Missouri Tigers Dominate Line Of Scrimmage, Win Citrus Bowl

Maty Mauk celebrates his 18 yard touchdown run

337-106. That is the No.16 Missouri Tigers’ rushing yards to No.25 Minnesota’s in Thursday’s Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl. All of those yards on the ground led to a 33-17 victory for the Tigers over the Gophers.

Mizzou only had seven rushing yards in the first quarter, but later in the game the Tigers would gash Minnesota for several big runs and put the Gophers away.

Maty Mauk really struggled to start the game, throwing two interceptions on his first five passes. Minnesota took advantage of the second INT, rambling their way through the Missouri defense before Rodrick Williams bullied his way into the endzone to give the Gophers an early 7-0 advantage.

Mizzou went three-and-out on their first drive of the second quarter, but a 19 yard run on a fake punt by defensive lineman Harold Brantley definitely gave the Tigers some momentum.

Though the drive would result in a punt, Missouri finally flipped the field and Christian Brinser pinned the Gophers at their 2-yard line.

Gophers coach Jerry Kill elected not to try for points despite having all three timeouts, because “we get the ball to start the second half”.

After two back-to-back stalled drives for Minnesota, the Tigers capitalized on a 21 yard Andrew Baggett field goal, and 25 yard touchdown toss from Mauk to Bud Sasser.

In the final minute of the half, Gophers coach Jerry Kill elected not to try for points despite having all three timeouts, because “we get the ball to start the second half”.

Gary Pinkel led his team into the locker room up 10-7, and he must have heard Kill’s post-half explanation and decided that he wasn’t going to give the ball to the Gophers. In a shocking move, Pinkel call for an onside kick, which Baggett executed perfectly and the ball fell right into the hands of Ian Simon.

The stolen possession lead to another Baggett field goal from 23 yards out, and the Tigers had all the momentum in the world up 13-7. That would be very short lived as Gopher All-American tight end Maxx Williams had a surefire “Sportscenter Top Ten Play” which included two hurdles over Missouri defenders en route to a 54 yard touchdown.

Jan 1, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; Missouri Tigers defensive lineman Markus Golden (33) dumps a bucket of gatorade on head coach Gary Pinkel as the Missouri Tigers beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers 33-17 in the 2015 Citrus Bowl at Florida Citrus Bowl. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

After their third three-and-out of the game, a Gopher muffed punt was scooped up by Tyler Hunt and Mizzou had the ball deep in Minnesota territory.

Mauk, who had taken several hard hits, decided to do a little hitting of his own. Mauk ran up the middle through the Gopher defense and trucked safety Derrick Wells on an 18 yard touchdown, subsequently knocking the senior out of the game. Pinkel called for a two-point conversion, but it would fail and the Tigers lead 19-14.

Minnesota would respond with a field goal, cutting the lead down to two. After the Gophers had another three-and-out, they made the mistake of giving Marcus Murphy a returnable kick, and the senior made a few miss, and broke a couple of tackles and took it to the endzone only to have it wiped away by a questionable block in the back.

Russell Hansbrough made sure to get those points back, as he scampered 78 yards for a score of his own raising the lead to 26-17.

He and Murphy would break several big runs down the stretch as the Missouri offensive line, specifically the interior of Evan Boehm and Connor McGovern, would manhandle the Gopher defensive line. Murphy would add a 69 yard run, which involved more broken tackles, and set up another Mauk to Sasser touchdown sealing the game for the Tigers 33-17.

When it was announced that senior receiver Jimmie Hunt would be unavailable for the game, it was expected that the Tigers would run the ball until it didn’t work. They undoubtedly executed that gameplan but what was not expected was that Missouri would out-gain.

Minnesota by over 200 yards. Gopher running back David Cobb had only 81 yards on 21 carries. Cobb came into the game with over 1500 yards and 13 touchdowns.

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The game really came down to the battle of the of scrimmage and Missouri dominated on both sides. Markus Golden had 1.5 sacks and four tackles for loss and Shane Ray added a .5 sack and a forced fumble.

Harold Brantley, in addition to his impressive run, recovered the Ray-forced fumble and broke up a pass. The defensive-line led Tigers gave defensive coordinator Dave Steckel, who took the head coaching job at Missouri State, a perfect send-off to his new job.

Mauk was 12-19 for 97 yards for two touchdowns and two interceptions. Murphy, in his last game as a Tiger, had 12 carries for 157 yards, his first 100 yard game as a Tiger. Sasser was the leading receiver with seven catches for 68 yards.

Missouri ends the season with a record of 11-3. In a season of very high-highs (Texas A&M, Tennessee, Arkansas) and very low-lows (Indiana, Georgia) the Tigers were SEC East champions for a second straight year in what was deemed a “rebuilding year” by many sports writers.

The Tigers will lose a lot of good players to graduation and the NFL, but certainly have a lot to build on now going into the 2015 season.

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