30 Years, 30 Games, 30 Days: #21
Missouri goes in front of the press to preview the 2017 football season on July 13. To lead up to the unofficial kickoff of the college football season, PowerMizzou.com will take a look back at the 30 best Tiger games in the last 30 years.
In the course of compiling this list, there was no set criteria. I looked at the most memorable games, the most entertaining games, the most important games to the program at the time. All of these factored in when I put together the list. It is an entirely subjective list sure to inspire plenty of disagreement.
We continue the countdown today with Game No. 21.
No. 17 Missouri 41, No. 25 Nebraska 6 -- Columbia, MO -- October 6, 2007
Missouri had already beaten Nebraska. In fact, they'd done it twice. But this one was different.
In 2003, Missouri had used a fake field goal and a big fourth quarter to spur a 41-24 victory over the Huskers. In 2005, they'd beaten Nebraska by the same score. But this one, this was domination from the jump.
Mizzou jumped out 14-0 on a one-yard run by Chase Daniel and a six-yard pass from Daniel to Chase Coffman. The teams traded field goals for the rest of the first half and Mizzou led 20-6 at the break.
After halftime, Daniel ran for another touchdown and threw for another one. Tommy Saunders hit Martin Rucker for a score on a trick play. The end result was a 41-6 whooping that left no doubt who the new team in charge of the Big 12 North would be.
Daniel threw for 401 yards and ran for 72. He accounted for four touchdowns and no turnovers. He launched his Heisman campaign and had plenty of help.
WHY IT'S ON THE LIST: Missouri lost to Nebraska 24 times in a row from 1979-2002. They'd won two of the last four. But on this night, there was no doubt. They hadn't just beaten Nebraska. They were better. By a lot. The game moved Mizzou to 5-and-0 an into the top 10. They would lose at Oklahoma the next week and then reel off six straight wins to clinch a bid in the Big 12 Championship game, which they would play as the nation's No. 1 team. It all started on this Saturday night with a beatdown of the big, bad Big Red.