Defensive backs struggle mightily

Penalties, poor positioning hurt the Tigers.

By Mike Bushnell

Published Dec. 4, 2007

SAN ANTONIO — Long considered the weakest link of the formerly No. 1 Missouri's already unimpressive defense, MU's cornerbacks struggled mightily on Saturday.

The Tigers' defense committed three costly 15-yard penalties and let up multiple backbreaking deep pass plays of 15 yards or longer, much to the ire of coach Gary Pinkel.

"We had some guys out of position," he said. "We had some guys that made some errors that didn't get back in the deep pass or deep middle. Just talking about some mental errors that we had, those are disappointing."

Oklahoma's first touchdown was set up by a 47-yard pass from freshman quarterback Sam Bradford to junior wide receiver Malcolm Kelly. MU's senior cornerback Darnell Terrell was out of position; he hadn't been beaten badly on a deep ball like that since the second week of the season.

"There were a lot of breakdowns," junior safety William Moore said. Moore led the team with 13 tackles and stayed in front of his assigned receiver on every play. The same couldn't be said for the rest of the secondary.

In the third quarter with the game tied at 14-14, Bradford found junior wide receiver Manuel Johnson for a 17-yard reception. Terrell was called for a 15-yard personal foul on top of that, and the Sooners march down the field was made even easier.

"When you have late hits like that, you don't win ballgames," Moore said.

With MU down 28-17, a personal foul call on junior cornerback Castine Bridges in the fourth quarter was costly because it bailed Oklahoma out of a second-and-18 deep in their own territory. The Sooners wound up scoring a touchdown on that drive.

Pinkel credited Oklahoma's ability to capitalize on MU's errors.

"It was down to, I think, a two score game, and they had a penalty and first-and-20, and they gained two yards, and we had a personal foul," Pinkel said. "Gave Oklahoma the first down. They went down and scored."

Terrell also got called for pass interference in the fourth quarter when he didn't turn around to even challenge the throw from Bradford to Kelly.

Terrell and Bridges left without speaking to the media, but senior defensive tackle Lorenzo Williams lamented the mistakes the defense made as a whole.

"You can't make mistakes against a team like Oklahoma," he said. "You will never win with errors against a team that good."

The entire secondary, aside from Terrell and injured senior safety Pig Brown, will return next season. Moore said this game was good experience for guys like Bridges and freshman cornerback Carl Gettis, who will enter next season as a starter.

"Our secondary is real young," he said. "We do have talent back there, and now they know that not every game is going to be great. These type of games happen, and we've just to deal with it."