Junior quarterback Blaine Gabbert led the charge as the No. 21 Missouri Tigers improved to 6-0 with a victory over Texas A&M on Saturday.
Gabbert threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns to give the Tigers the 30-9 victory. If there were any questions about the junior’s health following a hip pointer injury suffered in last week’s game, Gabbert certainly answered them against the Aggies.
“Its mind over matter,” Gabbert said. “I worked hard all week to get my body back to what it should be. I worked hard with the training staff and they got me back to where I need to be.”
The Tigers started the scoring late in the first quarter when Gabbert connected with junior wideout Wes Kemp for a five-yard touchdown pass to give Missouri a 6-0 lead after a blocked PAT.
Kemp sparked the Tiger’s second scoring effort of the day midway through the second quarter. The St. Louis native caught a deep pass for 24 yards, setting Missouri up at the two-yard line. Sophomore tailback Kendial Lawrence did the rest, plowing forward for his second touchdown of the season. Later in the quarter Kemp found room yet again, driving down to the goal line off the pass from Gabbert. The Tigers got stopped twice, and were forced to kick a field goal, stretching the lead to 16-0 at halftime.
Kemp was the go-to-guy yet again midway through the third quarter, finding the end zone for his second touchdown of the night. The junior ended the game with a season-high 10 receptions for 89 yards and two touchdowns.
The Aggies got on the board late in the third quarter with a 24-yard field goal, cutting the lead to 23-3. The Tigers answered two minutes later as Gabbert found sophomore wideout T.J. Moe for the 20-yard touchdown reception, pushing the gap to 30-3. Moe finished with six receptions for 110 yards on the day.
Texas A&M would find the end zone in the fourth, but it was too little too late. Senior quarterback Jerrod Johnson struggled for the Aggies, and was hurried most of the game by the fierce Tiger defense. Missouri sacked Johnson seven times on the day, with sophomore linebacker Brad Madison and senior cornerback Kevin Rutland combining for five in the game. Johnson said the game came down to execution.
“It’s a tough egg to swallow,” Johnson said. “We’ve had great weeks of practice, and forever reason in these games we haven’t executed. Its not anything extra practice can fix, it’s just a matter of making plays when the moment is right, and we haven’t done that.”
Missouri’s defense continued to impress against Texas A&M, holding its opponents to only nine points despite being without standout sophomore Aldon Smith. However, as opposed to last week, the offense gave the Tigers plenty of room to work with.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our team,” Pinkel said. “When we play as a football team we’re pretty good. We did a lot of good things today, and were a lot better football team than we were three weeks ago, and we’re getting better. Hopefully we continue that.”
Missouri will face its biggest challenge of the season next weekend against the Oklahoma Sooners, who are 5-0 heading into this weekend.
“We have a big game next week against Oklahoma, and that will be our biggest test of the season,” senior linebacker Andrew Gachkar said. “We are playing well as a defense, and that’s what its all about. With Oklahoma coming up we just have to keep our feet on the gas pedal.”