Tigers' offense parts 'Red Sea'

Missouri wins in Lincoln for the first time since 1978.

By Nick Forrester
Oct. 7, 2008

Freshman offensive lineman Elvis Fisher and junior offensive lineman Kurtis Gregory clear a path for sophomore running back Derrick Washington during Saturday's game. Washington torched the Nebraska defense for 139 yards and two touchdowns as the Tigers broke a 30-year drought in Lincoln, Neb., beating the Cornhuskers 52-17.

(Click graphic to enlarge)

LINCOLN, Neb. - The "Sea of Red" is known in college football as one of the toughest places to play, but someone forgot to mention that to senior quarterback Chase Daniel and the Missouri offense. The Tigers went into Nebraska and defeated the Cornhuskers 52-17, winning for the first time in Lincoln since 1978.

On the third play of the game, it appeared the Missouri first-string offense was going to have its first third-and-out of the season. Sophomore wide receiver Jeremy Maclin begged to differ. Maclin took a short pass and used his speed to bounce it outside and go 58 yards for the touchdown. After that play, the crowd of 85,372 at Memorial Stadium was not nearly as rowdy as they had been earlier.

"That's Missouri's offense," Maclin said. "If it wasn't me doing it, somebody else probably could've done it. We want to get the ball and go out there and set the tone. We wanted to go out there and score a touchdown. That's what we did."

Maclin finished with five receptions for 89 yards.

Daniel continued to hit wide receivers all over the field, picking apart the Nebraska defense. The only drive that Daniel was unsuccessful in leading was the final drive of the first half, when the Tigers had virtually no time to score.

Daniel got a little bit of extra motivation during warm-ups when a Nebraska player spit on him, he said.

"Nebraska's definitely one of the dirtiest teams that I've ever played," Daniel said. "We heard everything, and that's just disrespectful. They can talk all they want, it's just fake-hype. But you've got to talk on the field, and I think we more than did that tonight. That was bush-league. That's just blatant disrespect."

Maclin said he was also taunted by several Nebraska players.

"Don't talk, show me something," Maclin said. "I was a little heated out there, but I kept it clean. They played a good game, but the better team won."

Sophomore tailback Derrick Washington also had a big night for Missouri. Washington had a career-high three touchdowns, including a 43-yard run that put Missouri up 45-10. Washington finished with 14 rushes for 140 yards.

"Our offense is like pick your poison," Washington said. "If you want to stop our run, then we'll gas you with the pass. But we also run the ball as well as we pass it and they need to respect that. (On the 43-yard touchdown) I broke through the first seam, and it was just the safety to beat, and the end zone was right there."

Nebraska could not only stop Missouri's offense, but their own offense kept shooting themselves in the foot with penalties. The Cornhuskers committed 14 penalties for 101 yards.

"Whoever is having those penalties, you have to go back on film and see what they did wrong," Nebraska senior wide receiver Nate Swift said. "As a team, we've just got to be more mentally prepared for a team like this, coming in knowing it's going to be loud."

Missouri controlled the entire game, with the only down side for the team being on a Jeff Wolfert 58-yard missed field goal attempt. The miss was Wolfert's first in a Big 12 game in his career.

The loss marked Nebraska's worst to Missouri in Lincoln.

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Tigers' offense parts 'Red Sea'

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