Tigers vs Bears

Missouri FootballPinkel: “Our focus is now on Baylor, understanding that they are a good football team. We've got to improve in all areas. I think our players are excited. Obviously, it was a tough three weeks around here, certainly a very difficult week last week. The win felt good, but I told my players it's going to get tougher and tougher. November is here and if you want to have great success as a football team you have to win in November.”

MISSOURI favored by 14

MU vs BAYLOR RAW STATS - NATIONAL CATEGORY RANKINGS

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SERIES: MU leads, 10-2, including 7-0 since the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1996.

2008: Missouri 31, Baylor 28

mizzou hosts baylor

Mizzou is looking to get some momentum going for the stretch run of conference play, and hopes to build on its first Big 12 win of the season.  The Tigers are coming off a 36-17 win at Colorado last week, which broke a three-game losing streak.

Baylor is coming off a 20-10 ;oss to Nebraska last week that saw the Bears fall behind by a 20-0 count at halftime.

MIZZOU-BAYLOR SERIES HISTORY

Mizzou and Baylor have met just 12 times in their histories, with the Tigers holding a solid 10-2 edge coming into Saturday’s matchup in Columbia, Mo.  Mizzou has won all 7 meetings since the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1996, with the first and last games of the Big 12 era being decided by fewer than 15 points, when the Tigers took a 49-42 triple-overtime thriller from the Bears in Waco in 1996, and then last year’s 31-28 squeaker the Tigers pulled out in Waco.

The five games in between have been won by the Tigers by margins of 18 points (42-24 in 1997), 25 (47-22 in 2000), 17 (41-24 in 2001), 20 (30-10 in 2004) and 15 (31-16 in 2005).

bowl eligibility

There was a time, not that long ago, when simply meeting bowl eligibility would have been cause for a big celebration at Mizzou.  While a win Saturday would improve the Tigers to 6-3 and make them bowl eligible, the two-time defending Big 12 North champs are certainly striving for much more than just six wins this season.

Even so, a 6th win would be a watershed achievement for Mizzou, in that it would make MU eligible to play in a bowl for the 5th straight season, which would be a record streak for the school.  MU’s current string of 4 consecutive bowl seasons (2005 Independence, 2006 Sun, 2008 Cotton, 2008 Alamo) is tied for the school mark, with Tiger teams from 1978-81, who played in 4 straight bowls under Warren Powers (1978 Liberty, 1979 Hall of Fame, 1980 Liberty and 1981 Tangerine).

Of course, getting six wins is not a guarantee of reaching a bowl game, and with none of the Big 12 teams having yet been eliminated from bowl eligibility coming into this weekend, we would suggest that it would be wise to rack up more than six when it’s all said and done.

time of possession

Mizzou claimed a 36-17 win at Colorado last Saturday, and one stat that stood out was the time of possession category, as the Tigers held the ball for an impressive 36:24 in the win, to just 23:36 for CU.  It was the most clock time MU has held the ball since 2007 in a 36-28 win against #2 Kansas (37:25 for MU in that game).

Since going to the spread offense in 2005, with its quick-strike, fast-paced tempo, the Tigers haven’t won the battle of the clock all that often.  In the 61 games of the spread era at MU, Mizzou has owned a TOP edge 19 times.

In those 19 games, MU is 15-4 (all 4 losses came with negligible advantages in the category), however, they are 13-0 with a TOP of 31+ vs 29 (or less) for their opponents. Here are those games in inverse chronological order.

defense production

Mizzou’s defense has been much improved in 2009 under the direction of 1st-year Defensive Coordinator Dave Steckel.  After ranking 98th in the NCAA in total defense in 2008 (411.50 avg. against per game), the Tigers enter the Baylor game ranked 32nd nationally in that same category in 2009, allowing 324.63 per contest.

The Tigers have held 7-of-8 opponents in 2009 to under what their season average is in total offense, and the only team to surpass what they currently average in offense was, of all teams, Furman of the Football Championship Subdivision.

Here’s a look at the production chart for the Tiger defense in 2009, in terms of what they have allowed each game, compared to what each opponent is currently averaging.

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