No blowout against Cyclones

Beating Iowa State took more effort than expected.

By Mike Bushnell

Published Oct. 30, 2007

During the course of the ever-lengthening college football season, it seems like every team, no matter how good, struggles to win a game they shouldn't have any trouble with.

On Saturday, No. 13 Missouri had such a game.

The Tigers, who came into the game favored by 28 points, had four fewer first downs than the Iowa State Cyclones and 23 fewer yards of total offense than the Cyclones, despite the fact that MU came into the game seventh in the national in total offense (the Cyclones were No. 104).

"You want to win every game 40-6 and eat hot dogs in the fourth quarter," Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. "But that's not football. We had to grind it out late in the game."

The Tigers never trailed in their 42-28 win, despite letting the now 1-8 Cyclones get within a touchdown at 28-21 late in the third quarter.

Junior quarterback Chase Daniel, who was 28-for-37 for 250 yards — a lean night compared to most games this season — said Missouri didn't overlook Iowa State.

"With every team, we come in focused," he said. "We didn't take them lightly. They play teams tough and we had to fight through it."

Freshman wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, who had seven catches for 66 yards, said Saturday showed how big every conference game is.

"It's a Big 12 game," he said. "No win is easy here and you have to work hard every week."

But the Tigers had to work a little harder than they did against Texas Tech or Nebraska because they struggled to get the Cyclone offense off the field. Iowa State converted 55 percent of their third downs.

"We had trouble stopping them on third-and-long," Pinkel said. "We couldn't get our offense back on, and that hurt us. You don't get out on third down, you don't get off the field, simple as that."

Iowa State freshman running back Alexan Robinson had a career day, rushing 21 times for 149 yards, including a 37-yard score on fourth-and-one in the fourth quarter.

"Their fourth-and-one conversion was big," Pinkel said. "Their running back is very talented."

Junior defensive end Stryker Sulak said he wasn't sure how Robinson was able to have such a big game.

"He's a freshman, I don't know how he was able to play so well," Sulak said. "We just lost our focus, maybe."

But Daniel said, in a college football season full of upheaval and improbable upsets, MU should just be happy they won.

"In college football, all you see are highly-ranked teams losing," he said. "If we can get a win, we'll take it, no matter what."

But more than that, Pinkel said the fact that MU is lamenting a 14-point win in conference to begin with shows how far the program has come.

"I'm glad we've reached the point that we can be upset about winning by two touchdowns," he said.