Recent News | Popular News | Subscribe

GAME NOTES: Fresh off a convincing victory over Illinois, the Missouri Tigers will try to continue their winning ways when they host the Bowling Green Falcons this Saturday at Memorial Stadium, sporting their brand new national ranking, as they debut this week as the 25th-ranked team in the country.

The Falcons also opened their 2009 campaign with a victory, defeating Troy, 31-14. It was a tremendous debut as well for coach Dave Clawson, who is in his first year at Bowling Green. Since 1996 BGSU is just 6-7 in road openers, but some of those victories have come against tough teams, such as Kansas, Purdue, Minnesota and Missouri.

As for Gary Pinkel's Tigers, they were outstanding in their season-opener, routing Illinois, 37-9. Missouri has been one of the top teams in the nation over the past two years, winning 22 contests, and that includes the team's 10- win campaign in 2008. Missouri has won 10 of its last 12 home openers, and has outscored opponents by an average of 25.0 ppg in those contests.

The Falcons have won three of the four meetings with Missouri, and that includes a dominating 51-28 victory over the Tigers in the most recent victory back in 2002.

The Falcons found Troy's weakness this past Saturday and took advantage of it throughout the matchup. BGSU's 37-14 victory came solely on the success of the passing attack, as Tyler Sheehan threw for 339 yards and two touchdowns on 32- of-44 passing. Sheehan's main target was Freddie Barnes, who was busy all game, and finished with 15 receptions, 157 yards and both of Sheehan's TD passes. After only grabbing 40 passes last year, and scoring zero touchdowns, it is clear that Barnes will be the focal point of this year's passing attack.

Unfortunately the ground game was ineffective, as the Falcons could only muster 50 yards on 28 carries. Willie Geter led the way with 49 yards, but only had nine carries, while Chris Bullock scampered for a mere 16 yards, but did find the end zone once. If the Falcons plan on winning this week they will need to find offensive balance to keep the Tigers at bay.

On top of the solid play offensively, the Falcons put forth an impressive defensive effort as well, limiting Troy to just 14 points. BGSU turned the Trojans into a one-trick pony on offense, shutting down their rushing attack and holding them to only 41 yards on 2.0 ypc. The Falcons did allow 263 yards and one touchdown through the air, but the defense also recorded two interceptions, one of which was returned 64 yards by Adrien Spencer for a touchdown. Spencer finished with only three tackles, but Roger Williams, who collected the other interception, paced the team with 10 stops.

Taking over for Chase Daniels was not supposed to be an easy task, but sophomore Blaine Gabbert was practically flawless in the Tigers' opening win over Illinois. The young signal caller completed 25-of-33 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns in his debut, and was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts. Pinkel was impressed with Gabbert's poise under pressure in week one.

"You're special if you can do that. I was really impressed with him. He was focused, I think the whole team was focused. He has shown a lot of toughness. Very good first performance."

Replacing All-American Jeremy Maclin was also supposed to be a daunting task, but against Illinois, Danario Alexander, Jared Perry and Wes Kemp proved to be reliable options. Alexander hauled in 10 passes for 132 yards, while Perry and Kemp grabbed four passes and one touchdown each.

Where Missouri struggled was on the ground, as the team posted just 117 yards on 3.2 yards per attempt. Derrick Washington led the way with 61 yards, while the only rushing TD for Missouri came from Gabbert, who finished with 39 rushing yards.

While the offensive play by Missouri will get plenty of attention and rightfully so, the defensive unit was also in mid-season form, as the Tigers held Illinois to just 325 total yards, including just 110 rushing yards on 3.1 ypc. Missouri also forced two turnovers in the victory and recorded three sacks. Although it was just the first game of the season, the play of the defense was improved over last year's unit, which allowed 27.2 ppg and 412.0 total ypg.

Leading the way in the win was standout LB Sean Witherspoon, who collected nine tackles and one sack. Carl Gettis also had a strong debut, racking up eight stops to go along with one forced fumble. Witherspoon knows that this defense is a work in progress and can improve each week.

"We did OK, but we can definitely be a little better. There is always room for improvement, so we're just going to go out there and work hard this week and do what Coach Pinkel wants us to do. Hopefully we can come out this week and do a little bit better than we did last week."

Both teams were outstanding in their respective season-openers, but the Tigers seem to have far too much offensive firepower and with a home crowd behind them, look for the Tigers to push to 2-0 with an impressive win over the Falcons.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Missouri 37, Bowling Green 21