By Jim Suhr

The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Moments after Missouri turned a tight game against Ball State into a 41-6 blowout, second-year Tiger coach Gary Pinkel shook his head at his team's 2-0 start and the history behind it.

To the guy looking to improve on Missouri's 4-7 finish last season, the fact that the Tigers were unbeaten after two games for just the fourth time since 1983 defied belief.

Pinkel said he mentioned it to one of his assistants, and "he's looking at me like, 'You've got to be kidding me."'

In trying to restore confidence and respectability in the Tiger program, Pinkel said, "That's what we're dealing with."

"It's all attitude."

And on Saturday night against the Cardinals, Missouri found some swagger.

Clinging to a 7-6 halftime lead a week after upsetting Illinois 33-20, Pinkel noticed something different in the Tigers' lockerroom. Unlike last year, the coach noted, "there was no fingerpointing, no sulking" when a gut check was needed.

"Last year, I didn't think we handled adversity very well," Pinkel said. Saturday night, "it wasn't like that."

"As a team, everybody realized we can play better," sophomore linebacker James Kinney said. "It was on everybody to come out and play better."

What transpired left Ball State reeling.

Energized by redshirt freshman quarterback Brad Smith's dazzling 39-yard touchdown scramble, Missouri unloaded 27 third-quarter points -- more points than the Tigers scored in seven of their 11 games last season.

"Brad makes one big play, then everything ignites," Pinkel said. "The attitude changes, everything changes."

Justin Gage, who later caught a 2-yard TD pass from Smith, credited as a catalyst Smith's winding scamper after he skirted the sideline and shook off a would-be tackler, then broke inside and sprinted for the score.

"When he made that big run, it just set the tone for the second half," said Gage, who had 58 yards on five catches. "He really got us moving as a team."

The 18-year-old Smith has helped orchestrate Missouri's 2-0 start with a simple fact: Beyond his playmaking agility, he has yet to fumble, be intercepted or sacked.

"He did some good things," Pinkel said with a wry smile.

Reluctant to hype Smith's showing so far, Pinkel added, "He can get so much better. The reality of the football was in the first half, and it was very interesting to see how he responded."

Smith peeled off 105 yards on nine carries one week after rolling up a team-high 138 yards on the ground against Illinois. Late in the third quarter Saturday, his 34-yard rollout down the sideline set up his short TD pass to Gage.

"We chased him all over the field and never got him," Cardinals coach Bill Lynch said. "He has a presence out there. He wasn't an up-and-down guy. There might have been a dropped pass or we'd get a stop, (but) he never showed any emotion one way or the other. Then when he had his opportunity, he sure took advantage of it.

"He's got a great future ahead of him."

Zack Abron had two of his three short touchdown runs in the breakout third quarter for the Tigers, whose 437 yards of total offense matched their output against Illinois. Three of Missouri's second-half scoring drives took less than a minute.

Defensively, the Tigers forced and recovered four Cardinal fumbles and snagged an interception. Missouri's eight forced turnovers this season are seven fewer than the Tigers had all last year.

Against Ball State, two fumbles led to Missouri touchdowns.

"You can't turn the ball over like that," Cardinals quarterback Talmadge Hill lamented. "We gave them five and we didn't get any back. It was just a matter of us beating ourselves."

Pinkel, meanwhile, looks to this week's game against Bowling Green, with hopes of avenging last year's season-opening loss at home to the Falcons.

"We've got a long way to go to be a good football team," Pinkel said. We're somewhere in between. We've got to grind, and we've got a lot more work to do."