Looks Like No Bowl Game For Mizzou

[moguy1973]

Unless they get their heads out of their butts and pull off a huge upset next week in College Station, they'll be hanging it up for the season. They played well at times tonight, but looked like a high school team at other times...Especially that last drive...how can you not play a zone defense at a time like that?

They really need to get started on some SEC caliber recruiting ASAP...If they can't beat a mediocre Big East team, they surely can't hang in the SEC.

[Al Agnew]

One big reason they lost, though far from the only one, was Sheldon Richardson. Notice how well Syracuse did running up the middle right through his spot in the line? And notice Mizzou had no pass rush whatsoever? What a bonehead. I admire Pinkel for benching him. Can't say I admire Pinkel or the rest of the coaching staff for their game plan, though. How about DGB getting the 70 yard TD on the wide reciever screen, and then they don't call that play again until the 4th quarter. Call it one more time and it again goes for a big gain with Moe. And how about when they're inside the 5 with a first down, run one running play that gets them halfway to the goal, and then call two pass plays? When they have shown all year that they can't score in the air all that well inside the 10, and the run was working. And how about when they were tied with 4 minutes or so to go, and they haven't shown they can even come close to stopping Syracuse from marching down the field in big chunks, so they need to run a lot of clock and hopefully score with little time left...and they go five wide on first down with a long pass, and then another long pass. It's like Yost has a list of plays he wants to call and he has to get them all in before the game is over, no matter what the situation is or what's been working.

And the soft coverage in the secondary has been frustrating all year. The 5-10 yard pass was there for Syracuse all night because the secondary was playing 10 yards away from the receivers at the line.

And EVERY snap in the last two drives was low. Every one. 11 games into the season and they still don't have a center who can snap the ball accurately.

This game and the Vandy game were the two worst, and the Florida game was the most frustrating because it was there for the taking. They should be 8-3 right now. I've been a Pinkel supporter, but if he can't see that his offensive and defensive coordinators can't make adjustments during the game, I'm starting to think he maybe should be in the hot seat.

[ruthead]

Although I don't necessarily agree with the play calling on both sides of the ball I think it's mostly that we're just not as good a football team this year as we have been in recent years. With a o lines thats had injuries since spring ball and a qb with injuries most of the season no doubt the consistency was questionable at best. I do question why T.J. Moe , who was one of our most consistent recievers seemed to get left out as the season progressed. D line Richardson was a huge piecs to have missing this past weekend. You play you pay. No problem with Pinkel benching him. Just sad. Our d backfield never has been a strong point and once again we paid the price. I do have a problem with the d on the go ahead drive that we didn't seem to be concerned with #15. He was their go to guy in critical plays all day and we seemed to forget that.

Chalk it up to a bad season for a multitude of reasons. I still think we have a bright future. With Tiger and Chiefs football basically over I'm ready for an extremely exciting Tiger Basketball year!!

[stlfisher]

I have to agree. Just not consistent, too many injuries, and too many mistakes. For all that being said...we could have won 3 more games. Just one of those extremely frustrating years it seems.

[Justin Spencer]

So far the only thing they are doing like an SEC team is getting in trouble. Best recruit ever smoking weed at the stadium, COME ON MAN! Several suspensions, and even basketball players getting in on the act. Hard to win if you best players aren't on the field or court.

[Al Agnew]

The go ahead touchdown supposedly came because the d backs were confused on what coverage they were supposed to be playing...some thought zone, some thought man. Should have called a time-out.

When you look back upon this season...

If they didn't collapse in the last quarter and have the turnovers, they beat Georgia.

They outplayed Vandy, should have beaten them.

They REALLY should have beaten Florida.

And they should have beaten Syracuse.

With a few less injuries, mistakes, and bad coaching decisions, they could easily have been 9-3 this year, with a 5-3 record in SEC play. The level of talent was good enough to have that record. Even with SOME things not going their way, you gotta figure they were good enough to beat Syracuse and Vandy, and maybe sneak in the win against Florida. At worst, they should have been 7-5, with 8-4 fairly realistic.

