Illinois Fighting Illini @ Missouri Tigers Football Recap

Missouri 23, Illinois 13

Missouri was sluggish for a great deal of time on Saturday afternoon on a synthetic surface. The Tigers’ offense looked plastic and artificial for much of the proceedings at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

Fortunately, they developed a real offense just in time.

Missouri’s offense sputtered early, but performed up to its usual standards in the second half, outscoring the Illini 20-0 after the break en route to a hard-earned 10-point win that certainly wasn’t pretty.

No matter – the Tigers will take it and run.

The Tigers took the ball 77 yards on their first drive of the second-half, cutting Illinois’ lead to 13-10 on a seven-yard pass from Gabbert to T.J. Moe. Mizzou then took its first lead with 13:26 left in the fourth quarter when Gabbert hit Michael Egnew from six yards out.

Both drives were the result of an intentional and calculated shift by Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Yost. The playcaller for UM Coach Gary Pinkelcalled a poor game for most of the Tigers’ outing with Illinois. He was so intent on stretching the field from side to side that he forgot to go along with the passing game. Yet, after wearing out bubble screens and flat passes that did absolutely nothing, Yost got wise and finally attacked Illinois vertically, which is what he should have been doing all along against a decimated Illini secondary that had a number of injuries to deal with. Intermediate pass routes that sought areas near the seams, 12-15 yards down the field, met with success and gobbled up yardage, and the Tigers surged past the Illini as their playbook changed in terms of content.

As for Illinois, redshirt freshman Nathan Scheelhaase struggled in his debut, completing nine of 23 passes for 81 yards and throwing three interceptions.  He did throw Illinois’ lone touchdown, a 13-yard strike to A.J. Jenkins that gave the Illini a 10-3 second quarter lead.

A 52-yard field goal by Derek Dimke as the second quarter expired gave Illinois a 13-3 advantage at the half, but that’s the last time the Big Ten representative dented the scoreboard in this border war. Illinois turned the ball over four times.

While they couldn’t get it done through the air, Illinois was able to move the ball on the ground, but only in the first half of play inside the big dome.  Mikel Leshoure ran for a game-high 112 yards on 20 carries, and Scheelhaase carried the ball 16 times for 76 yards.

Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert completed 34 of 48 passes for 281 yards and two touchdowns. That’s pretty much just eight yards per completion and only six yards per pass attempt. Those number were so low because Yost took so few shots downfield. Ah, but when the approach changed, Missouri got going… all the way to a season-opening win.

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