Bazelak isn't the guy long-term, though I don't think he deserves as much criticism as he's been receiving here and elsewhere. He was okay today minus two really bad decisions (which to be fair were both very costly). He doesn't have the arm strength to stretch the field and challenge opposing defenses, but he has a solid short-to-mid-range game, reminiscent of the Alex Smith Chiefs years. The offense does move the ball and does put up some points, but without the ability to be aggressive and push downfield for chunk plays, it really puts the team in a bad position because of the defense. This leads me to my next point...
The defense is horrifically bad. I'm not going to pretend to be a professional analyst and pick and choose every reason why, but typically when a defense is this bad it's the players on the field getting overpowered. As everyone knows, the game starts in the trenches and our DL is getting carried all over the field by opposing offensive lines. The LBs struggle with positioning, but I truly believe they feel they have to make a "quick decision" on a gap to attack because if they don't, the DL isn't soaking up enough of the blocking for them to get a clean read at the play. There's a lot of bad guesses and it makes them look worse than I think they are. The secondary is solid, but struggles to hang on to opposing receivers when the QB has an hour to throw (or tuck it and run because there's a mile of green space in front of them). The DL is the beginning and end of the problems on this team and as Gabe has said previously, the answer just isn't there this year.
Badie is special and it's too bad this season will be a pretty underwhelming one. I really wish we could do more to provide a chance for him to show his stuff on a bigger stage, but that looks to be out the window for this season. That catch and run he had on the final drive (on a pretty weak throw from Bazelak) was awesome.
The coaching was... something today. Wilks is gonna take a lot of heat and while I don't think it's all him, it's well-deserved. Not finding a way to be able to be even somewhat resistant to anybody's run game is a failure. Drink had some cutesy play-calling that could have cost us in some crucial situations, though due to some key BC penalties things ended up working out in our favor. The clock management was 2013-2018 Andy Reid level bad. There was absolutely no reason to not try and conserve time to give ourselves time to get the ball back at the end of regulation and go for the win. It honestly felt incredibly lucky that regulation ended the way it did.
Mevis is an NFL kicker today, and I mean that. He could kick for a pro team right now.
Finally, the fan base needs to calm down. There is a chicken-and-egg type thing that happens with Mizzou. We can't take the next step without fan support, and we don't get fan support because we don't take the next step. I fully expect Faurot to be like 60% full for most of the rest of this season. I too am very frustrated with the way the UK and BC games went because they were both very winnable, but I'm also not gonna throw my season tickets away out of frustration. At the end of the day, sports are supposed to be a fun way to get away for a while and I think many lose sight of that. We are too busy complaining about the volume of the music in the stadium, the energy of the students, the food offered at the stadium, blah blah blah to remember that it's supposed to be a way to get out and share an afternoon watching a game. Keep your tickets, go to the game, continue to show support, and help Drink build this damn thing. The horses aren't there yet, but they are coming.
The defense is horrifically bad. I'm not going to pretend to be a professional analyst and pick and choose every reason why, but typically when a defense is this bad it's the players on the field getting overpowered. As everyone knows, the game starts in the trenches and our DL is getting carried all over the field by opposing offensive lines. The LBs struggle with positioning, but I truly believe they feel they have to make a "quick decision" on a gap to attack because if they don't, the DL isn't soaking up enough of the blocking for them to get a clean read at the play. There's a lot of bad guesses and it makes them look worse than I think they are. The secondary is solid, but struggles to hang on to opposing receivers when the QB has an hour to throw (or tuck it and run because there's a mile of green space in front of them). The DL is the beginning and end of the problems on this team and as Gabe has said previously, the answer just isn't there this year.
Badie is special and it's too bad this season will be a pretty underwhelming one. I really wish we could do more to provide a chance for him to show his stuff on a bigger stage, but that looks to be out the window for this season. That catch and run he had on the final drive (on a pretty weak throw from Bazelak) was awesome.
The coaching was... something today. Wilks is gonna take a lot of heat and while I don't think it's all him, it's well-deserved. Not finding a way to be able to be even somewhat resistant to anybody's run game is a failure. Drink had some cutesy play-calling that could have cost us in some crucial situations, though due to some key BC penalties things ended up working out in our favor. The clock management was 2013-2018 Andy Reid level bad. There was absolutely no reason to not try and conserve time to give ourselves time to get the ball back at the end of regulation and go for the win. It honestly felt incredibly lucky that regulation ended the way it did.
Mevis is an NFL kicker today, and I mean that. He could kick for a pro team right now.
Finally, the fan base needs to calm down. There is a chicken-and-egg type thing that happens with Mizzou. We can't take the next step without fan support, and we don't get fan support because we don't take the next step. I fully expect Faurot to be like 60% full for most of the rest of this season. I too am very frustrated with the way the UK and BC games went because they were both very winnable, but I'm also not gonna throw my season tickets away out of frustration. At the end of the day, sports are supposed to be a fun way to get away for a while and I think many lose sight of that. We are too busy complaining about the volume of the music in the stadium, the energy of the students, the food offered at the stadium, blah blah blah to remember that it's supposed to be a way to get out and share an afternoon watching a game. Keep your tickets, go to the game, continue to show support, and help Drink build this damn thing. The horses aren't there yet, but they are coming.
