The game of football is a long and drawn out process, but one which can hinge on a key play here or there and turn the tide in a hurry.

Mizzou narrowly avoided disaster, but sometimes narrowly is enough.

Big picture: Mizzou is bowl eligible for the second season in a row. This is good news, especially considering there are still a couple games to play and they’re both very winnable. Eight wins is still clearly and visibly on the table before this team and its head coach. Barry Odom continually comes under a lot of fire and he’s steered this team and this program back from the brink of losing 12 of 15 games over the course of two seasons in 2015 and 2016.

For two full seasons things were bleak. In Gary Pinkel’s last season the Tigers lost six of their last seven games. The next season Mizzou went 4-8, followed by a 1-5 start last year. That’s a brutal 6-20 stretch. Since then the program is 12-5, which is pretty good. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb saying that.

Is Barry Odom perfect? No. He’s not. But he’s someone learning on the job and winning games doing it.

If the Tigers win out this is unquestionably a good season, right?

Ok, some game stories:

STLToday.com: Mizzou survives, secures bowl eligibility with comeback over Vandy

KansasCity.com: Inside Mizzou’s goal line stop, and 99 yard drive that decided the game

ColumbiaTribune.com: Crockett and Rountree lead Missouri to 33-28 win over Vanderbilt

ColumbiaMissourian.com: Missouri mounts 11 point comeback, squeaks past Vanderbilt

PowerMizzou.com: 99 yards and change for the win ($)

There were a lot of moments where frustration watching the defense get gashed by Ke’Shawn Vaughn or threaded by Kyle Shurmur. Or watching the three straight series of the offense going nowhere, reminiscent of the second half of the Kentucky game. There was the questionable (but not all that unwarranted) decision to go for two. People got really mad about them taking a timeout after. Maybe it’s my former Rams fandom and watching Mike Martz burn timeouts which make me a little more immune.

But the Tigers fought through the adversity and beat a pretty decent football team despite not playing their A game. That’s a win you should always be happy with.

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Pretty quiet few days for Mizzou athletics other than the Basketball and Football games. But here’s the SEC results from yesterday:

• Alabama 24, Mississippi State 0
• Georgia 27, Auburn 10
• LSU 24, Arkansas 17
• Tennessee 24, Kentucky 7
• Florida 35, South Carolina 31
• Texas A&M 38, Ole Miss 24