The 2009 Texas Bowl was the fourth edition of the

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bowl game, and was played at Reliant Stadium in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. The game started at 2:30 p.m. US CST on Thursday, December 31,

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. The game was telecast on

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for the first time in bowl history after being televised by the NFL Network for the first three games. The Texas Bowl matched the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

sixth-place Missouri Tigers against independent Navy Midshipmen. Navy defeated Missouri 35–13. This was the first time that either team appeared in the Texas Bowl. It was the seventh year in a row that Navy appeared in a bowl game, and a team record fifth year in a row that Missouri made a post-season appearance. Missouri came off two straight bowl wins while Navy had lost three bowl games in a row. The game marked the third time that the two teams had played each other and the second time they had met in a bowl game. Prior to the 2009 Texas Bowl, Missouri held a 2–0 advantage with a 35–14 victory in 1948 and a 21–14 win in 1961 in the Orange Bowl.

Game summary

Navy wore their navy blue home jerseys with white and red trimmed shoulders, Missouri wore their white away jerseys. Missouri struck first with a 58-yard touchdown pass to Danario Alexander, but that would be the best part of the day for Missouri. Despite a fumble by Navy, the Midshipmen defense shut Missouri down, and gave the ball back to Navy QB Ricky Dobbs, who atoned for his fumble on the previous drive with a one-yard TD rush, his 25th of the season. Dobbs would fumble again in the endzone, resulting in Missouri having a chance to take the lead before halftime, but Missouri fumbled on the next play, and Dobbs atoned for his fumble once more with a touchdown. Missouri cut it to 14–10 for halftime, but they would not draw any closer. Navy dominated the rest of the game. After halftime, Navy took a 21–10 lead on a Dobbs pass to Bobby Doyle. Missouri QB Blaine Gabbert then threw an

interception In Ball game, ball-playing Competitive sport, competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for ...

, and Navy didn't look back. Navy ate up most of the 3rd quarter before a 4th down stop. However, Missouri could only amass a field goal out of a 95-yard drive. Navy won by a final count of 35–13. Ricky Dobbs took Texas Bowl MVP honors.

Scoring

Marcus Curry scores TD at 2009 Texas Bowl

Statistics

Source:

References

External links

Game summary
at

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