COLUMBIA, MO. — If Colorado never faces Missouri again, it will be too soon.
Missouri extended its dominance over the visiting Buffaloes to five years, this time with the No. 24 Tigers cruising to a 26-0 victory Saturday night at Faurot Field in the Big 12 opener for both teams.
Heading to the Pac-10 Conference next season, Colorado (3-2, 0-1 Big 12) finishes its league series against the Tigers (5-0, 1-0) with five consecutive losses — by an aggregate score of 203-40, including two shutouts.
“We’d love to play them again,” cornerback Kevin Rutland said. “But today was a great parting gift.”
The Buffs have now lost 15 straight games outside the state of Colorado, dating back to a 2007 victory at Texas Tech.
CU quarterback Tyler Hansen was pulled at the end of the third quarter, and senior Cody Hawkins directed the Buffs to the Missouri 17 early in the fourth quarter. However, the Buffs were turned away when Hawkins was sacked on fourth-and-12 from the Missouri 22. Hawkins was 3-of-6 on the drive, including a pass broken up in the end zone.
“It’s so funny that everybody talks about the road,” Cody Hawkins said. “We made Missouri look a lot better than they were.”
After Hawkins’ interception, Missouri went 70 yards on the ensuing drive, which was capped by backup quarterback James Franklin’s 7-yard TD pass to Michael Egnew for a 26-0 lead with just over 9 minutes to play. Tigers starting QB Blaine Gabbert was hit hard late in the third quarter and did not return.
“I don’t think it was so much of what Tyler was not doing, just trying to get something going a little bit,” Hawkins said. “A little spark to get something going.”
Hawkins said Hansen would start next week at home against Baylor.
Colorado had talked all week about avoiding early mistakes. But before the game was 25 minutes old, the Buffs had already committed a safety, had a punt partially deflected, missed a field goal, allowed Missouri to get a first down on a fake punt, yielded an easy 30-yard pitch-and-catch touchdown on a busted coverage and had a field-goal attempt blocked.
The penalty put Colorado down 2-0. And favorable field position given to Missouri on the exchange enabled the Tigers to tack on a field goal and a 30-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Blaine Gabbert to Jerrell Jackson for a 12-0 lead with 10:40 left before halftime.
CU linebacker B.J. Beatty bumped Jackson just off the line of scrimmage and then Beatty, obviously thinking he had help deep, stayed home to watch for a quarterback scramble and let Jackson go. But nobody was near Jackson.
The Tigers were up by 12-0 at that point, it but it felt like 28-0. That was good news for the Buffs – but only if Colorado could get something going offensively. It couldn’t. And CU’s defense, which had kept the visitors in the game to that point, finally wore down. Backed up on its 3 yard line after blocking a field-goal attempt by freshman Justin Castor, Missouri moved downfield with remarkable precision and ease.
During one stretch of the 15-play, 97-yard touchdown drive, Missouri moved the chains for first downs on seven of 10 plays.
Colorado came out wanting to pound the ball on the ground. That strategy had worked a week earlier against Georgia, but Missouri was ready for it. Colorado netted just 28 rushing yards on 16 carries in the first half.
Poor field position had been a chronic problem for Colorado in recent games against Missouri, and once again the Tigers backed up the Buffs. CU’s first three possessions began at its own 2, 1 and 20 yard lines.
On CU’s second possession, Buffs quarterback Tyler Hansen took the snap in the end zone and, feeling pressure, threw the ball away toward the Colorado bench. Trouble was, no CU receiver was in the vicinity and officials threw flagged Hansen for a safety, which is a spot-of-infraction penalty.
Missouri had pounded Colorado in the last four meetings by an average score of 44-10, by 50-9 in the past three. Though not looking quite as ugly on the scoreboard, this one might have belt just as bad because Colorado may have its most talented team in five seasons under coach Dan Hawkins.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
