Maybe Mizzou isn’t as good as we’d like them to be, but they’re still a quality team. The difference is frustrating.
I’d be lying if I said that I understood Eli Drinkwitz, or his approach to managing a game. I’d also be lying if I said I watched his Missouri teams and didn’t feel like I spent three quarters of the game shaking my head. Before we go further, I also fully admit that I’m a football novice. I look at these columns as something of a ‘voice of a regular fan’ versus my more wonkier basketball posts.
But there I was shaking my head, frustrated as the team I root for kicked a field goal to go up 31-13 in the 3rd quarter of a road game in the SEC, after running nearly 9 minutes off the game clock in a methodical drive to shorten the game and leak gas out of the tank of the Mississippi State defense. And yes I’m aware of how long of a sentence that was.
The Tigers ran 15 plays if you count the Field Goal kick. 13 of those plays were runs.
I realize Brady Cook has been banged up this season, so the move to run the football can save him some potential hits. But Cook was only sacked once on the day and he completed 15 of 20 passes. Here’s my problem the approach: I’m a Mizzou fan who’s been conditioned over the years to watch 42 pass attempts to 26 rushing attempts. Not 56 rushes to 20 passes. On top of that you have a Luther Burden!
THROW THE DANG BALL BOBO!
If there’s such a thing as purposeful schadenfreude then this is it. I’m trying to be obtuse.
Yes I do find Eli Drinkwitz frustrating at times. And I was shaking my head as Mizzou kicked a field goal in the 3rd quarter. I got even more bothered when Mississippi State took the ball and scored a touchdown on two rushing plays to cut the lead to 11. Ugh, THEN Mizzou bled another 4 minutes off the clock and missed a field goal attempt. Increasing my blood pressure (as much as my blood pressure gets raised watching any sporting event, which isn’t much).
But then Missouri held MSU to a turnover on downs at their own 17 yard line and proceeded to bleed another nine minutes off the game clock in scoring another touchdown to go up 17. A two point conversion made it 19. Whatever monkey was on their back for playing Mississippi State was thrown off, the Tigers were in control in Starkville en route to winning their 8th game of the year with one (regular season game) to play.
There’s also little question this season feels a little disappointing. Preseason hopes of a college football playoff and a run at an SEC championship have long since been dashed.
It’s also wild to think about being disappointed when the home team is 8-3, and 10 wins are still on the table with a win in the bowl game. I know that’s far from a given, but even winning 9 games isn’t something we should feel disappointed about. Missouri has been playing football for 123 years and 25 of those seasons have seen 8 wins or more (20.3%), EIGHT of those seasons have seen 9 wins or more (6.5%), and seven seasons have hit 10 wins or more (5.6%).
But here we are. Disappointed.
If Mizzou can stay perfect at home this season that’ll mean 10 straight at Faurot, and they’ll move to the top 7.3% of all Mizzou seasons. Gary Pinkel coached at Mizzou for 15 seasons and Mizzou won 9 games or more in just five of those seasons. Pinkels years may be the best overall run for Mizzou Football and even those years were highlighted by a lot of close game wins. The difference between 10 wins and 7 or 8 wins was a few results turned a different way.
I wanted this year to be a playoff year. It didn’t turn out that way. Mizzou has one more game against Arkansas, a team they’re 8-2 against since joining the SEC. That’s 7 wins in their last 8 games. None of those losses have been in Columbia.
You keep that streak and you’re sitting at 9 wins with a Bowl game to play.
In order for Missouri to be a playoff team in future seasons, they need to continue to build upon the momentum they’ve built in the last few. For all of the frustrations of watching Eli Drinkwitz and his team play each week, there’s little doubt they’ve been successful. They’re now 19-5 the last two seasons. They’re 8-3 this season which is the same record as Ole Miss, Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas A&M, also better than LSU, Florida and Oklahoma.
Winning isn’t easy. So with one regular season game left, let’s get frustrated again and watch on Friday as Missouri has a chance to go out and beat Arkansas for their 9th win this season.
Other SEC Games:
- (3) Texas 31, Kentucky 14
- Oklahoma 24, (7) Alabama 3
- Florida 24, (9) Ole Miss 17
- (10) Georgia 59, UMass 21
- (11) Tennessee 56, UTEP 0
- Auburn 43, (15) Texas A&M 41 — OT
- (18) South Carolina 56, Wofford 12
- Arkansas 35, Louisiana Tech 14
- LSU 24, Vanderbilt 17
