Well that was a dreadful game. We looked to be a mediocre team in the 1st 3 games then we improved against ISU and TT went into neutral against Baylor and solidly into reverse this week. A very poor defensive scheme and it took a quarter and a half and 24 points to correct it. Our offense produced 10 points and less than 300 yards against a lousy defense. Clearly the better team won with superior execution and a better scheme. We got out-coached by Pinkel. That is not a recipe for success. The team for the second time in 3 weeks produced a sturring comeback. But we couldn’t take advantage of the momentum in the 3rd quarter and Nunn’s fumble was the turning point in the game. After that point Missouri took control of the line of scrimmage.

We had good pass protection in the 1st half and into the 3rd quarter until the game got out of hand. Zac took a lot of shots but some of that is his fault because he holds the ball so long. The run blocking was awful again this week. The left tackle position is a sieve and we don’t seem to have an answer. Ross appears to be worn down and beat-up and we need to get Lucky and Glenn into the rotation to give him a break. Glenn is a bull who creates his own hole and Lucky displayed tremendous quickness on his only carry. He is always one step from gone and at this point we desperately need his game-breaking ability. Swift had big catches but along with Mulkey they can’t drop the ball. We don’t have the margin of error to afford that. Overall a very poor offensive performance because we couldn’t control the line of scrimmage and gave up on the run too quickly .

We had a terrible defensive game plan against a quality offense. We have given-up 75 points to the 2 high-powered offenses that we have played. Our defense was confused and out of position most of the day. We had McKeon playing corner and later covering the deep middle with no safety help. Who thought that either of these was a good idea? This 2-man shotgun option game has confused us for the last 3 years and we had no answer this time. We decided to play a 3-man line and drop 8 to encourage a great runner and so-so passer to run. Who thought that this was a good idea? We were held all day in particular Carricker. Bill needs to complain to the league on this issue. For the first time our linebackers looked slow and out of position, but that was probably due to how bad the overall scheme was.

The special teams were strong and Lucky’s kickoff return underscores the need to get the ball in his hands.

The bottom line is that we had a poor scheme and poor execution against a good team. Clearly we were not the better team on Saturday with the greatest disparity lying in the coaching. This staff continues to struggle a great deal with game planning and game day coaching. We have winnable games against teams that struggle to score and because of that we should be bowl eligible by K-State. That is the good news Saturday’s performance is the bad news .

Keep the Faith GBR
 
The Colonel