BOULDER, Colo. — Parched for a victory 36 days after their last, the Mizzou football team on Saturday at Folsom Field swigged — albeit with a hiccup — from what suddenly has become their oasis, aka the Colorado Buffaloes.

Amassing nearly as many points in the first half (33) as they had in their first three Big 12 games combined, the Tigers then stiff-armed away a Colorado rally to win 36-17 for their fifth win in the last six meetings against a program that previously had dominated the series.

The victory, MU's first in four tries in Big 12 play, was teed up by the first-half offensive binge but preserved by the defense, which muzzled the Buffaloes to 176 yards, plucked four turnovers and mauled quarterback Tyler Hansen for eight sacks, including a safety.

While the game may not exactly vault the Tigers (5-3 overall) back into the North division race, it revived hopes of at least competing for a third straight divisional title in the increasingly clumped and compacted standings.

Perhaps more significantly for the moment, it also simply rekindled MU's sense of itself as a winning program.

During coach Gary Pinkel's weekly address to the team Thursday night, one term that stuck with tailback Derrick Washington was, "Who do you want to be?"

More than anything else, the answer was simply not the one that had lost by a cumulative score of 101-36 in its first three conference games.

A loss to the Buffs (2-6, 1-3) could have sent the season spiraling out of control, and Pinkel acknowledged that in "the psychology of trying to win again (after this kind of slump), there's a lot of things that weigh on you."

"Talk about your backs against the wall," said Pinkel, who literally stood that way as he spoke. "You know how to handle it? Don't ever get here. ... Don't get to three losses in a row. Because a lot of times you don't ever get out of it."

Against a team Missouri had crushed by a combined score of 113-10 the last two seasons, the Tigers appeared to hoist their way out of it immediately on Saturday.

After scoring 27 points in its previous 10 quarters of play, Mizzou put up 21 in the first quarter as it drove for touchdowns on three of its first four drives — highlighted by Blaine Gabbert's 73-yard TD pass to Danario Alexander.

"(Alexander) can touch a football and change a game," said Pinkel, noting how often he has done it this season.

Grant Ressel's 29-yard field goal made it 24-0 midway through the second quarter, and Jarrell Harrison's tackle for a safety made it 26-0.

Then came holder Forrest Shock's fake field goal shovel pass to Jacquies Smith for a 24-yard TD with 4:03 left in the half.

It was the second TD of the season for Smith, a defensive end who ran back an interception for a score against Furman. Smith noted the perfect blocking on the play but beamed as he noted, "I had to wiggle a little bit."

But MU's considerable wiggle room started to fade as the Tigers continued their second-half offensive slump.

Ressel's field goal with 3:57 left gave MU a total of six points in the second halves of their four Big 12 games, and the Tigers haven't had a second-half touchdown since the end of the Nevada game — more than 130 minutes of play ago.

"We've got to fix that," Pinkel said. "You can't be that good and all of a sudden become that average."

After MU managed just 38 yards in the third quarter and Gabbert threw an interception returned for a touchdown, Mizzou's offense was so below par and seemingly risky that Pinkel said, "I'm the one who shut it down in the fourth quarter" as he just tried to drain clock and get home.

CU's comeback started humbly with a field goal at the end of the first half, gained traction with a TD drive to open the second and had full-fledged momentum after Benjamin Burney's 78-yard interception return of Gabbert cut it to 33-17 midway through the third quarter.

That came with Mizzou perched to administer a knockout after Aldon Smith's fumble recovery at the CU 35 and Gabbert's 16-yard run gave the Tigers a first down at the CU 15.

Then with momentum almost tangibly in Colorado's hands, the Buffs' next drive took them to the MU 14 with a second and 2. But the Tigers bristled on three straight Colorado runs to choke off the threat.

"That's as big as a turnover," said linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, who slammed CU's Rodney Stewart for a 2-yard loss on fourth and 1. "It kind of took the wind out of them."

And put some wind back beneath MU's sagging hopes.