The Missouri Tigers, the preseason pick to win the Big 12 North made good on the prediction beating the Kansas Jayhawks 36-28. The win now sets up a rematch with Oklahoma in San Antonio for the Big 12 title and then an almost certain trip to New Orleans for the national championship with a win over the Sooners.
The game started slow for both teams as they struggled throwing the ball and each team had two three and outs. Tony Temple who finished with 98 yards opened up the Mizzou offense late in the first quarter breaking off runs of 12 and 23 yards to set up the Tigers first score of the game, a one yard touchdown pass from Chase Daniel to Martin Rucker to give Mizzou the 7-0 lead. The Tigers made it 14-0 following a KU turnover. William Moore picked off quarterback Todd Reesing at the two for his 7th interception of the season. That tied a single season record for interceptions by a Tiger with Roger Wehrli.
The Tigers would drive 98 yards in 13 plays highlighted by two big catches by Danario Alexander. It looked like KU’s defense focused on stopping Martin Rucker, Chase Coffman and Jeremy Maclin, Daniel danced and moved around the pocket all night and found guys like Alexander and Tommy Saunders. Combined the two receivers caught 16 passes for 199 yards. On Daniels second touchdown, an 11 yard TD pass to Alexander to put Mizzou up 14-0, Daniel was flushed from the pocket but scrambled for 8 seconds while Alexander got open.
Chase Daniel made a case for his chase for the Heisman. 40 of 49 for 361 yards and 3 TDs.
The Tigers built a 21-0 lead early in the 3rd after Reesing was picked off for a second time in the game, but then Reesing got the Jayhawk offense rolling as the Jayhawks closed out the second half scoring four times. Reesing’s numbers look fairly impressive, 28-49 for 349 yards and 2 TDs, but he made some poor throws and bad decisions in the first half and he really made a lot of completions late in the game when the team was in desperation mode. Four times, KU got inside Mizzou’s 30 yard line and came away with no points…two interceptions and two missed field goals.
After Jeff Wolfert hit his second 43 yard field goal of the game to put the Tigers up 34-21, Reesing went back to work and led the Jayhawks to another touchdown drive to pull them to within 34-28. Mizzou recovered an onside kick and ran the clock down to :17 before punting the ball. Reesing was dropped by defensive lineman Lorenzo Williams in the endzone to seal the deal in the closing seconds.
