Tigers look to bounce back against Colorado

Sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert expects to play against Buffaloes.

By Evan Glantz

Published Oct. 30, 2009

The start of conference play has not been kind to the Tigers. In their first three games against Big 12 opponents, the Tigers have faced three ranked opponents and been outscored 101-36.

After starting the season 4-0, the team has dropped three straight games and stands 0-3 in the Big 12.

"People probably think that because we lost to those teams, that it's brought us down," redshirt freshman defensive lineman Aldon Smith said. "But you learn something from a loss. And after every loss you deal with, you only get better from it."

Even after taking their lumps against Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Texas, sophomore tailback De'Vion Moore picked out the positives.

"We have to learn from our mistakes, that's the bottom line," Moore said. "There's one of two things you can do. You can either choose to fail, or you can choose to win. The biggest lesson we've taken is just to have heart. You can never measure how great you are, or how great of a team you have just through success. We've hit some adverse moments, and we've got to overcome them."

Just do not anticipate a completely different Missouri team in the coming weeks. Coach Gary Pinkel believes in a certain style of running his team and has no plans to alter that plan.

"We will not change what we do, or how we prepare," Pinkel said. "I'm not saying you don't tweak your offense, you don't tweak your defense. But we prepare how we do it, and our pregame is how we do it. We will not change, but eventually the players will change. And when they do that, we'll start winning."

Following the loss to Texas, Pinkel has tried to instill a sense of urgency in his team.

"Like I said, it's the truth: We're running out of time," Pinkel said. "We've still got a lot of opportunities out there, but a sense of urgency is obviously in sight."

The first opportunity will come Saturday in Boulder, Colo., against the Colorado Buffaloes. Colorado sits at 2-5 on the season and 1-2 in the Big 12.

Although the Tigers cannot afford to overlook any opponent, they have preyed upon Colorado in recent years. In the past two seasons, Missouri outscored the Buffaloes 113-10, including last year's 58-0 shutout in Columbia.

One of the key questions for the Tigers is the status of sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert, who appeared to re-injure his right ankle in the loss to the Longhorns. Both Pinkel and Gabbert maintain that the quarterback is fine and could have gone back into the game Saturday had it been closer.

"It was just a team decision that we didn't want to do anything else to it," said Gabbert, who was wearing a boot when meeting reporters Oct. 26. "It was all precautionary stuff. I'll be ready to go against Colorado."