Before Saturday's game, Miami (OH) head coach Michael Haywood called Mizzou's passing game a "serious concern" while suggesting that it was the RedHawks run defense that was their strong suit.
"That is a serious concern," Miami head coach Michael Haywood said. "When you look at our defense, the best thing that we do is stop the run, try to make you one-dimensional. In their case, they want to throw it."
"We're just going to have to do some different things on defense because it's not our strong point, and they are fleet of foot out wide," said Haywood, whose pass defense ranks only 76th. "I mean, they are fast. And so we're going to have to do some things to confuse the quarterback," he said. "It is not a good matchup. We have to create (a good matchup) to level the playing field."
QB Blaine Gabbert passed just 21 times for 187 yards so it wasn't Mizzou's passing game that slowed them down. It was the run game -- Miami's strong suit.
Mizzou put up 236 yards rushing the ball. It didn't seem to matter who they put back there. Four different Mizzou backs scored a touchdown (along with QB Blaine Gabbert) and none of them had over 10 carries.