With a discombobulated Mizzou team lagging behind Illinois 13-3 at halftime, Missouri coach Gary Pinkel took the Tigers into the locker room and 'soul-searched a bit."
Pinkel didn't divulge much of that message. But whatever he did to challenge and encourage the Tigers might well be considered an "adjustment" that his detractors like to say he's incapable of when MU sputters.
And whether it was strategic, emotional or both, it took:
Propped up by the defense clamping Illinois to 85 yards in the second half, MU seized the second 30 minutes with two Blaine Gabbert touchdown passes and two Grant Ressel field goals to beat fend off Illinois 23-13.
Extending tradition by exerting St. Louis-area influence on the Arch Rivalry game were Fort Zumwalt West graduates T.J. Moe and Carl Gettis.
In his starting debut, sophomore Moe had 13 catches for 101 yards, including a 7-yard TD pass from Gabbert (Parkway West) made possible by Gabbert's scramble left and Moe's presence of mind to settle into the corner of the end zone.
"Controlled chaos with some degree of a plan involved," Pinkel said, smiling.
Gettis, a senior cornerback, stretched for one of MU's three interceptions — the Tigers had eight all of last season — and downed a punt at the 1-yard line among other notable plays.
The occasion perhaps will add another layer to a handshake Moe and Gettis have been developing since high school.
Gettis gamely tried to explain the intricacies of the maneuver that ends with a 3-1-4 flashing of fingers in honor of the area code. Never mind that St. Charles County generally is a 6-3-6 area code.
"314 is a lot easier than 636," Gettis said, laughing. "I don't really know how we could do that."
What they did Saturday before 58,060 at the Edward Jones Dome completed a six-game St. Louis sweep in the series against Illinois, which now goes on hiatus.
Even if was unlike MU's 37-9 trampling of Illinois last year, a case could be made that MU got more out of having to grit it out.
"You're always tested, we all are, when we face adversity," said Pinkel, adding, "Anybody can do it when it's easy."
Call it coincidence, but those were the words Pinkel used as he walked out of the Mizzou athletics complex last Monday.
At the time he was speaking of what MU faced after an arduous August that featured four off-field issues, including the dismissal of tailback and co-captain Derrick Washington after he was charged with felony sexual assault.
While on Saturday Pinkel worked around questions about the impact those episodes may have had on MU, cornerback Kevin Rutland acknowledged them as part of the burden on the Tigers at the intermission.
"We had some off-the-field issues, we're down at halftime," he said. "You have to sit back and think about how bad do you want it.
"The answer was the second half."
On the defensive end, Mizzou cleaned up its assignments, forced third and longs and thus more passes than Illinois wanted freshman Nathan Scheelhaase to throw. As he ran for 82 yards in the first half, Scheelhaase completed five of eight with the pass as more supplemental than instrumental.
Unable to roam in the second half, managing minus-6 yards, he hit just four of 15 passes. Moreover, while MU was scorched by Illinois tailback Mikel LeShoure for runs of 42 and 26, LeShoure had just 44 yards on his other 18 carries.
Meanwhile, no sooner did MU hold the Illini to a three and out on the first series of the second half than the Tigers' offense came alive, driving 77 yards on 10 plays to cut it to 13-10 on Gabbert's pass to Moe.
The Tigers' next drive stalled at the Illinois 34, but MU snuffed Illinois out on downs and marched 69 yards on 10 plays to take a 17-13 lead on Gabbert's 6-yard TD pass to Michael Egnew (10 catches, 60 yards).
MU then had chances to administer a knockout but was forced to punt after Gettis' interception, settled for a field goal after reaching the Illinois 8 and had Kenji Jackson's interception return into Illinois territory called back to the MU 25 because of two major infractions on the same play.
"That's just not disciplined," said Pinkel, adding, "That game ... pretty much could have been over."
Then again, it could have been over at halftime.
"We just were killing ourselves," said Gabbert, who completed 34 of 48 passes for 281 yards, adding that Pinkel's perspective "really got to us, got to our hearts. And we had to dig deep into our guts to pull it out."
