Before Saturday, Missouri was one of three major-college teams in the country that had not given up more than 28 points in a game this season. And it was the second toughest team in the SEC to run against.
You wouldn’t have guessed any of that from the way Missouri’s defense played against Auburn in the SEC Championship game.
The team that allowed a combined 51 points in its previous four games, 12.75 per game, surrendered 59 against Auburn.
The team that held its previous 12 opponents to an average of 119.1 rushing yards per game — fewer than any SEC defense this season except Alabama — allowed Auburn to run for a mind-boggling 545.
And the team that didn’t allow any of its previous 12 opponents to run for more than 184 yards, allowed one Auburn player, tailback Tre Mason, to run for 304.
It added up to a 59-42 loss for Missouri in its first appearance in the SEC Championship game.
Gary Pinkel, Missouri’s coach, was asked after the game what it would have taken to stop Auburn’s high-powered, fast-paced offense.
“You know what? I’m the wrong person to ask,” he said. “Because I would have stopped it if I could have.
“It’s a great scheme. More people are going to use it, probably. Gus (Malzahn, Auburn’s coach) does a great job with it. He has a great quarterback (Nick Marshall, who ran for 101 yards and completed 9 of 11 passes for 132) and a lot of talent. You put that talent with a good scheme, and you’ve got problems (as a defense).”
The numbers were ugly for Missouri’s defense — 677 yards allowed, 80 percent of it on the ground. Missouri surrendered long runs of 52 yards (by Mason), 42 yards (by Marshall) and 43 yards (by backup running back Corey Grant). It allowed seven rushing touchdowns.
“We just didn’t stop them,” Missouri cornerback E.J. Gaines said. “It’s obviously not a good feeling.”
Before Saturday, the teams that had scored the most points against Missouri this season were Indiana and Vanderbilt, 28 apiece, both in comfortable Mizzou victories. (Georgia scored 26.) The only other FBS teams that held every regular-season opponent to 28 or fewer points were Michigan State and Stanford.
Saturday’s loss didn’t diminish a fine season in the eyes of Missouri’s players, who won the SEC East in their second season in the league and will carry an 11-2 record into a bowl.
“I’m proud of my team. No need to hold our head down. We were picked to finish sixth in the SEC East. And we’re here,” wide receiver L’Damian Washington said. “I don’t care about the yards (Auburn) got. I just care about the scoreboard. I wouldn’t care if they would have rushed for 1,000 if we had won.”
With all due credit to Auburn’s offense, Missouri’s defense compounded its own problems Saturday.
“They didn’t do anything different than we expected — nothing,” Pinkel said. “We tried to make some adjustments also. … You give them credit, but certainly we made a lot of errors. I think as their tempo kept cranking up, we probably didn’t handle that very well either.
“Your defense gets a little frustrated because you’re giving up 10, 9, 11 yards (a play) and then, guess what, you start making mistakes, don’t get the gaps, don’t do the things you need to do. It’s just not a very good situation to be in. … It’s the kind of problems they cause, and you’ve got to make certain you maintain your poise and your focus when you go through that.”
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