1) I asked all week how Mizzou would react if it was pushed. We found out. Down 14-3, that game was teetering. And Mizzou responded with 21 consecutive points to go up 24-14. The defense clamped down and the offense showed up. Was it perfect? No. Would you like a better start? Of course. But Missouri got punched a little. And it stood up and punched back. That's a good thing to see. You're going to have to do it again this season.
2) My guess is there was a lot of frustration with the defense and the lack of pass rush. But Thomas Castellanos is a frustrating player. You don't really want to put him under too much pressure. Because that opens up lanes for him to take off. You can't take everything away from a D1 offense. If you take away the run, you force him to stand in the pocket and beat you. If he'd have done that, you tip your cap. Missouri bet that he couldn't and Missouri was right.
3) Luther Burden is a money player. Five minutes into the second quarter every single person watching that game wondered why he hadn't touched the ball. His first catch went for 44 yards, Mizzou's longest play of the year. His second was a 19 yard touchdown. He had another 38-yarder. It wasn't just that he had six catches for 117 yards. It was that he had them when Missouri really, really needed them. Big time players make big time plays in big time games. Luther did it. (let's pretend the two awful penalties didn't happen for about two more seconds).
4) Mizzou still didn't make it easy. You can complain about some of the flags. I didn't love the PI on Toriano Pride. There was one that should have been called against a guy defending Theo Wease and wasn't. But Chris McClellan committed a completely awful hands to the face giving BC its first touchdown. Luther Burden committed two 15-yard penalties on one drive (the second was called unnecessary roughness and really should have been unsportsmanlike conduct again and gotten him kicked out of the game). Mizzou went from 3rd and 2 at the 30 to 2nd and 59 from its own 13. And then followed it up with an illegal formation penalty on a punt. They were 30 yards from ending the game and didn't. Just cannot happen. and you can't just say "The refs suck" for all of it. Some of it's being stupid. And, oh, by the way, the secondary completely fell asleep and allowed a 38-yard touchdown pass that made this far more interesting than it needed to be (after Daylan Carnell dropped a pick that would have iced it on the first play of the drive).
5) All Mizzou has to do is win. It won. Power Four games aren't about covering or style points. They're about winning. Mizzou won. It's on track to do what it set out to do. It was harder than it had to be, but that doesn't matter in the end. First test passed. Next one comes next Saturday afternoon.
2) My guess is there was a lot of frustration with the defense and the lack of pass rush. But Thomas Castellanos is a frustrating player. You don't really want to put him under too much pressure. Because that opens up lanes for him to take off. You can't take everything away from a D1 offense. If you take away the run, you force him to stand in the pocket and beat you. If he'd have done that, you tip your cap. Missouri bet that he couldn't and Missouri was right.
3) Luther Burden is a money player. Five minutes into the second quarter every single person watching that game wondered why he hadn't touched the ball. His first catch went for 44 yards, Mizzou's longest play of the year. His second was a 19 yard touchdown. He had another 38-yarder. It wasn't just that he had six catches for 117 yards. It was that he had them when Missouri really, really needed them. Big time players make big time plays in big time games. Luther did it. (let's pretend the two awful penalties didn't happen for about two more seconds).
4) Mizzou still didn't make it easy. You can complain about some of the flags. I didn't love the PI on Toriano Pride. There was one that should have been called against a guy defending Theo Wease and wasn't. But Chris McClellan committed a completely awful hands to the face giving BC its first touchdown. Luther Burden committed two 15-yard penalties on one drive (the second was called unnecessary roughness and really should have been unsportsmanlike conduct again and gotten him kicked out of the game). Mizzou went from 3rd and 2 at the 30 to 2nd and 59 from its own 13. And then followed it up with an illegal formation penalty on a punt. They were 30 yards from ending the game and didn't. Just cannot happen. and you can't just say "The refs suck" for all of it. Some of it's being stupid. And, oh, by the way, the secondary completely fell asleep and allowed a 38-yard touchdown pass that made this far more interesting than it needed to be (after Daylan Carnell dropped a pick that would have iced it on the first play of the drive).
5) All Mizzou has to do is win. It won. Power Four games aren't about covering or style points. They're about winning. Mizzou won. It's on track to do what it set out to do. It was harder than it had to be, but that doesn't matter in the end. First test passed. Next one comes next Saturday afternoon.
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