Gabe DeArmond posted on September 19, 2009 17:13
For half a quarter, the Missouri Tigers looked a lot like the team that let Bowling Green nearly walk out of Columbia a winner last week. For the next quarter-and-a-half, they looked like exactly what they were: A team facing a severely overmatched opponent. The Tigers beat the Football Championship Subdivison Furman Paladins 52-12, but the final 20 minutes of the first half were all that really mattered.
Missouri scored 42 points in the final 19 minutes, 47 seconds of the first half and put their third win of the season away before the break. Blaine Gabbert threw for 235 
yards and three scores in the first two quarters and ran 40 yards for another touchdown as Missouri raced to a 42-0 lead.
“We started a little bit slow on offense again, which was disappointing,” Gary Pinkel said. “But the first half, we had pretty good focus and pretty good execution.”
But it was Gabbert's receiving corps that really stole the show. Jared Perry caught seven passes for 161 yards and two scores in the first half, including touchdowns of 40 and 48 yards on back-to-back offensive snaps. The first was thrown by fellow receiver Danario Alexander. The senior added two touchdown catches of his own before the break, becoming the first Tiger to both catch and throw a touchdown since Chase Coffman in the 2006 Sun Bowl loss.
“I thought Danario would throw a little bit better spiral than that,” Pinkel said. “He did in practice.”
One of Alexander's teammates said he could heave a ball 60 yards in the air.
“I could probably throw it 80,” he said when told of the praise.
So why isn't he starting at quarterback?
“Cause we got Blaine Gabbert,” Alexander said. “He can probably throw it 82.”
Gabbert threw it a little bit on Saturday. The sophomore started just 1-for-5 for six yards, but complete 13 of his last 16 first-half passes for 229 yards and three scores.
“I'm really excited about him as a quarterback,” Pinkel said. “His poinse, his 
toughness, his competitiveness. He's got a lot going for him.”
Not to be outdone, the Tiger defense had some fun as well. Jacquies Smith officially turned the game into a route with an interception that he returned 43 yards for a touchdown to make the score 35-0. Furman averaged just 3.5 yards per play in the first half and did not score despite holding the ball for more than 20 minutes and running 11 more plays than Missouri. In fact, the Tiger offense averaged a point for every 16.3 seconds of possession time in the opening two quarters.
The second half was a mere formality as Missouri gave its backups plenty of time on the field. The Paladins put up some offensive numbers and got on the scoreboard, but by the time that happened, the game was more than decided.
Mizzou has a short week this week as they travel to Reno to face the Nevada Wolfpack in a nationally televised game on Friday night.
Gabe DeArmond is the publisher of PowerMizzou.com, the Missouri site on the Rivals.com network. You can read his daily coverage of the Tigers online at http://missouri.rivals.com.