Pete's there, I'm not. He'll have the coverage and the quotes and such. But I watched and figured I'd offer up my thoughts for any who care:
1. The defense wasn't great, but it was good enough. We wondered if they were as good as they looked against three fairly bad teams and they're not that good, but they are good. 21 points isn't elite maybe, but it's good enough to give you a damn good chance to win a game. And realistically, Missouri had no chance to win this game in the final 8 minutes. It wasn't the defense's fault.
2. Nate Howard's going to be a beast. If Charles Harris is the next great Mizzou DE as Jesse Palmer said--and I think I agree--then Nate Howard is after that. It won't be this year, but that kid's gonna be really good.
3. Yes, it's an excuse, but you have to acknowledge what injury has done to this offense. Before the season I said Russell Hansbrough was the player Mizzou could least afford to lose and Evan Boehm was second. Both got hurt on the first offensive series of the season and unfortunately for Mizzou my prediction was right on. Hansbrough isn't healthy and neither is Boehm. Neither has been effective through four weeks and it's crushing the offense. Also crushing the offense is that there isn't a viable backup for either one.
4. Missouri should have onside kicked with 3:30 left after the field goal. It isn't hindsight because I said it to my friends I watched the game with live. The chances that exhausted defense was going to get a stop were no better than the chances of recovering an onside kick. Probably worse.
5. I've intentionally left this one for last, but I'm calling for a QB change. It's time. I want to be clear that the offense's problems go far, far beyond Maty Mauk. They don't have a RB behind Hansbrough, the receivers do virtually nothing to help the QB out and the OL is spotty at best. But making a change at those positions just doesn't have the impact a change at QB does. I could go on for pages about this, but I can really boil it down to this: Drew Lock isn't perfect and he's going to make mistakes (like the underthrown pass that should have been a TD to Emmanuel Hall tonight). But you can live with mistakes from a true freshman QB. The same mistakes are much, much harder to live with from a redshirt junior QB. I don't know if the offense would be any better with Lock at QB. I have a hard time believing it could be any worse. I mean, Mauk should have had three interceptions on the drive that led to a field goal that got Mizzou within 21-13. And that isn't even talking about the pick six that was nullified by a PI call that realistically came on an uncatchable pass that there was no excuse at all to throw. A loss to Kentucky pretty much signals the end of any hope Missouri might have to threepeat in the East. Any move made now has to be made with at least some minor consideration to the future. With that in mind, it's time to go to Drew Lock and live with what happens the rest of this year.
1. The defense wasn't great, but it was good enough. We wondered if they were as good as they looked against three fairly bad teams and they're not that good, but they are good. 21 points isn't elite maybe, but it's good enough to give you a damn good chance to win a game. And realistically, Missouri had no chance to win this game in the final 8 minutes. It wasn't the defense's fault.
2. Nate Howard's going to be a beast. If Charles Harris is the next great Mizzou DE as Jesse Palmer said--and I think I agree--then Nate Howard is after that. It won't be this year, but that kid's gonna be really good.
3. Yes, it's an excuse, but you have to acknowledge what injury has done to this offense. Before the season I said Russell Hansbrough was the player Mizzou could least afford to lose and Evan Boehm was second. Both got hurt on the first offensive series of the season and unfortunately for Mizzou my prediction was right on. Hansbrough isn't healthy and neither is Boehm. Neither has been effective through four weeks and it's crushing the offense. Also crushing the offense is that there isn't a viable backup for either one.
4. Missouri should have onside kicked with 3:30 left after the field goal. It isn't hindsight because I said it to my friends I watched the game with live. The chances that exhausted defense was going to get a stop were no better than the chances of recovering an onside kick. Probably worse.
5. I've intentionally left this one for last, but I'm calling for a QB change. It's time. I want to be clear that the offense's problems go far, far beyond Maty Mauk. They don't have a RB behind Hansbrough, the receivers do virtually nothing to help the QB out and the OL is spotty at best. But making a change at those positions just doesn't have the impact a change at QB does. I could go on for pages about this, but I can really boil it down to this: Drew Lock isn't perfect and he's going to make mistakes (like the underthrown pass that should have been a TD to Emmanuel Hall tonight). But you can live with mistakes from a true freshman QB. The same mistakes are much, much harder to live with from a redshirt junior QB. I don't know if the offense would be any better with Lock at QB. I have a hard time believing it could be any worse. I mean, Mauk should have had three interceptions on the drive that led to a field goal that got Mizzou within 21-13. And that isn't even talking about the pick six that was nullified by a PI call that realistically came on an uncatchable pass that there was no excuse at all to throw. A loss to Kentucky pretty much signals the end of any hope Missouri might have to threepeat in the East. Any move made now has to be made with at least some minor consideration to the future. With that in mind, it's time to go to Drew Lock and live with what happens the rest of this year.
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