Tigers pass real test

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. ­— This was the type of game where Missouri teams of the past would have tripped up.

On the road against a nonconference opponent, this had all the makings of a game that coach Gary Pinkel’s previous teams would have failed in. But Saturday’s victory against New Mexico was different.

“A lot of teams in the past, and I’ve head coached a lot of them, that when it got tough like that in the fourth quarter, we wouldn’t have responded well,” Pinkel said. “So I feel great about this victory knowing we can certainly become a better team.”

It was the first game this season where the Tigers truly faced any adversity. It was easy to look good at home against Division I-AA Murray State and a rebuilding Mississippi team. The real test came when New Mexico cut the Tigers’ lead to three and had momentum on its side.

“It’s great when you’re winning by 35 points going into the fourth quarter,” Pinkel said. “Anybody can do that. That’s easy. It showed a lot of character on our part to be able to get focused up and make some plays on both sides of the football in order to win.

It was the type of test Chase Daniel said before the game that he wanted. The response didn’t come until the fourth quarter, when he helped engineer two touchdown drives.

“I think it broke their will,” Daniel said. “They kept coming at us and coming at us. We had so many chances down in the red zone and we’ve seen it in Game 1 and 2 and that’s something we need to continue to improve on.”

TEMPLE’S BIG DAY: The potential that has surrounded Tony Temple for so long is starting to materialize.

Somewhat lost in the defense’s eight sacks and Ziggy Hood’s broken foot was Temple’s career-high 168 yards running in Saturday’s victory. Thanks to that performance, Temple is ranked second in the Big 12 Conference in rushing with his 119 yards per game.

But Temple’s day wasn’t all good. He did have a fumble that rolled into the end zone and was recovered by New Mexico. But, like the rest of the team, he responded with his performance. He rushed for 69 yards in the fourth quarter, including a 27-yard run that setup the final Missouri score.

“You’ve just got to flush it,” Temple said. “When bad things happen you’ve got to flush it and move on. I’m just so happy the coaches didn’t give up on me and they had my back. That was the best thing about it.”

Daniel said the team didn’t focus on the fumble and said he was proud of Temple.

“If you run for 168 we’ll be fine,” Daniel said. “He kept his head up and he wanted the ball.”

TURNOVERS: The Tigers continued to struggle Saturday with converting points off turnovers.

Missouri’s defense forced three turnovers in the second quarter, an interception by freshman Del Howard and two fumbles that sophomore Brock Christopher and senior Brian Smith forced. The Tigers, however, only managed to score three points, redshirt-freshman Jeff Wolfert’s 36-yard field goal with 23 seconds left in the half, off those turnovers. On the other two turnovers the offense punted and turned the ball over after Daniel failed to convert on a fourth-and-one.

“We got stifled in the second quarter,” Pinkel said of his team’s failure to convert on turnovers. “We didn’t do some of the things we needed to do and you give their defense credit. They did a good job. They kept coming after us and I was impressed. I thought their kids played hard.”

New Mexico was more efficient than Missouri, scoring 10 points off two Tiger turnovers.

For the season, Missouri has scored only 17 points off eight turnovers, while opponents have scored 24 points off five the Tigers’ five turnovers.

RECORD WATCH: Smith, Missouri’s career sack leader with 30, is four sacks away from tying the Big 12 career record of 34.

Against New Mexico, Smith had four sacks for a total loss of 34 yards, which tied a school record for sacks in a game. Smith had a chance to be the lone record holder when he got a hand on Lobos’ quarterback Chris Nelson in the team’s final drive of the game, but Nelson slipped away from Smith.

“Ah, man. Don’t even remind me dog,” said Smith of the would-be sack. “I wanted to get it, but I ain’t going to say that I was tired because we might have to do a little bit more running. But he just slipped out of my hand.”

After three games, Smith leads the nation with six sacks.