Missouri /arkansas Thread

[Feathers and Fins]

I thought Arkansas would win today until the coaches and ba refused to come out or pull him out with such a glaring injury. See other thread for more of my anger on that though.

But I will stand by my statement Mizz does not even if they win the SECC to go to the final 4. Baring anything weird happening this final weekend them they would stay at 17 and still not be in a 16 game playoff picture. They just do not deserve to be there IMO. Mizz lost to Indiana end of argument

[Blazerman]

Hard to say Arkansas was the better team when they didn't score any points in the second half as Missouri took control. On the second touchdown drive in the fourth quarter where all Missouri did was the run the ball you could see how tired the Hog defense was and Mizzou took advantage. Missouri won this game in the second half just like they have done in most of their other wins.

Arkansas didn't lose by not switching to the freshman brother. They lost because Mizzou out played them in the second half.

[ozark trout fisher]

I thought Arkansas would win today until the coaches and ba refused to come out or pull him out with such a glaring injury. See other thread for more of my anger on that though.

But I will stand by my statement Mizz does not even if they win the SECC to go to the final 4. Baring anything weird happening this final weekend them they would stay at 17 and still not be in a 16 game playoff picture. They just do not deserve to be there IMO. Mizz lost to Indiana end of argument

Of course we are not a top 4 team. But I will take back to back division titles and a shot at bama.

Arkansas is legit, though.

[stlfisher]

Hard to say Arkansas was the better team when they didn't score any points in the second half as Missouri took control. On the second touchdown drive in the fourth quarter where all Missouri did was the run the ball you could see how tired the Hog defense was and Mizzou took advantage. Missouri won this game in the second half just like they have done in most of their other wins.

Arkansas didn't lose by not switching to the freshman brother. They lost because Mizzou out played them in the second half.

Yep, if mizzou receivers could catch the balll...totally different in the first half.

[Feathers and Fins]

Of course we are not a top 4 team. But I will take back to back division titles and a shot at bama.

Arkansas is legit, though.

We will see how legit they are next year, I try to be honest with myself each year, the D-line this year came out of no place and was proud to see that but we are losing some of that next year and at least 1 or 2 people will have to step up. We also must obtain 2 safeties for that line.

Special teams smells worse than the skunk did I let under my buddies truck on opener a couple years ago.

O-line is Big and built for the run and why we don't run more I keep scratching my head on. Our Tight-ends are very good and our running backs are awesome. We need at least one Elite wide receiver and a Quarterback. Yes I will be on BA's _ _ _ he sucks I don't care what team he is on I would say it.

Im not happy with what I saw from our coaches tonight leaving him in ( not because he sucks " which he does" ) but because I do not think anyone so obviously injured should EVER be left in and put in unneeded danger. The coaches need to be called on the carpet in Jeff Longs Office for that stunt or the NCAA that was NOT acceptable.

I think Bret is a good coach for Arkansas and we can be something very good but still a few areas need work.

[ozark trout fisher]

Well this game was what everyone said it would be......tough, defensive battle, coming down to a few clutch plays in the 4th quarter. The Hogs are probably the best 6-6 team ever and I knew this was going to be a tough one. Bottom line is that Missouri got a few breaks, but put themselves in a position to take advantage of that. There were multiple times in the late second quarter and early third where Missouri literally came within a play or two of letting Arkansas put the game away. That fake field goal stop really stood out as play that kept us in it, and that late 2nd quarter field goal by Baggett (who was out of his mind today) allowed them to at least go into the half thinking they had a chance.

Sometimes it just comes down to hanging around, and refusing to get knocked out, while you wait for your offense to click just enough to get a win. Our defense and special teams (by that, I mean Andrew Baggett, who made up for all of his struggles over the past two years) allowed us to do that for 3 quarters. Then Maty Mauk and our offensive line got into that late game zone we've become used to this year, and that was that.

What a beautiful game to watch. This team will be a massive underdog next week, but I couldn't care less. There are plenty of flaws, but I won't count them out against anyone. Bama (well, probably Alabama) should win handily, but if they don't have their foot on the pedal from the start this Mizzou team is fully capable of hanging around and pulling another upset.

I'm excited for it.

