there,” Drinkwitz said.

The game called upon depth at running back, too. Starter Nate Noel left the game, came back and left again because of a foot injury.

“It’s not broke, but we don’t know how bad (it is),” Drinkwitz said.

Noel carried the ball six times for 32 yards. As was the case a week earlier, when Noel missed the Tigers’ game against Massachusetts because of back tightness, Marcus Carroll stepped in as the primary tailback. He received eight carries for 41 yards and a touchdown — more goal-line work for the physical back.

Roberts, who has carved out a role on third downs because of his pass protection ability, saw more rushing work, too. With Missouri needing a touchdown to win the game in the final minute, it handed him the ball twice inside the Auburn 9-yard line.

Roberts powered through contact on both plays, scoring the game-winning TD.

“I was just nailing the coffin shut,” Roberts said.

Needing to capitalize on an opportunity against a turnover-prone Auburn offense, Mizzou’s defense held up well — certainly better than it did in MU’s last SEC outing, a blowout loss to Texas A&M.

Because one of Auburn’s touchdowns came on a muffed punt, the Missouri defense really only conceded a touchdown and a field goal. The unit allowed 286 total yards to the visitors, holding them to 4 of 14 third-down conversions.

Auburn’s offensive touchdown, though, came on the type of defensive breakdown that has popped up from time to time for the Mizzou secondary: A safety, this time Marvin Burks Jr., seemed to be a little too focused on looking at the backfield, which allowed a receiver to streak right past.

Burks might have been keyed in on the chance to snag Payton Thorne’s seventh interception of the year, which never came. Thorne instead found freshman wideout Cam Coleman over the top for a 47-yard score.

“I liked everything about it, other than the one big play,” Drinkwitz said of the defensive performance. “They really contained the run game, which we knew was important.”

Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter picked up just 66 yards, the fewest he’s had since the blue-and-orange Tigers’ season opener, in which he ran just four times.

With Saturday’s win, Missouri has six this season — the mark of bowl eligibility. The Tigers are bowl-eligible for the fifth consecutive year, having reached the threshold in each of Drinkwitz’s seasons in Columbia. (Mizzou didn’t need six wins for a bowl game in the pandemic-shifted 2020 season, and its bowl was canceled that year because of the COVID-19 outbreak.)

Drinkwitz and company acknowledged the milestone — he wore a bowl season shirt to his postgame news conference and happily greeted representatives from the Cheez-It Bowl afterward. MU’s sights are a bit higher than that game, though, which is a sign of what rallying to win against Auburn preserves.

“I told the team this morning: Everything we want’s on the other side of this game if we can win,” Drinkwitz said.

Next is an away game against a beatable Alabama team, which lost to Tennessee on Saturday and is 5-2. That will give the Tigers a clearer sense of just what their desires could lead to this season.