Missouri dominates all phases of the game as Huskers' offense fails to score a touchdown
by Samuel McKewon
October 07, 2007
Courtesy mutigers.com
MU quarterback Chase Daniel celebrates.
It looked like a feverish Saturday nightmare at the schoolyard, where the bullies run any old ridiculous, drawn-in-the-dirt play they can think of, unload cheap shots and celebrate with petulant, girlish dances after their touchdowns.
Ever been on the wrong end of one of those games, when you had a choice between letting that tall sixth-grader prance into the imaginary end zone or having him ram you into the stump of an oak tree?
Missouri 41 Nebraska 6.
That's blood on the Cornhuskers' lips. That's NU Head Coach Bill Callahan, in his fourth year, suffering the second-biggest loss of his tenure. When such a debacle wasn't supposed to happen anymore.
Looking slow, confused, overwhelmed and eventually demoralized, NU's defense - the Blackshirts, at least for 24 more hours - was smacked around. How does 606 total yards sound? Tigers quarterback Chase Daniel - calm and untouched thanks to Defensive Coordinator Kevin Cosgrove's decision to rush three defenders - accounted for four touchdowns and 472 total yards, entering his name into the 2007 Heisman sweepstakes.
Nebraska's offense? It was expected to keep up with MU's scoring explosion by exploiting the 93rd-ranked defense. Instead, it self-destructed in front of 70,049 fans at Faurot Field with penalties, tentative play and increasingly conservative play calling.
The rushing game - average to begin with - completely folded. Just 74 yards on the ground. When the Huskers needed two yards for a first down, the offensive line couldn't create a hole for running back Marlon Lucky to gain them.
And quarterback Sam Keller was unable the shoulder the increased burden, failing to get his team in the end zone with his efficient-yet-harmless pin pricks down the field. Keller was consistently harassed by Mizzou's four-man pass rush; he was hit as threw many times, and was finally intercepted the one time he tried a shot downfield to receiver Frantz Hardy. He finished his day 25-of-43 for 223 yards and an interception and was sacked twice.
"This was a butt-kicking," Keller said on the post-game radio show. "We've got to be men about it."
Even though Callahan called Missouri's execution "almost perfect," the final portrait was pretty ugly.
"I thought we had players in position to make plays, we just didn't make plays," he said on his post-game radio show. "Missouri made the plays.
"...We worked hard - I mean hard - and physical in practice. There's no doubt we pushed this team as much as we could this week. It wasn't good enough."
A 20-6 halftime deficit quickly ballooned in the second half. Keller was shut down. Missouri insulted its opponent with elaborate trick plays - a double reverse pass, direct snaps to the tight end, a fake field goal - and threw every kind of screen and flare pass imaginable. Daniel sat in his deep shotgun and enjoyed his free walkabouts, choosing his targets and hitting them with precision, as Nebraska's three rushers tilted at Missouri's giant offensive line like hopelessly futile Don Quixotes.
Courtesy of Huskers.com
MU tight end Martin Rucker.
The Huskers' linebackers - all of them - played a step behind MU's superior athletes. Tight end Martin Rucker had a monster game, catching nine balls for 109 yards a touchdown. The other tight end, Chase Coffman, six for 875 and a score, plucking several jump balls out of the air. Receiver Jeremy Maclin darted in and out of tackles. Daniel, six-foot and 230 pounds, looked faster and stronger than any Nebraska running back on his quarterback draws.
"I was so proud," MU Coach Gary Pinkel said. "It was as complete as we've played as a team in a long time."
The Tigers (5-0 overall and 1-0 in the Big 12 Conference) thrilled their raucous home crowd - decked in "Gold Rush" t-shirts - by opening the game with two touchdown drives. On the first, Daniel converted two third downs and scored on a one-yard touchdown run. Twelve plays, 80 yards. On the second, he faked to running back Tony Temple and found Coffman wide open on a six-yard touchdown pass. Eleven plays, 79 yards.
"It was hard to jump down a couple possessions," Callahan said. "We were playing catch up."
The Huskers (4-2, 1-1) never got any closer than 11 points. A screen pass to Maurice Purify was called back because of a holding penalty. They had to settle for two Alex Henery field goal both time they penetrated MU's 20-yard line. On the second significant drive, Keller was sacked and Nebraska suffered a delay of game penalty.
"That killed us," Callahan said. "That's something you learn on the road. You've got to have a little more poise."
Nevertheless, Callahan said his team believed it could come back in the second half. Not a chance. The Huskers gained just 135 yards in the last 30 minutes, and 74 came after they trailed 41-6.
"We felt like we could stick with the same stuff and attack where their weaknesses were, but everything seemed to unfold, and seemed to go wrong," Keller said. "I didn't help us with that interception and I didn't help us when we needed a big play."
The Tigers scored on their first three drives of the second half, culminating with a fake field goal that resulted in a ten-yard shovel pass from Tommy Saunders and Rucker for a touchdown.
After that, Callahan chewed clock with short passes and running plays. Mizzou, eager to celebrate, happily obliged, and the fourth quarter moved swiftly.
