DALLAS — Arkansas had the plan to shackle Heisman Trophy finalist Chase Daniel in the Cotton Bowl.

The problem was, Arkansas had no answer for Missouri tailback Tony Temple.

Tony the Tiger tore through the Razorbacks for a Cotton Bowl-record 281 rushing yards and four touchdowns and led Missouri to a dominating 38-7 victory before a crowd of 73, 114 on Tuesday.

BCS No. 6 Missouri (12-2 ) capped the first 12-victory season in school history with the kind of statement it intended to make by socking an SEC team. The Old Gold-and-Black clad Missouri fans at the Cotton Bowl chanted “BCS ! BCS !” in the closing moments of the rout.

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“I think anybody knows, naturally, if you end up sixth in the BCS and you’re not invited to a BCS game, that affected all my players,” Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel said.

“We just wanted to come Continued from Page 1 W out here and support the Big 12 and show them what we’re about, and I think we did that today,” Daniel said.

Temple’s smashing rushing game, the most yards ever allowed by Arkansas, gave the senior back 475 rushing yards in his last two bowl games.

“Arkansas, they came with a great plan to stop our passing game,” Temple said. “I’m just doing my job, doing what I’m supposed to do.”

Arkansas (8-5 ) closed out a season of turmoil with a flat performance that included four lost fumbles, five turnovers and a flurry of mistakes in the kicking game.

“Obviously, Missouri played extremely well today, and we probably did about everything we could do to help them,” Arkansas interim coach Reggie Herring said.

The Razorbacks added another frustrating chapter to their lackluster bowl history, dropping to 11-22-3 in the postseason.

Arkansas junior tailback Darren Mc-Fadden ran for 105 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries, but he and running mate Felix Jones (10 carries for 45 yards ) never found their stride against the swarming Missouri defense.

“You have to give them full credit,” McFadden said. “They were ready to play.”

McFadden, projected by many experts as a top-five NFL Draft pick, almost certainly played his final game for the Razorbacks. Jones, seen as a first-round pick by some analysts, is also considering declaring early for the NFL Draft.

Daniel had carved up defenses all season, with only two games of 250 passing yards or fewer all year. The Hogs had a handle on the air approach, limiting Daniel to a season-low 136 yards on 12-of-29 passing.

Instead, Missouri took advantage of Arkansas’ Dollar package, which features seven defensive backs, by giving running back Temple the ball on delays and counters and letting him pick gaps and follow blocks.

When the Razorbacks added more men to stop the run, the Tigers kept on pounding anyway.

“They didn’t need to throw the ball,” Herring said.

“We knew we would be able to run on them all week long, when they started talking about shutting down the tight ends,” Missouri tight end Martin Rucker said.

Missouri churned out a season-high 323 rushing yards, a total that included runs of 22, 22, 41, 22, 38, 19, 14, 14 and 40 by the hard-charging Temple, who earned offensive player of the game honors.

“We didn’t throw very well today, but it didn’t matter because Tony was the guy,” Daniel said.

“We struggled with the running game all day,” Arkansas linebacker Weston Dacus said. “It felt like they had us outnumbered.”

Arkansas had an array of special plays in its arsenal, but they all seemed to backfire. A halfback pass from Peyton Hillis intended for a wide-open Marcus Monk on the Hogs’ first sequence was defused by heavy pressure.

The Razorbacks ran what would have been a successful fake punt on a reverse to Reggie Fish from the Missouri 35 late in the first quarter, but Arkansas called timeout just before the snap. When play resumed, the Hogs tried another fake punt, this time with upback Farod Jackson keeping it on the left side, but the Tigers swarmed him for a loss of 1 yard on the fourth-and-4 snap.

The first-half action threw all the pregame analysis on its head.

Missouri showed it could stop the run by handling the Hogs at the point of attack and sealing off the gaps against the WildHog formation.

Arkansas drove 48 yards to the Missouri 18 on its first possession, but kicker Alex Tejada missed badly wide right from 35 yards, his first miss inside 40 yards on the season.

Tejada sent a 37-yard field-goal attempt wide left late in the second quarter as the Razorbacks went scoreless in the first half for only the second time this season.

Missouri had a 14-0 lead at halftime after Temple scoring runs of 22 and 4 yards.

The Hogs helped heap on their massive deficit when Brian Vavra’s squib kick to open the second half bounded directly to a front-line Tiger, giving Missouri possession at the Arkansas 48. Six plays later, Temple carried over left tackle for 4 yards and another score.

Just when it appeared the Razorbacks would gain momentum, they gave it right back — on Jones’ lost fumble after a 41-yard gain on a screen pass and Adrian Davis’ fumble after his interception of Daniel.

The Tigers were only too happy to take advantage of the errors.

“We won the turnover battle, but it was sloppy in some respects,” Pinkel said.

“Look, that’s not Arkansas football, what you saw today,” Herring said.