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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.
The Highlights#Mizzou wins its seventh straight November game, gains bowl eligibility with win over Vandy#MIZ #ShowMe pic.twitter.com/IhZHxiafVT
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) November 10, 2018
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.
Notable Tweets
Moving !@DrewLock23 passes Chris Leak (UF), Peyton Manning (UT) and Eric Zeier (UGA) to move to 3️⃣rd all-time in passing yards in @SEC history!#MIZ #ShowMe pic.twitter.com/xXDkYNVF1l
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) November 10, 2018
Before last week, Parker hadn't caught a pass since an interception his freshman year in high school. He's got three catches for 42 yards today.
— Dave Matter (@Dave_Matter) November 10, 2018
It was close, but it looks like @jack_parodi will avoid hundreds of tweets from angry Vanderbilt fans
— ROCK M NATION (@RockMNation) November 10, 2018
Vandy tight end Jared Pinkney was asked after the game if there was pass interference on the final play: “It was, but I don’t fault the refs, because you can’t call that in that situation. You can’t put the ball on the 2-yard line with the game on the line.” Oh, but you can.
— Joe Walljasper (@JoeWalljasper) November 10, 2018
DeMarkus Acy on the first thing he did when Vanderbilt's final pass fell incomplete: “First I looked for any flags on the field. It’s pretty unfortunate, we’ve had that happen a couple times.”
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) November 10, 2018
When he saw there were no flags, he ran down the field in excitement.
The Mizzou football team wore the names of 117 MU students who died serving our country during World War I. Barry Odom spoke about just how much in meant to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
— Tyler Murry (@TylerMurryABC17) November 11, 2018
Game reaction: https://t.co/X2WonXRPIi pic.twitter.com/4ehYvpjten
More Links:
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