COLUMBIA | Blaine Gabbert is not a lot of the things people thought he was on Sept. 5.</p><p>On that date, Gabbert won in his first start as Missouri&rsquo;s quarterback, a 37-9 victory over Illinois. The sophomore with the big arm and a follow-me-boys attitude beyond his years had foisted upon himself the mantle of greatness.</p><p>A problem &mdash; now that Missouri hasn&rsquo;t scored a touchdown in the second half of its last five games &mdash; is that Gabbert seemingly allows the pressure to live up to that prediction to remain heavy upon his shoulders.</p><p>He looks in the mirror of Missouri&rsquo;s recent results &mdash; its slide from 4-0 to 5-4 and 1-4 in the Big 12 &mdash; and sees no one to blame but Blaine.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to get the offense going,&rdquo; he said this week as Missouri prepared for Saturday&rsquo;s game at division-leading Kansas State. &ldquo;Somehow, some way, I&rsquo;ve got to make a play.</p><p>&ldquo;When we&rsquo;re not functioning like we can, I take it upon myself to go out there and make a play. When our offense doesn&rsquo;t do well, it&rsquo;s my fault. That&rsquo;s just the way I am.&rdquo;</p><p>Teammates and coaches can, and have, told Gabbert that is just plain crazy.</p><p>&ldquo;Blaine, he never thinks he&rsquo;s done enough,&rdquo; running back Derrick Washington said.</p><p>In truth, no one on the offensive side of the football at Missouri has done enough, players or coaches.</p><p>In the first half of their five Big 12 games, the Tigers have scored 93 points; 33 in the win against Colorado.</p><p>In the second half of those games, Missouri has scored 11 points; none against Oklahoma State and Texas and only three against Nebraska, Colorado and Baylor.</p><p>Two second-half points against Baylor came by virtue of a safety by the MU defense.</p><p>Against Baylor, Missouri jumped ahead 27-16 with Gabbert hitting 21 of 27 passes for 322 yards and two touchdowns and no sacks in the opening half. Senior receiver Danario Alexander caught 11 of those passes for 171 yards and a TD.</p><p>In the second half of what became a 40-32 loss, Gabbert hit only nine of 24 passes for 146 yards, no touchdowns and Gabbert was sacked four times. Alexander was thrown the football only three times in the second half. He caught two of them for 43 yards.</p><p>Missouri offensive coordinator David Yost contended that while Baylor&rsquo;s defense tried a few different things to keep Alexander from repeating his first-half performance, the bubble screen play that worked so well in the first half was still there in the second half.</p><p>&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t execute them properly,&rdquo; Yost said. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t see them as being there.&rdquo;</p><p>Yost &mdash; while adopting ultimate responsibility for the second-half failures of Missouri&rsquo;s offense in the conference season &mdash; points to Gabbert being a better quarterback next season with a complete year of experience behind him.</p><p>It is important, Yost said, that he call plays that will give the MU offense a chance to establish momentum early in the second half.</p><p>Gabbert contends the play calls aren&rsquo;t the problem.</p><p>&ldquo;Lack of execution starting it off,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what it really all boils down to.&rdquo;</p><p>And, of course, Gabbert arrives at a seemingly unshakeable mea culpa.</p><p>&ldquo;My job is to score points and we didn&rsquo;t score points in the second half,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It comes down to us executing the plays. And we&rsquo;re not.&rdquo;</p><p>So what happens when Missouri comes out of the dressing room at halftime at Kansas State? Will each MU player and coach carry with him the fear that the Mizzou offense may go poof and disappear again?</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to be thinking about that at all,&rdquo; Gabbert said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just focusing on something negative.</p><p>&ldquo;That means you&rsquo;re bound to screw up.&rdquo;