Too Many Mistakes, Says Bo

TOO MANY MISTAKES, SAYS BO

By Wayne DeNeff

Michigan Football Coach Bo Schembechler summed up real quick the reason the Wolverines lost to Missouri, 40-17.

“You just can’t turn the ball over that many times and expect to win,” said Schembechler, referring to four fumbles and one interception given up to the Tigers. Then he went on:

“Missouri’s a very good football team, don’t take anything away from them. But it was the poorest performance, mistake-wise, I’ve ever had—that part is disgusting.

“We didn’t block up front and we didn’t give (quarterback) Don Moorhead any protection. We had the men open.”

Schembechler called the blocked punt, which later resulted in a key field goal for the Tigers, “a sin.”

“It gave them a field goal and forced us to gamble on defense. They didn’t even have a block play on.”

While crediting Missouri with a fine performance, Schembechler said the Tigers weren’t as much better as the score would indicate. “Not 40-17 by a long shot,” the coach said.

“The second quarter was a nightmare,” Schembechler continued, “and I wouldn’t have believed it unless I was there. There was nothing wrong with our effort but our execution was terrible.”

Schembechler said the blocked punt and Joe Moore 62-yard touchdown run after Michigan had closed the gap to 24-17 “took us out of it.”

The Michigan offense, which had rolled up 1,004 yards in its first two games, left much to be desired. The ground attack netted only 82 yards. The Tigers, almost forming an eight-man line, moved quickly into the holes and tackled furiously. The Missouri rush kept Moorhead off balance and he completed only 7 of 19 passes. When Moorhead’s passes were completed, the Tigers in the secondary moved up real fast to prevent long gains.

Michigan air attack netted 99 yards.

Missouri picked up 210 yards on the ground and 124 yards via the airlines for a 334 total.

Missouri, still unbeaten in three games, will open its Big Eight campaign against Nebraska in Columbia. Michigan, 2-1, will take on unbeaten Purdue here Saturday in its Big Ten opener. The Boilermakers held off a Texas Christian rally to win, 42-35, in their opener. Then they bounced Notre Dame, 28-14, and look better than ever in view of the way the Irish slapped a 42-28 loss on Michigan State. Yesterday, Purdue edged highly-regarded Stanford, 36-35.

The game had been billed as a battle of tailbacks and quarterbacks and Missouri’s Moore and Terry McMillan had the better of it. Moore rushed for 117 yards in 19 tries and Glenn Doughty had 72 yards in 22 carries. Both backs took a lot of hard tackling but continued to run well. Moorhead was left with a minus 22 yards rushing. Jim Betts, who was given a chance at quarterback in the fourth quarter because he has been doing so well in practice, completed three of eight passes for 31 yards. McMillan finished with a minus eight yards rushing and had seven completions in 12 attempts for 120 yards.