‘Old, feelings’ return
for Missouri in loss
By Samuel McKewon
Senior staff writer
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Rob Riti could
n’t fight back the tears.
The Missouri All-American center
thought the Tigers were done playing like
a second-rate football team. In front of a
raucous home crowd, Riti figured his
team could compete with and possibly
upset No. 6 Nebraska on Saturday night.
But it was the old Tigers that reared
their heads in a 40-10 loss to the
Cornhuskers. And it wasn’t pretty for
anyone in black and gold.
“A loss like this — I thought it was part
of our past,” said Riti after collecting him
self. “It brings back some of those old
feelings.”
MU Head Coach Larry Smith put
things in plainer terms.
“We stunk,” a terse Smith said after
ward. “We’re embarrassed. That’s the
I
worst excuse of a football team I’ve ever
seen in my whole life. Offense, defense,
special teams - we’re all responsible.”
Smith pointed to a disastrous start as
Missouri’s biggest culprit in the loss, dig
ging the Tigers in a 16-0 first-quarter hole
they never crawled out of. The 15-minute
display in self destruction took away any
chance for the team to trade blows for
four quarters with Nebraska as it had the
previous two seasons.
And MU can thank its old nemesis -
special teams - for the deficit.
Tiger punter Jared Gilpin watched
Ben Davidson’s first two snaps of the
game sail over his head and toward the
end zone. The first botched snap resulted
in a safety, the second led to NU’s first
touchdown with five minutes, 48 seconds
remaining in the first quarter.
“I don’t know what happened,”
Davidson said. “I threw it too hard.
Please see TIGERS on 11
Football Gamo Review Missouri9 f®
Nebraska Missouri
Rushing Rushing
No. Name Yds Avg TD No. Name Yds Avq TD
36 C. Buckhalter 132 9.4 1 22 D. Black 39 3 0 0
7 Eric Crouch 92 6.1 1 2 Z. Gilmore 21 2 6 0
. 38 Dan Alexander 39 3.9 1 34 T.J.Leon 6 3.0 0
Receiving Receiving
f - JJ?"* No Yd* TD No. Name No Yds TD
3 Matt Davison 5 59 1 9 T. Garvin 3 71 1
12 B. Newcombe 2 55 1 6 K. Wise 2 16 0
82 S. Applegate 1 15 0 85D.BIakley 1 29 0
Passing Passing
No. Name Att Cmp Int Yds TD No. Name Att Cmp Int Yds TD
7 Enc Crouch 17 10 1 143 2 14 K. Farmer ' 17 5 1 92 1
Game StatS Nebraska MU Nebraska MU
First downs 21 10 Fumbles lost 1 1
Rushing attempts 58 32 Interceptions 1 ^
Rushing yards 333 25 Penalties / yards 7 / 70 5 / 26
assing attempts 17 27 Punt returns / yards 6/41 2/19
assing completions 10 9 Kickoff returns/yards 3/48 3/86
assing yards 143 149 Time of possession 32:49 27:11
otal plays 75 59 Third-down conversion 10 of 17 2 of 13
0 a yards 476 174 Fourth-down conversion 0of 1 Oof 2
Average yards per play 6.3 2.9 Sacks/yards 4/19 2/14
Matt Haney/DN
Nebraska receiver Matt
Davison has caught only two
touchdown passes in his career at
NU. Both have come at Faurot
Field in the same end zone.
Davison’s first scoring grab, of
course, was the “Miracle in
Missouri” in 1997. Saturday,
Davison hauled in a 7-yard pass
from Eric Crouch for his second
touchdown - increasing to 20 his
streak of consecutive games with
at least one catch.
“Wish I could play here every
week if I knew I was going to
score a touchdown,” Davison
said.
■
Missouri’s longest gain of the
game was a 33-yard pass from
quarterback Kirk Farmer to wide
receiver Travis Garvin. The play
represented 19 percent of MU’s
total offensive production for the
day. Its 71-yard touchdown drive
against the Nebraska reserves
represented 40 percent of the
day’s offense.
The Nebraska defense has
held its first four opponents to
less than 100 yards rushing on the
ground, a feat that was last
accomplished in 1997.
Going into the game,
Missouri ranked fourth in the
nation in rushing, averaging 310
yards per game. Tailback
De Vaughn Black was averaging
172.5 yards per game going in.
The final totals: MU had 25
yards rushing and Black had 39
yards. The rest of the team had
negative 14 yards rushing overall.
■
Missouri Head Coach Larry
Smith was short and quite
unsweet in his post-game press
conference following the loss.
His comments, mostly blasting
his own team, lasted only five
minutes. A few questions were
given “yes” and “no” answers.
Among Smith’s best sound bytes:
“Our biggest gains of the
game was when we took a touch
back,” Smith said. “We’d gain 20
yards every time we took a touch
back.”
Correll Buckhalter’s first
touchdown of the season was, to
say the least, a gift. Buckhalter
took a late option pitch from Eric
Crouch and stepped out of
bounds - not once, but twice - on
his 10-yard run to the end zone as
replays showed.
Smith had no comment after
the game about the call, but the
replay was shown several times
inside Faurot Field, each time get
ting a chorus of boos from the
MU-partisan fans.
■
Husker and Missouri fans
waited for more than two hours to
enter the cheap seats in Faurot
Field, which were on a grassy hill
inside the stadium. There were an
estimated 5,000 Husker fans in
Columbia, and radio stations
reported the day provided the
most-congested traffic and
toughest tickets they had seen in
years.
Gameday notebook com
piled by staff writer Brandon
Schulte and senior staff writer
Samuel McKewon.