Mizzou comes to Folsom and dominates
Chase Daniel and the Missouri Tigers made an emphatic case for their Top 10 ranking Saturday.
The Heisman Trophy contender shredded the Colorado secondary, passing for 421 yards and five touchdowns, as No. 9 Missouri handed Colorado its worst loss at home since 1983, winning 55-10.
Missouri (8-1, 3-1 Big 12) ended Colorado’s 41-game streak of allowing fewer than 500 yards on defense. Racking up a total of 598 offensive yards, the Tigers were just two yards short of being the first team since 1984 to gain 600 yards against Colorado (5-5, 3-3).
“It seemed like we never really got that spark that got us all going,” said defensive tackle George Hypolite. “We knew that if we could just keep them from big plays and those explosion plays, we could get a good shot at stopping their offense, but we just couldn’t.”
Hypolite gave the Colorado defense an early spark when he intercepted a pass in the first quarter.
On Missouri’s first drive of the game, Hypolite picked off a deflected Daniel pass at the Missouri 17-yard line. He returned the interception to the 11-yard line, where Colorado punched in a touchdown in three plays.
The Buffs held the 7-0 lead for just over a minute, as Missouri wasted little time with its rally. Daniel found tight end Martin Rucker on a three-yard pass to give Missouri its first points on the board and knot the score at 7-7.
Colorado tacked on a 24-yard field goal in the first quarter, but as the game wore on, the Buffs could no longer compete with the Tigers, and Missouri poured it on.
Daniel seemed to pass at will, finding a big play on almost every drive. He completed passes of 72, 46, 45, 37, 31, 25 and 23 yards to spark the Missouri offense.
Receivers Willi Franklin and Jeremy Maclin led the Tigers with 109 and 108 receiving yards, respectively. Utilizing eight different players, Missouri rushed for 205 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“They have a well-designed offense,” said Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins. “They totally understand how to operate it, they have really unique players and they have the experience. They have a lot. From that standpoint – from a football purist’s standpoint – you can see that they can do some really good things.”
As Colorado struggled to slow down the Missouri offense – and had personnel trouble with injuries to linebacker Jordon Dizon and safety Ryan Walters – the offense could barely muster any production.
The Missouri defense held the Buffs to six-straight three-and-out possessions in the third quarter.
When Colorado had finally snapped the streak and made a first down, CU quarterback Cody Hawkins threw an interception on the very next play.
The Buffs finished the game with 213 total yards on offense. For the first time all season, Hawkins was held without a touchdown pass.
With Missouri clearly in-control and much of the announced 51,483 in attendance gone from the stadium, both teams put in their second-team players late in the third quarter.
The blowout loss was the ugly side to the up-and-down Buffaloes, Hypolite said. Colorado, which upset No. 3 Oklahoma and Texas Tech, fell hard against its division foe.
“We just didn’t play like ourselves out there,” Hypolite said.
But the junior said the Buffs matched Missouri’s physical play.
“We’re a very good team,” he said. “We just have a very small margin for error. Today they exploited that margin for error.”
The Buffs have two regular season games left. They travel to Iowa State next week and return to Boulder to host Nebraska Thanksgiving weekend.
Colorado has to win one more game to become bowl eligible, and may have to win its last two to earn a berth in a Big 12 bowl, instead of hoping for an at-large berth.
Dan Hawkins said he hoped his team could build on the blowout loss and use it as inspiration as it closes 2007 season.
“Those guys have been through a lot,” he said. “A loss is hard, hard on us. It’s hard on the team, but again, that’s life.
“The positive that comes out of it is can we make sure that young people can take pain and manifest it toward the future development and success? It’ll be a question of ‘Can our guys put it in the right context and use it?'”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Justin Coons at Justin.coons@thecampuspress.com.
