No. 4 Missouri mashes Nebraska 52-17

[KcMizzou]

No. 4 Missouri mashes Nebraska 52-17

By MIKE DeARMOND

The Kansas City Star

LINCOLN, Neb. | That 30-year, 15-game Missouri victory drought at Nebraska has at last been quenched. All in one dominating, awe-inspiring gulp.

No. 4 Missouri 52, Nebraska 17.

The most points scored by a Missouri football team at Nebraska, ever.

Not since the 1943 Tigers whipped the Huskers 54-20 in Columbia has there been another Missouri victory so sweet against such a bitter foe.

The team that kicked sand in Missouri’s face. The team that hammered Mizzou 63-6 in 1991, embarrassed the Tigers 57-0 in 1995 and 51-7 in 1996, the first year of the Big 12 Conference.

Nebraska finally got a taste of that.

“That’s what they get for scheduling us for homecoming,” said MU sophomore tailback Derrick Washington, who ran for 139 yards and two touchdowns in 14 carries — including one TD covering 43 yards — and scored another on a 7-yard pass.

“That’s kind of like we’re a bad team or something.”

So many years since the Tigers of 1978 last won here, Missouri’s players, coaches and fans must have felt as if they were the worst team in the history of college football.

Such was the dominance of the Cornhuskers here in their Sea of Red. Nebraska still leads 63-36-3 in the 102 years these two teams have been playing each other in football.

This was an execution. Planned and carried out with machine-like precision. But this time it was Missouri doing the executing.

Before Chase Daniel gave way at quarterback to Chase Patton and Blaine Gabbert, the senior Heisman Trophy hopeful completed 18 of 23 passes for 253 yards and three touchdowns.

Washington caught one TD and Danario Alexander caught another for 26 yards.

Jeremy Maclin caught the first one, just 59 seconds into the game. He snared the ball over the middle and then ran 58 yards down the east sideline as the 294th consecutive sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium — minus a few thousand Mizzou fans — groaned in anticipation of what was to come.

The Tigers, who rolled to a 31-10 halftime lead, had this one from the start.

“We’ve been talking about this all week, everybody,” Washington said. “Coming here to make history.”

Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz bedeviled the MU defense early, hitting his first seven passes. However, back-to-back sacks at the end of the first quarter, and Brock Christopher’s 17-yard touchdown return with an interception in the second quarter dulled even that Nebraska bright spot.

“We played terrible,” Ganz said. “We better get this ship righted.”

Ganz completed 26 of 38 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns. But Nebraska finished with only 79 yards rushing in 35 carries.

“I apologized to the team,” Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. “I don’t point the finger. I point the thumb. It all starts with me.

“We got outcoached tonight. We got beat. We got beat soundly.”

Daniel said it got ugly, even before the game.

“Walking out before pregame, I got spit on,” Daniel said, refusing to identify the spitter as anything more than a Nebraska player.

Missouri exacted payback, for that and all the years.

The Missouri offense, ranked second in the nation in scoring and total offense, remained nearly unstoppable.

The Tigers had only five possessions in the first half, but scored three touchdowns and kicked a field goal. The fifth possession ended when Jeff Wolfert missed for the first time on a field goal in his career, coming up short on a 59-yard attempt.

Earlier, Wolfert had stretched his perfect field-goal string to 27 for 27 with a 48-yard kick early in the second quarter.

In what seemed an effort to keep the loss as close as possible, Pelini had Nebraska play it close to the vest in the second half.

Run, run, and more run, as the clock ticked away.

By the start of the fourth quarter a lot of people clad in Nebraska’s traditional red had departed Memorial Stadium, leaving the stands with heavy patches of cement gray.

Much like the mood on the Nebraska sideline.

Frankly, it could have been worse. MU coach Gary Pinkel called off the offense by the start of the final quarter.

Maclin caught five passes for 89 yards. He could have caught 10 had Missouri kept passing into the final period.

If Washington hadn’t been pulled, he might have had a game like former teammate Tony Temple, who ripped Arkansas for 281 yards and four touchdowns in the Cotton Bowl.

“The line did its job, the holes were there and we were ready for the 30 defense,” Washington said.

Yes, much of the night, Nebraska went with three down linemen, dropping eight players into pass coverage.

Like everything else Nebraska tried, it didn’t bother Missouri.

Goodbye monkey on the back.

“I’d say a gorilla,” Washington said. “It feels good.”

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/827505.html