Blaine Gabbert's ability to move with the football leads to him frequently moving out of the pocket, leading to rushing plays and ad-lib pass plays. (Photo by JJ Stankevitz)

Blaine Gabbert kicked off his junior year in fine fashion Saturday, completing 34 of 48 passes for 281 yards and two touchdowns in Missouri’s 23-13 defeat of Illinois.

Also important was that Gabbert did not thrown an interception and only took one sack in the game.

However, Gabbert did have a tendency to leave the pocket early if he felt pressure was coming, leading to a few rollouts and ad-lib plays (one of which ended in a touchdown to T.J. Moe).

Coach Gary Pinkel addressed Gabbert’s tendency to leave the pocket, noting that he and coach Dave Yost may “over-coach” that aspect of Gabbert’s game to avoid sacks:

But Gabbert has shown that he’s good enough on the move to have success even if he does leave the pocket early.

Pinkel also discussed improvements in Gabbert’s accuracy during Monday’s media day, noting that it’s been an area of Gabbert’s game that has seem tremendous improvement over the last three years:

The John Elway comparison is particularly interesting. It may be hyperbole at this point, but Pinkel’s “the sky’s the limit” assessment of Gabbert’s potential is something that a lot of NFL scouts will discover, if they haven’t found out already.