Defense ready for Baylor

The Bears have not yet won a conference game.

By Sean Leahy

Published Nov. 6, 2009

As Missouri enters November crunch time, the Tigers look to replicate the crunch they put on the Colorado offense last weekend for this Saturday's game against Baylor.

Missouri racked up eight sacks, recovered a fumble and had one interception against Colorado.

Although the Tigers offense slowed down in the second half, the defense stepped up to secure the victory.

"Looking at a game like that, it's a great building block," junior cornerback Kevin Rutland said. "After one play was made, it seemed like the rest of the team was dying to make that next play. The energy was excellent that day."

With the Big 12 North still up for grabs, Missouri (5-3, 1-3 Big 12) heads back to Faurot Field this Saturday to face off with Baylor (3-5, 0-4 Big 12).

Heading into the final month of the season, the Tigers will look to the defense to keep up pressure on opponents.

"It's all about consistency," coach Gary Pinkel said. "We're more consistent on defense now and that's where we're trying to find ourselves on offense."

Rutland got into the act Saturday with an interception and a sack. He said the key to replicating that defensive performance begins on the practice field.

"Practice with great focus, high intensity," Rutland said. "If we practice like we play, we'll be just fine this week."

One player Missouri will not have to prepare for is Bears sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin.

Griffin, who threw for 2,091 yards and ran for 843 more in 2008, suffered an injury to his right knee Sept. 26 while playing against Northwestern State and went on to have season-ending surgery.

The loss of Griffin was a major blow to Baylor's offense, one the team has struggled to overcome.

Baylor opened the season winning three of its first four games but has dropped its last four games.

The Bears are the only team in the Big 12 yet to win a conference game and have scored no more than 10 points in a game during the losing streak.

Regardless of Griffith’s absence, Missouri will look to continue the physical play it displayed against the Buffaloes.

"It was important for (the defense) to know the reason those turnovers happened wasn't because of luck," Pinkel said. "It was because of physical play and ripping the ball out and doing all those other things."

The Tiger linebacker corps of senior Sean Weatherspoon, junior Andrew Gachkar and sophomore Will Ebner combined for 25 total tackles Saturday.

Ebner sacked and forced a fumble from Colorado sophomore quarterback Tyler Hansen in the first quarter.

"It was a big game for our defense coming together," Ebner said. "It was a big step for us. We felt like we had the momentum on the defensive side of the ball the whole game."

With four games left on the schedule, Pinkel said the time is now for Missouri to prove what kind of team it is.

"If you want to have great success as a football team, you got to win in November," Pinkel said.