[Al Agnew]

Breaks went both ways in this game. A few questionable penalties on both sides. A lot of missed calls on holding, but that's nothing unusual. Was Mizzou the better team? Hard to say. Too many dropped passes in the first half--if those passes are caught it's a whole different game, and Mizzou would have probably won going away...but you have to catch them; if you don't, you aren't as good as you should be. If the other brother would have quarterbacked for Arkie the second half, THAT might or might not have changed the game, but you can only go by who WAS playing. Fact is, Mizzou missed chances in the first half but their defense, as usual, kept them in it. In the second half they clearly were the stronger team, period. That final drive with all the runs was a thing of beauty.

Maybe the most interesting thing to me was, was Henson a genius or did things just work out that way? Mizzou's play calling in the first half and even in the third quarter, with all the passes, had everybody scratching their heads. But I don't think Mizzou COULD have run effectively against that huge d-line in the first half. It looked like they were just burying the o-line. But did all that pass rushing end up tiring them out, to where by the fourth quarter the Mizzou o-line was ready to take over the game? That's sure what it looked like happened, whether it was planned or not.

And we're so used to seeing the offense struggle and blaming a lot of it on Mauk that I think a lot of people overlooked that he played a very good game today, and was as sharp and accurate on his passes as he's been all year. This offense isn't far from being pretty good. I just hope that Hansbrough isn't hurt badly.

[Quillback]

Seemed to me to be a sloppy, penalty and turnover laden game. But once Mauk started hitting his recievers, Mizzou started looking very efficient. AR's secondary has problems with big, athletic receivers, it's like watching a bunch of Smurf's trying to cover a bunch or Terrell Owens like receivers.

Mizzou's D-line outplayed AR's vaunted O-line in the 2nd half, run game fizzled out and once AR was forced to rely on Allen's arm, things became grim. Sure didn't help that Allen was playing hurt and was getting progressively worse as the game went on. Should've put the younger brother in for BA in the 2nd half. I don't know if it would have changed the outcome, but BA was too hurt to be effective.

In spite of this disappointing outcome, I'll be rooting for Mizzou in the SEC championship game. If, somehow, Mizzou pulls it out, the resulting controversy about whether a Mizzou SEC champion should be in the playoff will be wonderful!

[Al Agnew]

I'm not counting Mizzou out in the SECCG. We all know the Hogs played all the big boys close and shut out two good West teams. I would say that they were THAT close to being an elite team. But the second half Mizzou outplayed them on both offense and defense, and I'm far from sure that putting in the other brother against the Mizzou defensive pressure would have made any difference. If Hansbrough is good to go and Mauk's performance in this game continues in the next one, they'll be right in it.

So if they DID win...it all depends upon what you consider the most important, body of work or how good you are at the end of the season. If total body of work during the whole season is most important, then no way should Mizzou get in the play-offs. But if how good you are when it comes time to play for the national championship, then they would definitely deserve to be in. If you give both equal importance...who knows?

[ozark trout fisher]

I'm not counting Mizzou out in the SECCG. We all know the Hogs played all the big boys close and shut out two good West teams. I would say that they were THAT close to being an elite team. But the second half Mizzou outplayed them on both offense and defense, and I'm far from sure that putting in the other brother against the Mizzou defensive pressure would have made any difference. If Hansbrough is good to go and Mauk's performance in this game continues in the next one, they'll be right in it.

So if they DID win...it all depends upon what you consider the most important, body of work or how good you are at the end of the season. If total body of work during the whole season is most important, then no way should Mizzou get in the play-offs. But if how good you are when it comes time to play for the national championship, then they would definitely deserve to be in. If you give both equal importance...who knows?

I just don't see the playoff happening. Too many teams to jump over. Total chaos (which this year, isn't out of the question) is our only hope. In that sense, we should cheer for teams like Auburn, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Florida, Michigan, and everyone else playing a top 10 team. We don't need one or two upsets. We need all of those games to result in upsets. So our hope basically rests on apocalyptic levels of crazy.

Who cares, though? I mean, if we beat Alabama/Mississippi State and get into a major bowl game, that's still going to be the best season in school history. So in every meaningful sense, the sky is still the limit with two games left to play. That this happened after some of the duds early on in the season is evidence that Gary Pinkel is one of the best coaches in college football, and that this team is tough.