Missouri-Nebraska: Key Matchups Worth Discussing in this Big 12 Brawl

Thursday evening's battle between No. 24 Missouri and No. 21 Nebraska features no shortage of intrigue off the field.

Nebraska, in seeking its first win in Columbia since 2001, will try to exact a little payback for last season's 52-17 embarrassment in Lincoln. Missouri would love a triumph over a resurgent Huskers program to validate its staying power among the nation's elite.

And then there's the little soap opera involving Tiger quarterback Blaine Gabbert—the one-time Nebraska commit who switched allegiances amid the toppling of the Bill Callahan regime.

Albeit historically lopsided, the series between these two teams has built up intensity over recent seasons. What was once a laughable Big 8 walkthrough for Nebraska—which holds a 63-36 advantage thanks to a 24-game winning streak from 1979-2002—has suddenly morphed into a clash that has the potential to decide the Big 12 North for years to come.

But enough intangibles. What storylines can we look forward to on the field? What individual matchups will determine who gets the early leg up in the division?

Truth is, between two teams as seemingly equal as these, there's too many of critical nature to discuss in just one article. But I'll do my best to narrow the field down to a simple pair.

The Interior of Missouri's Offensive Line vs. Ndamukong Suh

Actually, this matchup pretty much goes without saying. For if Missouri's underachieving offensive line can't hold the point of attack against arguably the best defensive player in the Big 12, it will be a frustrating night for the Tigers and their throng of gold-clad supporters.

Credit is due across the board for the Huskers' noticeably stingy performance, but the nation's top defense resides in Lincoln because of Suh. Equally disruptive against the pass and run, the 6'4", 300-pounder uses tremendous strength to shed multiple blockers and an agility not exactly befitting of his stature to pursue quarterbacks and ball-carriers.

In short, he is the lifeblood of the Nebraska defense. Suh's ability to wreak havoc on opposing offenses gives offensive coordinators headaches, yet it affords his teammates the chance to make plays if he becomes too much of a focal point—thus elevating the play of the entire defense.

In order to adequately neutralize Suh, the Missouri offensive line has to perform exponentially better than it did during the team's 4-0 start.

Largely responsible for the Tigers' shoddy running game, the line—particularly the interior of left guard Austin Wuebbels, center Tim Barnes, and right guard Kurtis Gregory—should have worked off some of the early season rust during the bye week, but it will take an all-around solid night's work to ward off Suh and the rest of Nebraska's defensive line.

No drastic changes in Missouri's run-blocking scheme seem to be forthcoming, so expect more of the same slow-developing read options that the Tigers have managed to execute with success in the past.

And that means offensive coordinator David Yost and head coach Gary Pinkel will rely upon the lateral quickness of the aforementioned trio to target and engage blockers in space, which may often leave Suh, who leads Nebraska in tackles this season, matched up one-on-one with either Barnes or one of the two guards.

Still, it will be interesting to see if Yost attempts to negate Suh's quickness along the line of scrimmage by running right at him, between the tackles, and by putting added pressure on the offensive linemen to hold their ground and drive defenders off the ball—both of which have proven to be tall tasks this season.

During the offseason, Missouri altered its blocking scheme to fit more of a zone system, which included shortening up the massive splits that the MU O-line of past seasons used to feature. And the result has been a slightly more compact formation that has yet to produce significant creases in the defense.

Beginning with Suh, if the Tigers are able to hold their blocks up front against the NU defensive line, lanes for cutbacks will begin to form for the backs and the running game can sustain some success.

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