Next year they have a softer schedule, playing Ol' Miss instead of Bama, and getting Florida, A&M, and SC at home. Their non-conference schedule is Toledo, Murray State, and Indiana, with the fourth team to be determined. If Franklin is healthy and either Mauk or Berkstresser is good enough to challenge Franklin for the starting spot, and the o-line is improved, the offense will be better. The defense is questionable with Richardson probably leaving for the NFL, but if they can hold their own, you gotta figure wins at Kentucky and Tennessee again, a good chance of beating Ol' Miss, at least three non-conference wins, and maybe eking out one win from the Florida, A&M, and SC games, and/or whoever the fourth non-conf team is. 7-5 is doable, 8-4 possible.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I think you are spot on Al. There is not any mention that Mizzou has been winning most of these games until the last 15 minutes. If the games stopped at the end of the third quarter, Mizzou would have an almost zero loss season. But nobody is talking about that. And I mean the media and other coaches. If we could just hang on during the last 15 minutes, the SEC wouldn't be looking down at us as less than a community college team. I think behinds the scenes, there is a lot of talk.

[Justin Spencer]

The last 15 minutes count the most, the game takes a physical and mental toll on players and coaches the longer the game goes, players that aren't as fit don't finish, coaches that aren't as good don't make changes for the 4th quarter, and that's what separates the good teams from the bad. Most of the time we just see final scores, but many of the games that end as blowouts are close at half, and even in to the third quarter many times.

Mizzou is a basketball school anyway, right?

[ozark trout fisher]

This is a rough season without a doubt. I don't buy into the talk though that this means Missouri will be a bottom feeder in the SEC. Missouri has struggled mightily with injuries, and generally, things haven't conspired to make this a very auspicious first season. It's a disappointment but not a reason for alarm-yet. If Missouri struggles again next year, then it might be time to consider the possibility that something has to change to be a top-half team in the SEC. For now I'll call this year an aberration. And as bad as its been, you couldn't even call Missouri one of the worst teams in the SEC this year, not with Auburn, Kentucky, and Tennessee all still fighting for a conference win headed into the last week.

And that brings to mind on thing that I have to admit I was wrong about...this is a tough, tough conference. I anticipated a slight bump up in competition moving to the Big 12, but not for what I've seen. I knew Alabama and Georgia and South Carolina would be very tough. But even the so called bottom feeders like Tennessee, Auburn, and Kentucky have talent. The "middle of the road" teams like Mississippi State and Vanderbilt are really, really good teams. I expected this team to win 5 or 6 conference games this season. Now I can see that even if everything had gone right on the injury front, that might well have been unrealistic. I still think that Missouri's recruiting is picking up though, and we should return enough good players that we should be somewhat improved next season...hopefully enough to get this team back to a bowl game, if not more.

For now, I'll be cheering like crazy for them in the last regular season game. Texas A&M is very good to say the least, and obviously it would take a mammoth effort. There may not be a bowl game this year, but I would love to see this team show some fight and give the Aggies all they can handle. And hopefully, if the stars align perfectly, win their sixth and qualify for a bowl. But as I said, I'd just be happy with giving them a good fight at this point. It would be nice for the seniors to have something positive going out.

I will say one good thing...Our quarterback situation has really improved. Both Franklin and Berkstresser looked really good when called upon against Syracuse. It's a little bit harder to notice that when it still results in a loss, but it's good that we have a couple of quarterbacks that we should be able to rely on Saturday (and while I hate to talk about this with a chance at a bowl still remaining, it's a promising sign for next season.) Finally, I'll be awfully sorry to see this group of seniors go. Really tough for them with this season not going as planned.

[Smalliebigs]

I think you are spot on Al. There is not any mention that Mizzou has been winning most of these games until the last 15 minutes. If the games stopped at the end of the third quarter, Mizzou would have an almost zero loss season. But nobody is talking about that. And I mean the media and other coaches. If we could just hang on during the last 15 minutes, the SEC wouldn't be looking down at us as less than a community college team. I think behinds the scenes, there is a lot of talk.

LOL........if football was only 3 quarters Mizzou would be killer????? There would be a ton of good great major league baseball teams if they didn't have to pitch the 9th inning.

Maty Mauk please step up and show us what an actual quarterback plays like.......or I hope he gets a shot from this pathetic coaching staff.....who knows. I know Maty is a Johnny Manziel clone who has speed, guts and passing abilty better than Franklin. He will run this goofy spread better than Franklin. Bottom line is Pinkle and his staff need to recruit way better or this is going to be your Tigers.....fighting just barely for a bowl bid which is pathetic in the NCAA........I still get all excited for their games though.