COLUMBIA, Mo. -- On a team loaded with a talented array of offensive weapons, it's easy sometimes for the Missouri defense to become a forgotten element in the team's surprising success.
That hasn't been the case for coach Gary Pinkel, however. He calls his defensive unit one of the key building blocks in the Tigers' first Big 12 North Division championship.
"I think our defense has done just a phenomenal job," Pinkel said.
The defense's biggest stride has come in the last few weeks, as the unit bounced back from early struggles when it was easily the team's biggest question mark. After enduring several miserable performances before conference play began, the Tigers have rebounded to become one of the steadiest defenses in the Big 12 over the stretch run.
That confidence will be tested Saturday (ABC, 8 p.m. ET) in the Alamodome in San Antonio, where the Tigers will face Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game. The 11-1 Tigers will attempt to avenge their only loss of the season, as well as their worst defensive performance in conference play. A bid to the Bowl Championship Series title game is riding on it.
Such a finish was a pipe dream earlier in the season. The Tigers hung on for dear life in a 40-34 season-opening victory over Illinois, winning the game only after a pair of huge plays by strong safety Cornelius "Pig" Brown -- who produced a 100-yard fumble return for a touchdown and preserved the victory with a game-saving interception at the Missouri goal line with 51 seconds left.
It got worse from there. The Tigers were blistered for 534 yards by Mississippi and blindsided for 397 yards and 17 points by Division I-AA Illinois State, a team that ended up 4-7 in the Gateway Conference.
Those early struggles turned up the heat on Missouri defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, who opted to dial back his complex schematic plans in favor of a more simplistic defense after the sputtering start.
"We were happy about that," sophomore linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. "Early in the season we were doing a lot of stunting in our run defenses. Since then,
we've been playing in our gaps and not doing a lot of movement against the run. It's been a lot easier to follow and I think it's definitely helped us."
Pinkel has unique confidence in Eberflus, who has been with him since he played on Pinkel's team at Toledo in 1991.
"We remained very positive with our players, even when they were getting bashed after those first four games," Pinkel said. "Our idea was that we could fundamentally make ourselves better. We've just kept improving and staying positive and I think that helped us get where we are."
Senior nose tackle Lorenzo Williams knew the Tigers had more talent this season than any other defense he had played with. It was just a matter of time before the unit jelled, he said.
"We really didn't change much, we just kind of stuck together," Williams said. "How long it would take, we really didn't know. But we knew it would eventually click."
The Tigers have gradually improved in nearly every statistical category since conference play began. Missouri leads the Big 12 in total defense and sacks in conference games. The Tigers are second in pass efficiency defense, rush defense and turnover margin and third in scoring defense and pass defense.
The only clunker for the Tigers in Big 12 play was the game against Oklahoma. They struggled as the Sooners charged back for 18 unanswered points in the fourth quarter after Missouri took a lead.
"I remember how bad we felt after that game ended," Weatherspoon said. "We knew we could go back to the Big 12 championship and get a rematch. The big thing was in that game we didn't get off the field on third down. We've got to do a better job of that on Saturday."
Missouri allowed a season-worst 41 points in its only loss of the season. That game turned out to be a turning point for the Tigers.
"After that loss, we didn't dwell on the past," junior defensive end Stryker Sulak said. "We just wanted to put it behind us and come back and show what we could do."
In their first game after Oklahoma, the Tigers shackled Texas Tech's explosive offense in a 41-10 victory. Missouri produced a season-best four interceptions and limited the Red Raiders to minus-9 yards rushing in the dominating victory.
The strong play continued, even after Brown was lost for the season after he ruptured his Achilles tendon against Iowa State.
The loss of the two-time Big 12 defensive player of the week was expected to strip Missouri of its top playmaker. Instead, the rest of the lineup picked up the slack.
"When Pig went down, we could have laid down and folded up or used him as inspiration to keep this thing on the tracks," Weatherspoon said.
In a similar situation last season, Missouri cratered when top pass-rushing threat Brian Smith was lost for the season. The defense wore out as excitement about a 6-0 start eroded into a disappointing 8-5 finish.
"Last year, when Smitty went down, it was a huge blow to our team," quarterback Chase Daniel said. "After he went down, we started giving up a lot of rushing yards. And when Pig went down, the same thought went through my mind. But the guys have really stepped up."
One big reason for the recent spurt has been the play of junior free safety William Moore, who has taken over Brown's role as the prime playmaker in recent weeks.
Moore has produced an interception in each of the last four games without Brown. It's boosted his season total to seven, which leads the conference and matches the school record set by Roger Wehrli in 1968.
"He's become a high-level Big 12 player," Pinkel said of Moore. "I think [Brown] is a great influence on him, and the great thing about it is that although he's played good all year, he's played his best games since Pig went down."
Brown has remained a part of the team. The fiery leader has served as almost an extension of the coaching staff, exhorting his teammates from the sidelines.
"Pig wouldn't let us fall off," Williams said. "He's the driving force of everything that we do. He's still a motivator for us, even if he isn't out on the field."
The Tigers allowed Colorado only 84 rushing yards and a season-best 196 yards in a 55-10 blowout in Boulder. And they produced a bigger statement in their North clinching victory over Kansas last week.
An intense defensive performance limited the Jayhawks to 42 yards rushing -- their worst production in more than two seasons. Kansas had come into the game ranked 15th nationally in rushing and its previous rushing low for the season was 167 yards. Missouri didn't allow Kansas to score until midway through the third quarter and held the Jayhawks nearly 20 points below their per-game average in a 36-28 victory. The Jayhawks produced 42 yards on their first three possessions. And in three-straight trips in the red zone early in the game, Kansas missed two field goals and had an interception. Missouri used that momentum to surge to a 21-0 lead -- a deficit too great for Todd Reesing to overcome.
The Tigers gleaned confidence from that game and will arrive in San Antonio with a more assured nature since their first meeting with Oklahoma.
"After that, every guy on the defense just turned our level up," Weatherspoon said. "You can see it in our intensity. We're a different team now."
Tim Griffin covers the Big 12 for the San Antonio Express-News.