Self-inflicted setback

Gary Pinkel said he takes full blame for the Tigers’ 26-10 loss to Oklahoma.

Pinkel, however, wasn’t the one fumbling the ball, throwing interceptions, or being called for personal fouls that extended Sooner drives.

“This is not complex. You can’t make mistakes against good football teams like we did. You can’t,” coach Gary Pinkel said. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am, because I’m responsible for that, and I work my tail off so that stuff doesn’t happen.”

Pinkel said not making mistakes as the Tigers did against the Sooners was “Football 101.”

The errors started early for Missouri (7-2, 3-2). On the team’s third play of the game, right guard Monte Wyrick was called for a false start. It was the first of eight penalties in the game, which cost the Tigers a total of 75 yards. Many of the penalties came at costly times.

On the Tigers’ second series, tight end Chase Coffman couldn’t catch a wide-open pass from Daniel. Had Coffman made the catch, a clear lane to the end zone lie in front of him.

“I wasn’t concentrating enough,” Coffman said.

Daniel threw an interception to Zach Latimer on the next play. Oklahoma (6-2, 3-1) then drove 33 yards to score a touchdown on a 3-yard run by quarterback Paul Thompson.

One of Missouri’s most costly errors was a roughing the kicker penalty against Willie Moore in the third quarter. Coming out of the half, the Tigers stopped the Sooners then drove 66 yard on eight plays to score their only touchdown of the game on a 13-yard Daniel rush. The defense again stopped Oklahoma and forced them to punt, but Moore ran into Michael Cohen and was penalized 15 yards, giving Oklahoma a first down.

“Willie Moore said someone gave him a little push at the end that made him run into him (Cohen),” David Overstreet said. “But the punter did a good acting job too. I already knew they were going to throw the flag, so I just started to get ready to go back out there.”

Oklahoma took advantage of the drive-extending penalty by scoring a touchdown and taking away any momentum Missouri had.

Pinkel said that play was one of many momentum changers that didn’t favor the home team.

“You can look at that and say that was critical, but I can go back and pick out 25 other plays,” Pinkel said. “You don’t point to one play. It doesn’t work out that way.”

Moore did not participate in interviews because he suffered a concussion in the game.

One play that epitomized the game was Xzavie Jackson’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the fourth quarter. The Tigers stopped running back Jacob Gutierrez short of a first down on third and 10, but Jackson tackled him out of bounds and the subsequent 15-yard penalty continued the drive.

“I had him in the air already. There is not too much that I could do. Put him down or keep carrying him,” Jackson said. “What do you want me to do? I mean, shoot. I put him on the ground and that’s my job to do.”

Other Tigers mistakes included not scoring on first-and-goal from the Oklahoma 2, dropped passes and four false start penalties.

“We didn’t get things figured out,” Tyler Luellen, Missouri’s left tackle said of the false starts. “They brought a crowd and sometimes we couldn’t hear things.”

Though Pinkel took the blame for the loss, players acknowledge they are the ones making the plays on the field.

“We are a disciplined team. Coach Pinkel has worked on that in practice everyday and it was our fault that we came out here and gave up too many penalties," said Xzavie Jackson.

Missouri hasn’t defeated Oklahoma since 1998.