(Photo Credit: Ben Walton-MUTIGERS.COM)
The new look Missouri Tigers football team gave fans a sense of what the rest of the season will hopefully bring as they defeated the Jack Rabbits of South Dakota State 38-18 on Saturday. Maty Mauk picked up right where he left off last season throwing three touchdowns on a 178 yards passing. Darius White led the receiving corps with a pair of receptions for 83 yards and two touchdowns. On the ground tailback Russell Hansbrough carried the ball 20 times for 126 yards and a touchdown as well.
The Tiger offense wasted no time scoring on their first drive of the game as Mauk connected with White on a 44-yard pass in the first minute of the game to give Missouri a quick 7-0 lead.
However, the Jack Rabbits responded seconds later as Zach Zenner took the ensuing kick back 75-yards to the house to even the score up at 7-7. Missouri upped the tempo throughout the first quarter scoring two more times to stretch the lead to 21-7.
In the second quarter South Dakota State kicker Justin Syrovatka added a 39-yard field goal to trim the deficit to 21-10 heading into half time.
The Jack Rabbits came within three points midway through the third quarter after Zenner punched it in the end zone, which was followed up by a converted two-point conversion. Though with the Tiger lead at 21-18 Marcus Murphy took back a 100-yard kick return to give Missouri a 10-point advantage.
In the fourth quarter Mauk connected with senior wide receiver Bud Sasser for a 29-yard touchdown and later Andrew Baggett hit a 44-yard field goal to secure the Tiger victory by a score of 38-18.
All in all some good takeaways came from the first home game for the Tigers. Mauk looked poised in the pocket as he hit each of his wide receivers on short routes and deep down the field. The offensive line anchored by Evan Boehm protected Mauk and opened up some big holes for Hansbrough and Murphy to do what they do best. The healthy balance of offensive attack is essential going forward into the tougher SEC matchups.
On defense the Tigers looked just as strong. Other than the big return in the first quarter the defense only gave up 10 points and forced two picks moving their streak to 45 straight games with a forced turnover, the longest in the nation.
Coming up next Saturday the Tigers head to Toledo, Oh. to take on the Toledo Rockets. Stay tuned for more updates on all things Missouri Tigers by following me @NickYahl on Twitter.
