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MU defense is exploited by HuskersBy Dave Matter
If Missouri defensive coordinator Dave Steckel carried around a sword, he would have fallen on it yesterday as he discussed his defense’s miserable day at Nebraska.
Saturday
Arguably the Big 12’s most impressive defense through the first three weeks of conference play, Steckel’s group regressed to a version of earlier years in Lincoln, Neb. In the 31-17 loss, the 14th-ranked Tigers (7-1, 3-1 Big 12) gave up six plays of 20 yards or more, including four touchdowns that covered at least 40 yards.
Yesterday, though, Steckel held himself accountable for the breakdowns, refusing to put blame on individual players for mistakes on the field.
“The amazing thing is we were in six different calls,” he said. “I just got to do a better job of calling things at the right time. It starts with me in getting the right calls on.”
Pressed further if players botched assignments on the long plays, Steckel held his ground.
“I’ve got to do a better job of play-calling and getting them in the right position where they can make those plays,” he said.
Told of Steckel’s comments, several players politely disagreed that the source of the problem came from the sideline.
“We messed up,” linebacker Andrew Gachkar said. “There were obviously 10 guys doing the right thing on those six plays. There was one guy doing one wrong thing. Against a run game like that, it’s all about your gap. If you’re not in your gap, and you’ve got a good running back, if he gets 5 yards into your secondary, he’s gone.”
That told the story of Roy Helu Jr.’s record-breaking day for the Cornhuskers. On his way to a school-record 307 rushing yards, the senior I-back scored on touchdowns of 66, 73 and 53 yards — without a Tiger laying a finger on him on his path to the end zone. Quarterback Taylor Martinez didn’t play the second half after suffering a leg injury but struck on three first-half pass plays of 40, 22 and 21 yards, with the 40-yarder going for a touchdown.
The Huskers needed only 13 plays from scrimmage in the first quarter to take a 24-0 lead.
“Devastating maybe isn’t the right word but maybe it is to us,” said Coach Gary Pinkel, whose team hopes to recover Saturday at Texas Tech (4-4, 2-4 Big 12). “Obviously, you can’t give up big plays and be a good defensive team. … We run the same defenses against the same looks all the time. The execution wasn’t what it needs to be.”
Long touchdown plays spelled the demise of past Missouri defenses. But until Saturday, the Tigers had forced opponents to earn their yardage with methodical possessions. According to the website cfbstats.com, among Big 12 defenses, only Nebraska and Texas have surrendered fewer plays of 10-plus yards than Missouri’s 95. But after the Huskers’ splurge on Saturday, the Tigers have now given up six plays of 50 yards or more, trailing only Kansas State and Texas Tech in the Big 12.
“When you don’t have numerous guys doing their job, it creates big plays like that,” safety Jarrell Harrison said. “We knew coming into the game we had to stop their big plays. If you really look at the game, they never really drove the ball on us. If we corrected those mistakes in the first quarter it would have been a ballgame.”
HEAD SHOT: Pinkel clarified his comments yesterday regarding MU’s decision to send the Big 12 footage of Nebraska safety Courtney Osborne striking quarterback Blaine Gabbert in the helmet, saying he hoped the conference office would review the hit and determine if it was a legal tackle. Osborne was not penalized on the fourth-quarter sack.
“This isn’t, ‘Hey, it should have been called,’ ” Pinkel said. “Because it wasn’t. Nothing’s going to change that. What’s very important for us is teaching our players, our defensive players and everybody, how they’re going to call it and how they’re going to interpret it. … We don’t always agree with officiating, never will, never have. But they do a good job.”
With helmet-to-helmet tackles drawing scrutiny across college football and the NFL — the Big 12 suspended Nebraska linebacker Eric Martin for the Missouri game for his helmet collision at Oklahoma State the previous week — Pinkel said he’d share with his players any feedback the league gives the coaches on the tackle in question.
“I thought he was a little high,” Gabbert said of Osborne’s tackle, “but … you’re going to get hit around your head in football. It’s just one of those things that’s going to happen and is kind of inevitable.”
On the other side of the issue, Steckel paused when asked about the game’s heightened awareness and sensitivity toward tackles around the head.
“It’s the last gladiator sport,” he said. “You know, you’ve got to play the game as hard as you can. But you’ve got to keep your eyes up and be physical. The key is that people are targeting and looking at when you lead with the head and lead with the crown of your head. We don’t want to coach that because it can hurt somebody — yourself or them. If you hear us on the practice field, we’re always preaching, ‘eyes up, eyes up, eyes up.’
“You have to play by the rules. Whatever the rules are, that’s what you play by.”
EXTRA POINTS: Middle linebacker Luke Lambert (sprained knee) will miss a third consecutive game, Pinkel said, when the Tigers travel to Texas Tech. … Cornerback Kevin Rutland was wearing a protective boot on his right foot to support a sprained ankle but said he would be fine for Saturday’s game. … Pinkel said MU should have called more running plays against Nebraska. MU tailbacks carried the ball just 12 times on MU’s 76 plays from scrimmage. “When the score is what it is after the first quarter, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do, even though there’s a lot of time,” Pinkel said. “We look back at it, we kind of wish we’d run the football a little bit more.”
