With this weeks game against Georgia postponed, I decided to watch a little film and compile the best plays through the first half of this season. I had plenty of worthy material to use, but I found five awesome plays that held some sort of significance or were just plain cool to see.

#5: Grown Man Football

This run sort of encapsulated the day for not just the Mizzou offense, but for Larry Rountree III as well. He simply battered the Wildcats.

In a game where he was handed the ball almost forty times, Rountree got stronger and stronger as the game wore on. The Tigers needed a drive (and points) in order to clinch the game, and they did just that by running Rountree into a wall of white jerseys. I could do without the taunting, but hey, when you truck someone like that... all bets are off. The entire team deserved credit for breaking the streak against Kentucky, but it was nice to see him put an exclamation point at the end of a day where he punished would be tacklers.

#4: Something to build on....

We all expected to get shellacked by the Crimson Tide in the opener, but after watching Jaylen Waddle and Devonta Smith destroy our secondary for two and a half hours, we all needed something to build off of. Something positive to give us some hope.

BOOM. Wheel route.

This was a broken coverage, but getting a nice chunk touchdown absolutely was fun to see. The game was more than over, but as a former player, even when the score isn’t going your way, small, seemingly unimportant successes like this go a long way in building your confidence.

#3: Silver Lining in the Swamp

Last time out against Florida, Missouri got whooped. No bones about it. However, it didn’t always seem that way. In fact, if you looked at the scoreboard after a quarter and a half, you were likely surprised by the fact that Missouri was actually winning! Unfortunately though, they were only winning 7-6, and if you watched the game, you knew that Missouri’s only score came on defense.

Six of those seven points scored were from this:

This was a great job by Nick Bolton to get in on the rush and affect the quarterback, and an even better catch and return by cornerback Jarvis Ware. This defense has had a problem with creating turnovers, period, but in meaningful moments they can never seem to make it happen. Had the Tigers continued to battle and pulled an upset, this would be a play everyone would point to. However, despite this cool moment, the game was out of reach by the end of the quarter. For that small moment though, I was convinced that the upset could happen.

#2: It’s Tricky

Talk about a tone setter, huh?

There are SO many good things to point out. The perfect pitch back and then blitz pickup by Larry Rountree, the beautiful pass by Connor Bazelak, and then the tremendous catch and run by Tauskie Dove. That doesn’t even include the wonderful protection on this play to make it all happen.

This play shocked the LSU defense and let them know that they couldn’t sleepwalk through the rest of the game or Missouri would beat them. It sent a message that they expected to win, and yes they did.

#1: Bledsoe Stands Tall

Despite how LSU has faltered so far this season, this play is going to go down in Mizzou history. This Missouri team was undermanned and outgunned for this game, and at every step of the way they answered back with punches that allowed them to knock off the defending national champions.

Joshua Bledsoe was coveringTerrace Marshall Jr, the man who had torched the Mizzou defense to a tune of 11 catches, 235 yards and three touchdowns already. At fourth down and goal, however, it didn’t matter how bad Marshall had beaten the defense. In that one specific play, Bledsoe dominated. Not only did he overcome the push off (I was having ‘18 Kentucky flashbacks), but he recovered well enough to disrupt the play and seal the game. For all of the times that we’ve seen Missouri lose games in heartbreaking fashion, it felt good to watch them actually EXCEED expectations, instead of giving us another reason to think that this program is cursed.

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