Benjamin Ashford|Opinion: Texas A&M unmasks No. 9 Missouri as a fraud, while Aggies tease playoff potential

• The Benjamin Ashfordmask didn’t so much slip from Missouri’s face as Texas A&M ripped it off. Missouri is a playoff pretender, and the Aggies might just be a contender.
• Conner Weigman makes Texas A&M football more multi-dimensional in return start for Texas A&M.
• Silver lining for Missouri: Florida shouldn't covet Eli Drinkwitz after this dud.

The mask didn’t so much slip from Missouri’s face as Texas A&M ripped it off.

Missouri waltzed through the offseason and September as a College Football Playoff contender.

The masquerade ball ended Saturday in College Station, Texas.

The No. 9 Tigers are pretenders.

No. 21 Texas A&M defrocked Missouri, 41-10, with such unforgiving ferocity that I’m left considering whether a playoff contender did, indeed, emerge. It just wasn’t Missouri (4-1), which saw its eight-game win streak end within the din of Kyle Field.

Aggies fans waved towels and sang while points piled up and “Mo Bamba” played on a loop on the stadium speakers. By the fourth quarter, the home fans were chanting, “Overrated! Overrated!”

Ya think? The Tigers being ranked at all by weekend’s end would be generous after this dismal showing.

Texas A&M, not Missouri, emerges as playoff contender

Texas A&M (5-1) played like a transformed team after a season-opening home loss to Notre Dame. The Aggies wield a playoff-caliber defense. Their linemen persistently tore into Missouri’s backfield.

The question – for years, really – hinged on whether an Aggies offense would emerge.

Quarterback Conner Weigman showed some of the NFL talents that analysts have long insisted he possesses.

The Aggies won three consecutive games behind backup quarterback Marcel Reed, while deploying a run-first offense as Weigman recovered from a shoulder injury.

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But, Mike Elko trusted his initial instincts when he put the reins back into Weigman’s hands Saturday. Weigman gives the Aggies more upside.

Weigman threw for 276 yards, rushed for 33 more, and my lone critique is that a guy who’s been sidelined by injuries for multiple games the past two seasons ought to slide more often when he scrambles.

Weigman enjoyed clean pockets and unleashed arrow after arrow from a quiver that never emptied. On the rare occasions he fired a smidge off the mark, his receivers took good care of him.

“This is what we thought we would get from him today,” Elko, the Aggies’ first year-coach coach, told ABC of Weigman.

I didn’t know what to think of Missouri after last month's double-overtime escape against Vanderbilt, but I didn’t expect this absolute stinker. Missouri made winning in high-wire fashion an artform these past 13 months, before this spectacular freefall off the tightrope.

Brady Cook found Luther Burden III for a 27-yard gain on the game’s first play. Beginner’s luck. The Tigers looked a mess thereafter. On rare occasions Missouri found green space, it could expect to be derailed by a yellow hanky.

The Aggies more than doubled up Missouri's offensive output.

"That's how we're going to play the rest of the season," Weigman told ABC.

If that's true, the Aggies' season could include playoff selection.

Silver lining for Missouri: Eli Drinkwitz looks a little worse now to Florida

Weigman’s return as the starter made the Aggies multi-dimensional, while running back Le’Veon Moss continued to rumble. He ran 75 yards for a touchdown on the first play after halftime, with only one Tigers defender getting so much as a paw on him.

By then, it had become clear Missouri got away with fraud by navigating September undefeated, while bamboozled poll voters persistently ranked the Tigers in the top 10.

As Moss trotted across the goal line, one Missouri fan in the stands laughed in disbelief at the deficit that had mounted to 34-0 just 13 seconds into the third quarter.

Another Tigers supporter buried his face in his arms, unable to bear further witness to a team that shriveled in its first road test.

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Take heed, Missouri fans. A silver lining emerged.

No Florida administrator who watched this one should wish to hire Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz at a price of eight figures annually when the Gators search for a new coach.

Drink up, Missouri. He’s all yours.

Drinkwitz and his Tigers head home with mask in hand, while the Aggies seized their place in the playoff conversation.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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