Posted on Tue, Oct. 27, 2009 10:58 PM
Missouri running game shows life against Texas
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COLUMBIA | Missouri coach Gary Pinkel looked stumped. As if he’d never been asked such a question before, this query about how during one sustained drive the Tigers ran on Texas like no other team this season.
“Well, I don’t know,” Pinkel said, then adding that the coaching staff had challenged the running backs and the offensive line. Normal coaching stuff.
Up in the radio booth, longtime assistant coach and now commentator John Kadlec thought he saw the difference.
“That’s the Florida goal-line offense,” Kadlec said.
Offensive line splits tightened up. Couple of backs in the backfield with quarterback Tim Tebow. The big difference is that the Gators often employ two tight ends, in tight.
Missouri was using just one, allowing one extra wideout to go with Danario Alexander and Jared Perry.
“It may look familiar to a lot of people,” said De’Vion Moore, who along with fellow running backs Kendial Lawrence and Derrick Washington combined to net 101 yards rushing and 4.2 yards a carry.
“For us it was something new.”
Installed the previous week in practice when a decision was made that — without evidence that Missouri could run against a Texas defense that in three previous Big 12 Conference games had yielded just 0.3 yards per run — the Tigers had to try.
Missouri did and found it could. Something that — until two late first-half touchdowns by Texas forced Mizzou into a too-frequent passing mode — took a lot of pressure off sore-ankle quarterback Blaine Gabbert.
“They don’t know if you’re going to run or pass,” said Lawrence, whose long run of the game went for 22 yards and kick-started an 81-yard, 12-play second-quarter scoring drive. “With the offensive line, that’s like seven guys blocking for him if you need it.”
With the mobility limitations a sprained ankle has placed on Gabbert, Missouri needs to run effectively a great deal.
Starting Saturday at Colorado, Missouri faces a string of five straight must-win games if the Tigers hope merely to dream of winning a third straight Big 12 North title. If their 0-3 start becomes 0-4 against the 2-5 Buffaloes, even the most tenuous of connections to that dream fall away.
It isn’t as if Missouri’s coaches came up with an instant cure to a running game problem that was supposed to be a plus when Pinkel praised the depth and talent of his running back corps, and the potential of the offensive line.
Missouri has used the two-back set now and again, and often without that much success.
Yes, the Tigers sound more confident that if they could run the ball on Texas they can run it on anybody.
“It would if we’d been able to,” was the laconic observation of senior offensive right guard Kurtis Gregory.
Center Tim Barnes gave a lot of credit to Moore and Washington serving as lead blockers, for each other and for Lawrence.
“They both block really well and it helps the line,” Barnes said. “What we’re trying to scheme, it helps to set it up against certain defenses.”
Moore acknowledged that there is a comfort zone when there are two running backs in the game with Gabbert instead of Missouri’s base one-back strategy.
“When we get in a formation like that, we talk to each other,” Moore said. “‘Just get me in there. Just follow me. Let me go in and make this block.’
“We have a feel for what each other can do. It’s just getting a feel for this type of offense.”
To reach Mike DeArmond, call 816-234-4353 or send e-mail to mdearmond@kcstar.com | Mike DeArmond, mdearmond@kcstar.com
Posted on Tue, Oct. 27, 2009 10:58 PM
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