Colorado
Missouri
No. 25 Missouri Takes Big 12 Opener From Buffs 28-13
September 30, 2006 | Football
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The 25th-ranked Missouri Tigers improved to 5-0 by defeating Colorado 28-13 in the Big 12 Conference opener for both teams.
Chase Daniel threw four touchdown passes as Missouri equaled its best start since 1981. The Buffaloes (0-5, 0-1 Big 12) have lost nine straight -- their longest losing streak since a 10-game slide during the 1963 and 1964 seasons.
Daniel, a sophomore in his first season as a starter, completed 23 of 35 passes for 253 yards, with two interceptions. He has now thrown 13 TD passes this season, including a team-record five against Murray State.
Daniel and tight end Chase Coffman teamed up for first-quarter scoring passes of 2 and 9 yards. Daniel hit Missouri's other tight end, Martin Rucker, on a 1-yard score with 11 seconds left in the first half, and connected with wide receiver Jared Perry on a 9-yard score midway through the third quarter.
Both teams entered the game ranked in the top 10 nationally in team defense -- Missouri (5-0, 1-0) was first and Colorado eighth. But the Tigers moved easily to touchdowns on their first two possessions, scoring on drives of 71 and 77 yards.
Colorado, ranked 113th in offense with just 223.5 yards per game coming in, actually outgained Missouri 373-353, but could manage just two Mason Crosby field goals -- a 32-yarder in the first quarter and a 36-yarder in the second -- and one third-quarter touchdown.
"Guys are starting to feel we can throw the football, we can make some plays," first-year coach Dan Hawkins said. "It's just a case of keeping it coming.
"I've been down before. We're good. We're solid. We're tight."
Missouri's third score was set up by a Colorado mistake when punter Matt DiLallo let a high snap slip through his hands late in the second quarter. He recovered but was tackled at the Colorado 14.
Six plays later, on third-and-goal from the 1 and out of time-outs, Daniel hit Rucker to make it 21-6.
Colorado quarterback Bernard Jackson and wide receiver Dusty Sprague connected on a 63-yard pass on the first play of the third quarter, and Jackson scored from the 1 a play later to make it 21-13.
Missouri answered with a 52-yard scoring drive ending with Perry's score.
Hawkins, trying to shake things up for a stagnant offense that has scored just 49 points this season, went for it on fourth down four times. All four failed, including a second-quarter effort on fourth-and-goal from the Missouri 4 with the Buffaloes trailing 14-3.
"At some point, you've got to play to win and not play to lose," Hawkins said. "You have to take some selective opportunities and say, 'hey, I believe in you.'"
In fact, Colorado should have converted at least two of the plays. Jackson missed an open receiver in the end zone on the fourth-and-goal play. And later in the second quarter, on fourth-and-2 from the Missouri 47, Dan Goettsch dropped a would-be first down pass with no defenders in sight.
Jackson was 13-of-27 for 190 yards and ran 15 times for 93 yards. Hugh Charles carried 13 times for 87 yards for Colorado. Tony Temple led Missouri runners with 70 yards on 18 carries.
Crosby's two field goals and extra point gave him 256 career points and made him Colorado's all-time leading scorer.
The Tigers had not allowed a first-quarter score until Saturday and have outscored opponents 62-3 in the first quarter.
For Missouri, after starting the season with wins over Murray State, Mississippi, New Mexico and Ohio, beating a Big 12 opponent, even a struggling one, was another step forward.
"Our team really hasn't talked about that at all," coach Gary Pinkel said of the unbeaten start.
Daniel dismissed criticism that the Tigers still haven't beaten any teams that pose a real challenge.
"That's for the fans and that's for everybody else to figure out," he said. "We don't really worry about that. We just want to go out there and play our A game."
