Navy outexecutes, outblocks, and outcoaches Mizzou for the Texas Bowl win.

It was about taking what the defense was giving, which generally was the catch and run on short passes, and yes, some running plays. We didn’t call plays to attack the defense they were running until too late. (And we were garbage in the red zone.)

Two other points:

1. You just don’t know what you’ll get from a first time starter in a bowl game. Today, Gabbert played the game he played against Baylor. (Come to think of it—so did Navy.) Obviously, you can’t lay the whole thing on Gabs but frankly the offensive game plan was built around him (as opposed to emphasizing getting the ball out quickly to the play makers, save screens). He had to play WELL for us to win and he didn’t.

My beef with Yost—IN THIS GAME—is that he did little to really get the kid in a rhythm before going into attack downfield mode. The sad part is the short catches and runs were getting us yards in chunks.

2. The defense was bad today, but consider this—unfamiliarity can trump talent. The game plan was to read and react, and it was too much to ask. Navy has too many little options off options. We were a step slow.

I can’t blame Steckel. You would have figured that we would score on Navy, and then it would be okay to have them burn up a whole quarter to score a TD. (Perhaps that explains the overly aggressive playcalling from Yost—try to get up a couple scores and dictate tempo.)

Bonus point

Mizzou needs to take a serious look at coverage teams heading into next year—and more to the point getting better distance (or at least greater hang-time) on kickoffs. My one GRAVE disappointment in this game is that the kickoff coverage was—opponent adjusted—probably worse than aTm against UGa. At least UGa’s special teams have been great all year.