LINCOLN, Neb. - Early in the season, there were hints that this Missouri football team was different, better, than what we’ve seen in previous autumns. The Tigers won road games at New Mexico and Texas Tech and handled the lowlifes on the schedule without incident. They showed signs of being a complete team, with a balanced offense and an opportunistic defense.

Gerik Parmele photo

Missouri running back Tony Temple is pulled down by Tierre Green and Adam Carriker (90) after a 7-yard run and a first down. Temple rushed 18 times for 99 yards in Missouri’s 34-20 loss.   • See the Slide Show

Without a dominant opponent in the Big 12 North Division, maybe this was finally time for the Tigers to abandon the middle of the pack and do something memorable for a change.

Or not.

Yesterday’s 34-20 loss to Nebraska ended any realistic hope of a Big 12 North title for Missouri. It’s not so much that the Tigers can’t win the big one - they can’t win the medium one that sets up the big one. They seem most comfortable when on a trajectory that might logically lead to a holiday in, say, Shreveport or El Paso.

The disappointment is that even when Missouri (7-3, 3-3) has a pleasantly surprising team and the rest of the North Division is down, the Tigers can’t seriously contend for a Big 12 title. The law of averages just doesn’t apply at Missouri, which hasn’t won a conference football title since 1969.

Sorry we got your hopes up.

This was the third loss in four games. All three were ABC regional broadcasts, leading me to believe many fine Midwesterners without cable are convinced the bumbling Tigers they see every week are the worst team in the nation.

They’re not, of course. They are about what they were in 2003 and 2005, which is neither bad nor exceptional. They are exceeding the preseason expectations of the media, who picked them fifth in the North, but not breaking much new ground.

Coming off a deflating loss to Oklahoma last week, Missouri desperately needed a fast start to regain some confidence and quiet a record Memorial Stadium crowd of 85,197. Quite the opposite happened. The Tigers went three-and-out on their first three possessions, and the third ended when Adam Carriker intercepted an inside screen pass that Will Franklin bobbled.

The score was quickly 17-0, and Missouri never got closer than 14 points thereafter.

What happened? Chase Daniel said that he expected to be blitzed all day and instead faced mostly three- and four-man rushes. Daniel was uncharacteristically inaccurate early, missing a wide-open Brad Ekwerekwu in the end zone in the second quarter.

Missouri seemed determined to run the ball after abandoning it last week - unsuccessfully running it on third-and-7 and third-and-10 plays in the first half - but as was the case in the previous losses to Texas A&M and OU, the Missouri offense spent the majority of the game on the sideline. Nebraska (7-3, 4-2) held a 10-minute edge in time of possession, and the Tigers only got one series in the third quarter.

With the benefit of only one takeaway, Missouri’s defense couldn’t get off the field. Defensive backs were in the neighborhood of Nebraska receivers, but when the ball was in the air, it was the Cornhuskers who went after it. Nebraska gashed the Tigers with screen and swing passes, and Brandon Jackson became the fifth back in the last four games to surpass 100 rushing yards against MU.

After the game, Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel and his players cited the Tigers’ efforts to rally from a 27-6 halftime deficit as proof that this team is different from those of years past. That argument is a reach. Nebraska has a history of coughing up leads and is nobody’s definition of a dominant team, and this game’s outcome was never in much doubt.

"We’ll stick to what we do and continue to build," Pinkel said. "We still can have a great season."

Great? Nah. Good? Sure.

Enjoy your off week, take care of Iowa State - which quit about six weeks ago - and beat Kansas at home. That’s a 9-3 regular season. Raise your hand if you would have considered that disappointing in August. It’s just not what seemed possible when Missouri was 6-0 after pounding Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Everything in moderation, nothing to excess. Greatness will have to wait.