How Do You Make Ground Buffalo? You Crush 'Em

It's been awhile since I've had a Megadeth reference in a post, but last night's 55-10 dismantling of the Colorado Buffaloes at the hands of the impressive Missouri Tigers forced my hand.  Well, it wasn't really "forced."  The reference just fit the beatdown Mizzou put on Coach Dan Hawkins' Buffs.

Early on it seemed that the game would go the route of so many other Tiger visits to Folsom Field.  On the second play of the game, Chase Daniel threw an ill-advised short pass into traffic that was intercepted by George Hypolite, which he ran back to the Tigers 11.  Three plays later it was 7-0 Buffs. 

The Tigers tied it up on their next series with help from two things recently missing from the Tigers' offense:  Will Franklin and the deep pass.  Daniel found Franklin running down the right sideline and hit him for a 72 yard gain for a 1st and goal.  They punched it in from there to tie the score.

Numerous dropped passes in the first quarter and a blocked punt had me thinking that this was going to be one of those head-scratching games.  The block set up Colorado for what turned out to be its last points of the game.  It seemed that the Tigers couldn't get out of their own way, but thankfully for the MU offense, the Pigless defense played snout stoutly and kept the Buffaloes from putting doubt in the Tigers' collective mind.  After that dubious first-quarter start by the offense, they dominated the rest of the way.

But, oh, the defense... the maligned defense.  They held the Buffs to 196 yards of total offense, picked off a pass, and forced five fumbles, two of which they recovered.  CU's two scores came after the Tiger defense was put in bad positions first by the interception and then by the punt block.  This defensive squad, unlike last year's squad that lost its mojo when its defensive leader, Brian Smith, went down with a career-ending injury in the 8th game of the season, did not miss a beat.  In fact, it played as well as it has at any point this season.

So who is the best team in the Big XII North:  Kansas or Mizzou?  It's definitely a two-team race headed for a Turkey Day weekend showdown at Arrowhead Stadium (too bad I had to turn down the offer of tickets) between the 9-0 Chickenhawks and the 8-1 Tigers.  Can the Tigers flip the birds? 

The 76-39 drubbing that the Beakers put on the Big XII bottom feeders suggested the Beaks might be marginally better than the Tigers.  Buff fans have now seen them both.  They saw the Beaks beat the Buffs by a 19-14 score two weeks ago.  Last night it was the Tigers' turn to pound the Buffs.  A 55-10 beatdown on the road has me thinking along the lines of Terry Frei of the Denver Post:

But even those who left the stadium early almost certainly walked away thinking that Missouri is head and shoulders better than Kansas, and that they had seen one of the best quarterbacks in the nation put on a show.