Second half continues to haunt the Tigers

The Tigers haven't scored a second-half touchdown since Sept. 25.

By Evan Glantz

Published Nov. 7, 2009

By the end of the first half of Saturday's game against Baylor, sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert had completed 21 of 27 passes for 322 yards and two touchdowns. The Tigers led the Bears 27-16 and appeared to be on their way to a second consecutive Big 12 victory.

But then the second half rolled around.

Scoring five points from a field goal and safety, it was the fifth game in a row in which Missouri has failed to find the end zone in the last two quarters. The last time Missouri scored a touchdown in the second half was Sept. 25 against Nevada.

“Regardless of what we do in practice, regardless of how much we’re emphasizing it, we’re not playing good enough in the second half to win football games,” coach Gary Pinkel said. “We try to simulate in practice the ‘Hey this is the second half now,’ like we’ve done in the past with the fourth quarter. But apparently it’s not working.”

As frustrated as Pinkel was, the players felt it just as bad.

“We came out hyped, we came out on our toes, but I think we all need to give a little more,” sophomore defensive lineman Dominique Hamilton said. “When we get up, we can’t be satisfied. We’ve got to keep attacking over and over and over again.”

In the second half, Gabbert’s numbers dropped to nine completions in 23 attempts for 146 yards. His favorite target, senior wide receiver Danario Alexander, managed only two catches for 43 yards after hauling in 11 catches for 171 yards and a touchdown in the first two quarters.

The drop-off in offense was coupled with a leaky defense. The Tigers were outscored 24-5 in the second half, after limiting the Bears to 16 points in the first half.

“The defense works as a team,” redshirt freshman defensive lineman Aldon Smith said. “It doesn’t matter who does something wrong. If we all don’t work together then it doesn’t matter. The whole defense overall, we didn’t do a good job.”

Coming into the game Saturday, Baylor had struggled to generate much offensively. In four Big 12 games, the Bears had scored a combined 34 points. They surpassed that total in one game against the Tigers.

“I can’t pinpoint what the problem was, but we just gave up some big plays,” junior linebacker Andrew Gachkar said. “I can’t exactly say why. It’s definitely frustrating, especially when we harp on pass defense so much, and staying on top of the ball.”

Missouri had problems all day with the Bears' passing game. Baylor freshman quarterback Nick Florence set a school record by throwing for 427 yards and also had three touchdowns.

Sophomore Kendall Wright and senior David Gettis had 149 and 110 yards receiving, respectively. Freshman Lanear Sampson was not far behind with 85 receiving yards.

“I think they had an extremely good receiving corps,” Gachkar said. “I wouldn’t say (Florence) is the fastest in the world, but obviously he was good and accurate on the run and they made big plays down the stretch at crucial times and that killed our defense.”