Missouri football Coach Gary Pinkel and his staff had been preaching the same message to sophomore receiver Jerrell Jackson for weeks, and the gist of it was this: You can do more.

The emphasis behind it only increased last week after senior wideout Jared Perry suffered a broken tibia in the Tigers’ victory over Kansas State, robbing MU’s offense of its most consistent playmaker aside from record-setting receiver Danario Alexander.

It seems Jackson is finally starting to answer those pleas. He followed up a six-catch, 78-yard performance against the Wildcats by hauling in eight passes for 142 yards — both career highs — including a 70-yard third-quarter touchdown that helped Missouri recover from a seven-point halftime deficit en route to a 34-24 victory over Iowa State yesterday afternoon on Faurot Field.

“We knew we needed a guy to step up because Perry went down, and he stepped up big-time today,” said Alexander, who still led the Tigers’ aerial assault with 11 catches for 173 yards, pushing his season total to an MU-record 1,411 yards.

But before Jackson could have his big day, he had to overcome a big mistake. Missouri was driving into Cyclones territory late in the second half when sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert hit Jackson with a 10-yard pass into the flat on third down. The Houston native easily had enough to move the chains but let Cyclones cornerback Leonard Johnson pry the ball loose.

Iowa State’s Fred Garrin recovered with 59 seconds remaining, which proved to be more than enough time for the Cyclones to move 66 yards for the go-ahead score.

Jackson, who also juggled and eventually dropped a wideout pass in the first quarter, suggested he might have been trying too hard to make something happen in Perry’s absence.

“That was on my mind the whole week,” he said. “That first half, that’s probably why I was having trouble. I was thinking too much. I did a lot of thinking about, ‘I’ve got to do this for the seniors.’ Coming out in the second half, I just had to calm down.”

He got a brief pep talk from some of his veteran teammates in the locker room at halftime to make sure he wasn’t too down on himself and didn’t have to wait long for his shot at redemption.

Missouri forced Iowa State to punt on the opening series of the second half and took over at its own 19. On the third play from scrimmage, after a first-down throw to Alexander, Gabbert heaved the ball deep down the Iowa State sideline. Jackson ran right past Johnson in man-to-man coverage to pull in the pass then cruised to the end zone for a 70-yard touchdown, only the second of his career.

“No matter who it was going to, it was going deep,” Jackson said of the touchdown play. “When I saw the ball go up, I just knew I had to go up and go get it.”

Jackson wasn’t finished. His block helped spring Alexander on the outside, and the senior sprinted 63 yards down the sideline for a touchdown as Missouri grabbed a 24-17 advantage with 8:19 left in the third quarter. He later caught three other passes, including a key 4-yard grab early in the fourth quarter with the Tigers facing third-and-3 from the Iowa State 32-yard line. That helped Missouri move into position so that Grant Ressel could kick a go-ahead field goal to give the Tigers a 27-24 lead with 11:56 left.

“As he continues to mature, you can see how good he’s going to be,” Pinkel said.

That’s why Pinkel and his staff have been on his case so much in the first place. Not only do they need Jackson to produce and help take pressure off Alexander for the remainder of this season, but they also view him as a leading candidate to replace the senior as the Tigers’ primary target next fall.

“They really expect big things out of me,” said Jackson, who has now caught 41 passes for 502 yards in his two seasons, including 32 catches for 404 yards this fall. “Just them telling me that, I know that they’re going to be looking forward to me making big plays like Danario has been doing this year and like Jeremy Maclin was doing last year. It makes me think that next year’s going to be my time.”

Reach Steve Walentik at 573-815-1788 or e-mail swalentik@columbiatribune.com.

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