POST GAME THOUGHTS--MISSOURI

That last play call. Was it good? Was it awful? I tweeted that it was probably one of the worst play calls I've seen, but then I got some responses from folks saying that it was a good idea and that Mizzou just made a play. I just dont get why you do a throwback to a guy who hasnt caught a ball in God only knows how long, and who (even when he was in the rotation) was totally unreliable. I'm lost.

The worst part about that play call is that despite everything going against us, we were still in it...I mean think about it. We have no defensive depth. None. And then we lost Myles and Robinson after last week. And then early in the game we lose BOTH MOTHEREFFING BOTH Alaka and Walker...and somehow we were STILL in position to win the game late. Would we have won the game in OT? Maybe, maybe not....but anything could have happened and the simple fact that we were there....on the cusp...man. This one hurts.

But like I said last week...young teams man. They go boom and bust. One week you beat Auburn on the road, and the next week you lose at home to a mediocre Mizzou team. And now we get to face a wounded LSU team recovering from a beat down by Arkansas. It's been a crazy year.

Offense

Story of the offensive game here was the OL. As good as they were last week they were equally bad this week. Both Ced and Jarvis had difficulty handling the Missouri ends. Whether it was poor effort or technique, they just got beat one too many times. Offense cant operate if tackles don't do their job.

Our use of the RBs continues to baffle me. It was clear that tonight Trey and Tra had the hot hand. Why on earth did we then force Brandon into the mix? With Tra carson being one of the few offensive players running with any anger why do we go to Brandon on the goal line? Especially when the OL was struggling?

Josh Reynolds had another decent day, as did Malcome. I hate that Ricky didn't run that last route to the end zone...but the fact is that other than Josh and Malcome we're playing with a bunch of converted ATHs at WR.

Play calling was interesting. But I can't really tell whether the play calling was the issue when execution from the OL was so poor. I know that I didn't like that WR throwback to Kyle, but I did like that designed QB run. Again, playcalling (much like this Aggie football team) was schizophrenic.

Kyle is going to be a gamer for us. His teammates just have to do a better job of helping him out.

Defense

You knew we were in for a rough night when our one defensive weapon was ruled out. I don't want to speculate on what the game would have looked like if Myles had played, but.....yeah. I won't let my mind go there. Then Walker and Alaka go out...and yeah. Not good news.

The small bits of good news I do have about the defense are that guys like Armani Watts and Jarrett Johnson will someday not be true freshmen and someday they'll be playing as experienced upperclassmen.

One thing to point out. The secondary was bad tonight. Poor efforts (including inexplicable jump tackles on RBs), combined with a scheme that neuters whatever ability we have is a recipe for disaster.

I should say a lot about the defense, but it's already been said. I feel like it's a foregone conclusion that we will see a change in coordinator at the end of this year, so I'm not going to harp on Mark Snyder. I'll just say that we have more talent than our defense demonstrates. It's frustrating to know exactly what a defense is gong to do and continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. That's on coaching, and that will change.

Overall

I'm disappointed in the outcome but not surprised. We're just not good enough to have key players get dinged up and then go out and beat another team. It's just not going to happen. Maybe that sounds like an excuse, and I don't intend for it to be. We lost this game through poor execution no doubt, but Garrett, Alaka, and Walker are our defense. Lose those three and we're done for.

We should have won this game. We should have been in position to win this game. But we didn't.

Time to regroup, get healthy, and focus on LSU.