Colorado stays undefeated at home with win over Missouri

VIDEO PLAYLIST

• Colorado Blows Out Missouri

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Top 25 Overview

It was over when... After Missouri pulled within 24-12 early in the third, Colorado went on an 80-yard TD drive (aided by a roughing-the-punter call) to make the score 31-12. Gameball goes to... Colorado's Lawrence Vickers, who scored on four touchdown runs of 1, 2, 20 and 7 yards and finished with a career-high 85 yards on 18 carries. Stat of the game... 3,895: Indiana QB Antwaan Randle-El's career rushing mark, which was an NCAA record for a QB until Missouri's Brad Smith broke it against Colorado. Complete Top 25 Overview

The Fan Pick
	91.1% of College Pick'em players picked Colorado to win the game.

Team Stat Comparison
1st Downs	18	24
Total Yards	276	396
Passing	217	260
Rushing	59	136
Penalties	5-65	4-21
3rd Down Conversions	7-18	7-14
4th Down Conversions	2-4	0-0
Turnovers	2	1
Possession	25:25	34:35

Individual Leaders

Missouri Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT Smith 19/29 160 1 0 Daniel 8/15 57 0 1	Colorado Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT Klatt 23/31 253 1 0 Cox 1/1 7 0 0
Missouri Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Jackson 4 17 0 9 Smith 13 16 0 6 Temple 4 15 0 8	Colorado Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Vickers 18 85 4 20 Ellis 15 32 0 15 Robinson 1 24 0 24
Missouri Receiving   REC YDS TD LG Rucker 9 88 0 25 Coffey 8 55 0 13 Coffman 6 31 0 11 Franklin 2 31 1 18	Colorado Receiving   REC YDS TD LG Robinson 5 50 0 14 Sypniewski 4 49 1 17 Williams 4 27 0 9 Judge 3 73 0 38

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER				MIZZ	COLO
	TD	7:27	LAWRENCE VICKERS 1 YD RUN (MASON CROSBY KICK) Drive info: 7 plays, 94 yards.	0	7
	TD	3:26	WILLIAM FRANKLIN 18 YD PASS FROM BRAD SMITH (MISSED KICK) Drive info: 10 plays, 80 yards.	6	7
SECOND QUARTER				MIZZ	COLO
	TD	6:32	LAWRENCE VICKERS 20 YD RUN (MASON CROSBY KICK) Drive info: 8 plays, 82 yards.	6	14
	TD	5:10	LAWRENCE VICKERS 2 YD RUN (MASON CROSBY KICK) Drive info: 3 plays, 26 yards.	6	21
	FG	2:33	MASON CROSBY 56 YD FG Drive info: 6 plays, 14 yards.	6	24
THIRD QUARTER				MIZZ	COLO
	TD	13:39	JAMAR SMITH 12 YD DEFENSIVE FUMBLE RETURN (FAILED 2PT RUSH)	12	24
	TD	7:37	QUINN SYPNIEWSKI 6 YD PASS FROM JOEL KLATT (MASON CROSBY KICK) Drive info: 14 plays, 80 yards.	12	31
FOURTH QUARTER				MIZZ	COLO
	TD	14:48	LAWRENCE VICKERS 7 YD RUN (MASON CROSBY KICK) Drive info: 5 plays, 54 yards.	12	38
	FG	8:16	MASON CROSBY 43 YD FG Drive info: 6 plays, 33 yards.	12	41

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- He's part tailback, part fullback and 100 percent football player.

Lawrence Vickers proved that again Saturday, scoring four touchdowns to help No. 25 Colorado move closer to another division title with a 41-12 victory over Missouri.

Vickers normally does more blocking and pass catching than running, but when the Buffs decided right before kickoff that hurting tailback Hugh Charles couldn't go, Vickers got the call.

He ran for touchdowns of 1, 2, 20 and 7 yards for the Buffs (7-2, 5-1 Big 12) and finished with a career-high 85 yards on 18 carries.

"I was motivated," Vickers said. "I love carrying the ball."

Coach Gary Barnett said he offered Vickers a break from the special teams units he plays on, knowing his "V-back" -- the `V' stands for "versatile" -- would be getting extra work against the Tigers (5-4, 3-3).

Not surprisingly, Vickers declined.

"He's on punt return but he didn't want out. He's on punt coverage but he didn't want out of that," Barnett said. "He wanted to be in the game every snap and you love an attitude like that."

Vickers' super game was part of a great all-around performance for the Buffs, one Barnett called the most thorough he's seen this season.

Joel Klatt threw for 253 yards and a touchdown, Mason Crosby hit a 56-yard field goal and CU took a two-game lead over Missouri in the Big 12 North.

If the Buffs win next week at Iowa State, also 3-3 in the conference, they'll secure their fourth trip to the conference title game in the last five years.

Missouri, meanwhile, came into the game also controlling its destiny. But the Tigers fell flat, lost their second straight and now will probably focus more on getting another win to become bowl eligible rather than winning the division.

"Maybe they felt too much pressure. Maybe I did it," Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said.

CU lost to South Division leader Texas 42-17 earlier this year and, though it's hard to imagine the Buffs closing the gap enough to beat the second-ranked Longhorns, it's also hard not to believe Colorado has a rightful spot among the nation's upper class.

This game, against a contending Missouri team and its dynamic quarterback, Brad Smith, was supposed to a big test. As they have in every home game since their three-point win in the opener against Colorado State, the Buffs took a big lead early and left little doubt about who was the better team.

And when the Tigers briefly tried to make a game of it, the Buffs answered immediately -- the way good teams do.

Missouri pulled within 24-12 early in the third quarter when Stryker Sulak hit Klatt and forced a fumble, which Jamar Smith scooped up and ran 12 yards for a touchdown.

The Buffs responded with an 80-yard touchdown drive, helped tremendously by a roughing-the-punter call. On third-and-goal from the 6, Klatt rolled to his right, patiently waited for Quinn Sypniewski to shed a defender, then hit Sypniewski with a strike in the back of the end zone to make it 31-12.

That was the lone touchdown pass. The rest of the scores belonged to Vickers, who came one touchdown short of the school record. The Buffs ran for 170 yards after struggling on the ground for most of the past month -- averaging 80 yards over the last three games.

"Coach said the only way we'd have a chance to beat Texas is if we run the ball better," Vickers said. "He called us out on that, and when he calls us out, we had to respond."

The defense was good, too.

Smith, he of the 246-yard rushing game two weeks ago in a win over Nebraska, got the 5 yards he needed to break Antwaan Randle-El's NCAA record for yards rushing by a quarterback (3,895). But overall, he was held in check, throwing for 160 yards and running for 16 more, as the Mizzou offense managed the single touchdown and no other real threats.

"I didn't even know," Smith said of the record. "Winning is the most important thing in the world to me, as far as the game goes."

Crosby, meanwhile, made his 10th career field goal from 50 yards or longer. Last week, he booted a 50-yarder in the final seconds for a 23-20 victory at Kansas State.

This time, after Klatt threw incomplete on third-and-6 from the Missouri 39, Buffs fans actually started cheering, anticipating another long try from the strong-legged kicker. Crosby didn't disappoint. When his kick went over the crossbar, the ball was still above the top of the uprights -- a shot that might have been good from 80 yards in the thin Boulder air.

"No," was all Barnett said when asked if he thought twice about the 56-yard attempt.