Being a Missouri fan never seems to be easy

Posted on: September 1, 2019 at 18:38:29 CT

This was about as excited as I’ve ever been for a football season to start and it quickly turned in to one of the bigger disappointments. I agree with pretty much everything that I’ve seen here on the board. Nothing much different here but thought I might feel better if I just put it in writing and moved on:

The defense is dreadful. This might be the biggest surprised since BO took over. Our defense has been so consistently bad. You knew after 1 series that Wyoming could really do nothing but run the ball up the middle and yet knowing that, we couldn’t stop them. Aside from Cale Garrett, I didn’t see anybody on the defense that can tackle worth a crap.

Offensively I was shocked that we could not run the ball effectively. I may be wrong but thought we returned 4 of our 5 starters from last year on the line and I seem to remember them being pretty solid. Not sure what gives but Roundtree looked really slow and really didn’t have anywhere to run. On the other hand and the only positive I took away from the game last night is the pass blocking was really outstanding. Bryant had all night to throw the ball and with a few exceptions that were on Bryant.

Which brings us to the QB play. I don’t think Bryant was as bad as some here suggest. 423 yards is not a bad night. Yes, the interception he threw might have been one of the dumbest plays I’ve ever seen, but the only real negative was his refusal to try and run the ball. On the last series of the game, it looked like he could have taken off several times and picked up 10 - 15 yards and instead sat in the pocket too long. The people on the board are spot on with this. It reeks of Pinkel trying to make Brad Smith an NFL quarterback. If the goal is to make Bryant an NFL quarterback then keep doing what you are doing I suppose. If the goal is to win games, Bryant needs to take off when he gets the chance. The only other knock would be that we need to at least try and go deep a couple times per game just to keep the defense honest even if you don’t complete the passes.

The coaching in general was bad. Slow starts have become an Odom traditions. They looked totally unprepared for a very average FCS team. How is it that we get down to first and goal on the 2 yard line and don’t run the ball 4 straight times. Not sure what if anything Dooley was thinking. The fade in to the end zone almost NEVER works. It’s a wasted down. While Bryant threw the terrible interception this was on the coach. Trying to be cute with the ball when all you should be running the damn ball is just plain stupid. Not even sure where to start on defense. I can’t really tell if we are void of talent or the defensive coordinator is clueless. When you run up agains a one dimensional team like we did last night it’s hard to understand how and why you can
Come up with something to stop them.

We will likely still end up with a 500 season as the SEC is really bad this year. Unfortunately it will just bee good enough for Odom to keep his job and we will get to live through the same nightmare again next season. Ugh!