COLUMBIA, Mo. — Caldrinoff Easter admitted not knowing how good Iowa State tailback Darren Davis was before squaring off against him in Saturday’s Iowa State-Missouri game.

It wasn’t that Easter, Missouri’s leading tackler in the Tigers’ 45-21 victory, wasn’t impressed with Davis. It was just that he had never seen him play before.

Davis, who has battled various injuries this season, had only one carry for ISU (0-2, 0-5) since a season-opening loss against Oklahoma State. Davis rushed for a game-high 130 yards and one touchdown against the Tigers (1-1, 3-2).

“We really didn’t know how good he was because we hadn’t scouted any film on him because he was hurt,” said Easter, who led Missouri with seven tackles, five of them unassisted, from his strong safety position.

Davis set up ISU’s first rushing touchdown of the season, a Jerome Heavens 6-yard run, with a 34-yard scamper down the left sideline. Davis broke one tackle at the middle of the line of scrimmage and then broke for the left sideline, before being run out of bounds at the Missouri 6-yard line by cornerback Carlos Posey.

“He’s definitely a good back,” Easter said. “He’s just a step below his brother (Troy) I think, just because of age and experience.”

More impressive and unexpected, was Missouri quarterback Corby Jones’ passing total. Jones completed 12 of 14 pass attempts for 213 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

This came after only completing nine of 25 pass attempts for 140 yards, with three interceptions and no touchdowns against Ohio State the week before in a 31-10 loss.

“(Our) running game is always going to be great, but we saw a little more balance on offense this game,” said leading Missouri receiver Kent Layman, who finished with a game-high 115 yards in receptions.

“I think that is what we need. Instead of defenses sticking eight or nine guys on the line of scrimmage, now they are going to have to feel the threat of our passing game,” he said.

Jones also rushed for touchdowns on successive possessions giving the Tigers a 28-14 halftime advantage after Davis had tied up the score, 14-14, on a 2-yard touchdown off right guard with 12:35 left in the second quarter.

Jones scored first on a mis-direction play from nine yards out with 8:09 left in the second quarter. He rolled right and found himself all alone, after the Tigers faked an option left.

Jones scored again from five yards out by finding a seam in the ISU defense and keeping the ball on the option.

Layman completed a 21-point Missouri spurt by hauling in a Jones pass at the Cyclone 25-yard line and going in untouched with 13:22 left in the third quarter. Layman found himself all alone after splitting the soft ISU zone with a post pattern down the middle to put the Tigers ahead, 35-14.

Layman said the improved passing game was a matter of a little extra preparation during the week going into Saturday’s game.

“All this week, all the quarterbacks and wide receivers stayed extra to get our timing down on our routes,” he said. “We spent more time than we usually do working on our deep routes.”

One of the biggest criticisms of Jones is that he sometimes flushes out of the pocket too soon on pass plays. Layman said Jones’ playing style on pass plays is all right with him.

“His scrambling is more to see over the defense,” Layman said. “I know he’s going to stick it there if he sees that we’re open. But Corby’s a great runner, so if we knock 12 yards on a scramble, to me that’s great.”

Davis ran for 82 rushing yards in the first quarter, but was held to 32 yards in the second half. Easter said part of Missouri’s strategy after the first quarter was to load up the line of scrimmage against the run.

“We got a few more people up there and changed up the defense,” he said. “We got a little more movement, because we were really standing still with him at first, just to check him out to see how he was. Once we got a little movement and made him make a decision that really paid off for us.”

Numerous dropped passes by ISU receivers contributed to Todd Bandhauer’s dismal statistics of seven completed passes out of 23 attempts for 80 yards.

Missouri Coach Larry Smith attributed Bandhauer’s statistics to the fact that ISU had trouble running the ball after the first quarter.

“When you force someone to throw, that forces them to play into your hands,” Smith said.

Smith also stuck up for Missouri’s oft-maligned defensive secondary. The Tiger defensive backs took a lot of criticism in Missouri after losses to Kansas and Ohio State earlier in the season.

“Give our secondary a lot of credit, they’ve taken a lot of abuse,” Smith said. “We were doing a good job of mixing up our coverage quite a bit (between) the zone and man.”