Recent News | Popular News | Subscribe

FACTS & STATS: Site: Mackay Stadium (31,545) -- Reno, Nevada. Television: ESPN. Home Record: Missouri 2-0, Nevada 0-0. Away Record: Missouri 0-0, Nevada 0-2. Neutral Record: Missouri 1-0, Nevada 0-0. Conference Record: Missouri 0-0, Nevada 0-0. Series Record: Missouri leads, 1-0.

GAME NOTES: Getting the spotlight all to themselves on Friday night, the Nevada Wolf Pack will host the Missouri Tigers in a non-conference affair at Mackay Stadium.

Nevada, which was supposed to be one of the favorites to challenge for the title in the Western Athletic Conference, has started out extremely slow with back-to-back losses against non-conference opponents. The team was dealt an ugly 35-0 setback by Notre Dame in South Bend to kick off the 2009 slate and then followed that up last week with a 35-20 loss at Colorado State, the team's third straight defeat stretching back to last season.

As for the Tigers, they have won their first three games of the season, and four in a row overall, but the squad has yet to be truly tested. Wins over Illinois and Bowling Green were followed by a 52-12 blowout of Furman last weekend. Missouri will have a better understanding of how strong it is beginning in two weeks when it opens the Big 12 Conference portion of its schedule versus Nebraska at home.

Last season, the Tigers completely shredded Nevada in an unsightly 69-17 decision in the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the gridiron.

Beating up on the Paladins isn't exactly the best way for the Tigers to throw a scare into future opponents, but Missouri couldn't help but run away with the 40-point win last Saturday. Granted, the Tigers did call off the dogs at the break when they held a 42-0 edge, thanks to quarterback Blaine Gabbert who converted 17-of-25 passes for 256 yards and three touchdowns. Gabbert also posted one of the team's two rushing TDs as well, while Jared Perry and Danario Alexander both scored a pair of receiving touchdowns in the outing. Even though he is in a league where top-notch quarterbacks rule the roost, Gabbert is slowly making a name for himself, having completed better than 68 percent of his pass attempts, averaging nearly 250 ypg through the air. Better yet, the signal-caller has tossed eight touchdowns in the first three games and has yet to be picked off. With an average of 103 ypg receiving and four touchdowns, Perry has made himself into one of the top wideouts in the Big 12 early on.

Once the Tigers opened up such a huge lead over Furman last weekend, the defense for the home team was able to sit back and relax. While the unit did surrender close to 400 yards, the bottom line was that Missouri permitted just two touchdowns on drives that were at least 75 yards in length. Will Ebner was credited with a game-high nine tackles for the Tigers, while Andrew Gachkar came up with the lone sack of the contest for the home team. Not to be overlooked was Jacquies Smith who returned an interception 43 yards for a TD in the second quarter as well. Jacquies Smith has a total of just 10 tackles through the first three games of the season, yet he has made a sizeable impact by logging 1.5 sacks and is second behind only Aldon Smith who has two sacks and four tackles for loss in his first year of college football. Standing at the top of the tackles list for the unit at the moment is Sean Witherspoon who is among the league leaders with close to 10 stops per outing.

For all the hoopla surrounding Nevada's pistol offense, it really hasn't made enough of an impression yet in 2009. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick was one of the nation's top offensive threats last season, but this year he has started off slow and has shown moments of disgust trying to operate the squad. Against Colorado State the signal-caller converted 25-of-38 passes for 251 yards and a score, but he was also picked off twice and finished with a mere 24 yards rushing on seven attempts. Vai Taua handled the bulk of the carries for the Pack versus CSU, coming up with 95 yards and two scores, but it wasn't nearly enough. Taua is currently third in the conference in rushing with his 104.5 ypg and has both of the unit's rushing scores in as many games, but the real concern is the lack of production by Kaepernick who has just 63 yards on 17 attempts. Granted, the quarterback has had to perform more like a traditional signal-caller in order to try and get the Pack back into contention against the first two opponents of the season, but his one TD against four interceptions has not done the trick.

With the Nevada offense struggling in the first half last Saturday, the defense was left to keep the Rams under control, but that failed to become a reality. In fact, CSU logged a pair of touchdowns in the first 13 minutes of the contest and never had reason to fear the Pack, even as the visitors scored a pair of touchdowns in the final 3:08 of the fourth frame. As one of the top defenders in the WAC this season, Kevin Basped stepped up with one of the team's two sacks, but with just three overall stops he didn't make enough of an impact. Mike Bethea totaled nine stops and the other sack for the program, while Dontay Moch registered a pair of TFLs. What the Pack was unable to do was come up with a forced turnover and that's why the team as a whole is now 120th in the nation in turnover margin with a minus-4.0 turnovers per game. Having been picked apart by Notre Dame, the program that is first in the nation in pass efficiency, it should come as little surprise that Nevada is again last in the nation in pass efficiency defense with a rating of 231.59.

Perhaps being at home the Pack will get a lift from a favorable crowd, but unless Nevada can strike early and gain some confidence, the squad might have to settle for yet another loss

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Missouri 45, Nevada 27