You choked from a Texas fan’s perspective. No commentary on the actual game itself.

I was on the second row and too close to the action for any kind of serious analysis, and I don’t particularly feel like going back through the tape, especially if Lapham was as bad as you indicated in the Live Thread.

Commence bullet points:

• That was as flat a first half as I’ve seen from this team in a LONG time. I’m not counting Texas, since the team looked shell-shocked in Austin, but I just mean this from an inspiration standpoint. They looked generally lethargic and uninspired.
• During the first half, I said out loud, “Chase Daniel is hurting this football team’s chance to win.” Take a moment for that to sink in.
• I’m not informed enough to properly assign blame, but it sure looked to me like Justin Garrett continues to get lost on the field when the ball goes into the air.
• Kerry Meier was absolutely the best player on the field. I’ll give props to Reesing for keeping plays alive, but it was pathetic how many open outlets he had when he did so.
• Missouri could be in some trouble in the red zone next year without Chase Coffman. D-Wash is going to have to fight through some stout fronts inside the 20s.
• To answer the day’s hot topic, I thought the gold actually looked alright in person, but looked awful on the highlights. And this is coming from someone who was staunchly in the anti-gold faction.
• To respond to you: Is 9-3 a failure? Yes and no. The only way this season would have been a true failure would have been if Mizzou squandered the North. But fans are falling victim to the burden of expectation. Can we be sad at what could have been? Absolutely. But is it OK to be proud despite the disappointment. Damn straight it is.

..I would’ve thought “ballgame”. Three things stood out to me.

-That munchkin Reesing dancing all over creation to buy time for himself. Not only did he miraculously avoid about a half dozen sacks, he then got completions nearly every single time.

-Carl Gettis had the worst game I’ve ever seen him play. I honestly didn’t think about the possibility of us losing the game until Briscoe torched him on 3rd and 12 to open the 2nd half.

-Why in the great blue sea was Garrett lined up on Kerry Meier the entire forsaken game? He caught the ball FOURTEEN times, stop putting the weakest coverage link on the field(I’d probably prefer both linebackers to him, especially on a non-burner like Meier) against the guy who’s making every catch.

this being the Border War and all, but I just wanted to say great game.

The second half was one of the best halves of football you’ll ever see from both sides, and it was an absolutely incredible game.

So, yeah, I just wanted to say congratulations on a good game.

And good luck next week in the Big 12 Championship Game. I really want to see the mass chaos that would ensue if you guys win, and all of the arguments and such that would be spewed, so I am semi-rooting for you…. ;)

Rambling aside, great game today and good luck next week.

We started the season a top-10 team, with visions of BCS bowls dancing in our heads. Now with Turkey Day closing, we have three loses, one an incredibly embarrasing one on a national stage to the only top tier team we’ve played all season (Texas), and two more that we should have won if it weren’t for mental miscues (Oklahoma State) and only playing one half of football (Kansas).
Part of me would love to see Oklahoma secure the Big 12 South bid and have a rematch with the Sooners in a vain hope that we could somehow avenge last seasons loss in the Big 12 Championship game. However, with the inconsistent play the Tigers have shown all season long (do you remember the pathetic attempts against Buffalo and Baylor?), this would obviously fall in the “be careful what you wish for” department.
Granted, any Missouri team that wins nine ballgames by the end of November before 2007 would have been welcomed with open arms. But last year changed the status quo, and hungry Mizzou fans and alumni are now poised and ready for greater things. This season had all the right mix – returning starters, easy schedule (and don’t for one minute pretend that it wasn’t a cupcake schedule in the Tigers favor – the only game that presented a challenge was Texas. The others were all easily winable). To be 9-3 and staring 9-4 in the face, and ready to go to Holiday Bowl or Alamo Bowl is extremely disappointing. Yes, I’ll be cheering my butt off Saturday night, and I’ll be yelling like a lunatic and praying to God in the hopes that He is actually a Tiger fan somehow and will allow the mighty Mizzou to pull off a miracle. But sitting on the edge of a broken season, it’s not so much that we’ve accomplished more than Mizzou normally does…it’s what this team should have, but didn’t, do.

I think I will take the opportunity to do so. So lets take a look at some previous losses. Take a look at last year’s Big XII Championship. The final result ou 38 mu 17. Missouri drove down the field the entire first half and only came away with three field goals and a touchdown. On one drive where it looked as if missouri may take control we got stopped at the one yard line. So its first down and one from the 1 yard line and of course we are in the shotgun formation with five wide receivers we run a draw on the two insuing plays and both get stuffed for losses of several yards. Then mizzou settles for a field goal on what looked like a drive for an easy touchdown. Solution? Create a goal line formation like any other division 1 team has and push the ball in the end zone. Listen to Lee’s Corso, you don’t have to use rocket science when you’re near the endzone, just good execution. In his 7 year tenure here at the university of missouri, gary pinkel has not recruited a single fullback. A fb can push ahead for those 1 or 2 yards you need because he constantly falls forward. The first lost this year of course came to oklahoma state. On our first trip to the redzone, Missouri again visits the goal line but has no way to get the ball in the endzone. If somethings not working fix the goddamn thing. What is the result of the game? another loss. But this one can also be blamed on the job of the defensive back coach. Twice in the game the corners were burnt for touchdowns. TWICE. As a national level football program this is not acceptable. However every fan knew there was a problem at the beginning of the year when illinois puts up 42 points and juice williams looks like a heisman candidate. It seemed in that game there was not even a secondary out there to cover the pass. Solution? Fire the defensive coordinator. He’s a joke and an embarrassment to the program. However i would like to remind gary pinkel that if he needs some new cornerbacks, now would be the time to recruit some. Also I want everybody to know that our best corner, Kevin Rutland stands on the sidelines while castine bridges gets burnt for several touchdowns. Bridges is nowhere near fast enough to play corner and the only thing hes good for is stopping the run. Solution? Move Bridges to linebacker. Oh wait im sorry hes a senior and im sorry we didn’t find that out before this year. Remember early in the 4th quarter in the game against Kansas State before they started running draws for 90 yards? Rutland was substituted in and guess what happens? He picks off a pass…hmm you put the man in for a few minutes and he already gets an interception. Why exactly is he not playing all the time? I’m just going to skip the texas game, missouri was completely and utterly dominated on offense and defense. However yesterdays game may have been a shocker to hundreds of thousands of mizzou fans. Guess what, it wasn’t to me. I knew not fixing the problem would come back to haunt us and just about every time kansas scored a touchdown the receiver was not even touched. Nice defense coach. And remember when there was 30 seconds left, kansas with the ball near the 20 4th down and 7 mizzou is leading 37-33 and we get burnt right up the middle (again) for a touchdown and lose the game. Solution? Um anybody out there? plz help wheres my free safety Oh he’s covering a receiver..i guess i’ll just blitz everybody anyway. The defensive coordinator is a J.O.K.E.!!!
I’m not an angry fan, i am offering positive criticism for the football team i love and have had season tickets to every season since corby jones was quarterback. I know how to win football games and yes I will be a coach after i finish school. And i don’t want anybody to think our problem this year has been the offense, besides the situation on the goal line our offense has been great. But i sure do hope our coaches have found out by now that there are other formations than the shotgun. Thats all i have to say. Good luck and god help us against the sooners. we’ll need it