21 usce @ 5 Missouri.

#126
#126
TrueOrange said:
They'll have their starting QB back by Ole Miss, so they'll probably beat them, beat up as they are.

But they won't beat A&M regardless of how the rest of the season goes, and USCe only has to play Miss St and what's left of UF's roster.

USCe wins out and gets destroyed by Bama.
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Fyp.
 
#128
#128
Anybody else catch them playing "We Will Rock You" when SC's running back went down?

Low class........ told myself right then they deserve to lose.
 
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#129
#129
VolsSportsFan said:
Fyp.
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Problem is another SEC East team that we recruit against and hold a strong presence in pipeline states we recruit is going to have another SEC East championship/appearance in the championship game to show off in recruiting and such after this year
 
#135
#135
TrueOrange said:
Dear Misspuri,

How's it feel to be bunk buddies with Ole Miss, Vandy, and Kentucky in the we never have or will club?
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I don't know about Ole Miss, but I would still consider Mizzou a much better team then Kentucky or Vandy, in the longer term if not this year.

Even with the OT loss today Mizzou is still by default the #1 team in the SEC East division right now. I think by the end of the season you're probably 90% right, but I wouldn't bank on it yet. I fully expected UT to rip them to pieces last year, not a shootout of retardedly epic proportions.
 
#139
#139
"Laces out Dan!" Ray Finkle

Edit: Dang it, you guys beat me to it. I guess I shouldn't have skipped the last few replies.
 
#144
#144
KB5252 said:
Anybody else catch them playing "We Will Rock You" when SC's running back went down?

Low class........ told myself right then they deserve to lose.
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Was thinking the same thing myself. And not a one of them clapped as he was able to get up off the field under his own power.
 
#145
#145
So here's another example of why you don't start a freshman in the SEC (unless you have to):

Missouri's QB only completed a total of 4 passes in the second half.

Get some pressure on him next Saturday and we're good.
 
#147
#147
CFN write-ups of the game:

With only one loss, Missouri still controls its own destiny for Atlanta. But that's small consolation on a night in which the SEC's new Tigers let one slip away.

A note to fourth year Missouri defensive coordinator Dave Steckel: it’s called a Screen Pass.

Ray Flaherty gave it life back on December 12, 1937, when his Redskins hit the road to play Papa George Halas’ aggressive Bears defense (nod to ESPN’s Alan Grant). That day the legendary Sammy Baugh used the Screen to beat Chicago for a close victory.

Flash forward 76 years … that’s not unlike what Gamecocks’ quarterback Connor Shaw did to the Tigers Saturday night in Columbia, Missouri.

For three quarters, Missouri’s defense did a superb job shutting down the Gamecocks’ offense. Carolina wallowed through three first half turnovers paired with an irrational fourth down attempt that failed inside its own territory with under a minute to play before halftime.

As a result, Missouri had what appeared to be a comfortable 17-0 lead … when the injured Gamecocks’ quarterback took the field with six minutes to play in the third quarter. Along with head coach Steve Spurrier, the senior then proceeded to give us all a textbook education on how to successfully execute the screen pass.

Shaw would finish 20-of-29 for 201 yards and three touchdowns… and just as importantly, no turnovers. None of his twenty completions was more clutch than his last gasp, 15 yard touchdown throw to Bruce Ellington on fourth and goal, which pushed the game into a second overtime.

Shaw’s bright play seemed to invigorate his defense, which rose up and kept Missouri from scoring for the game’s final 21 minutes of regulation.

Yes, Mizzou needs to learn how to keep the laces facing out for its field goal attempts. But this game was about Connor Shaw’s gutsy performance coming off the bench injured, to lead a team whose championship hopes were paper thin and disappearing faster than the printed word.
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--

Those Missouri players and coaches are going to remember this game for the rest of their lives, and they'll wince whenever they think about it.

Closing out teams is an art form, one that Mizzou has obviously yet to perfect. The Tigers had so many chances to put away South Carolina, which was on life support, down 17-0 midway through the third quarter and doing absolutely nothing on offense. Mizzou could have put this one away with an Andrew Baggett field goal in the fourth quarter. Oops. The Tigers sure as heck should have stopped the 'Cocks on fourth-and-goal from the 15 in the first overtime. At a minimum, they should have extended this one to a third overtime on what appeared to be chip-shot field goal attempt. They didn't, and now their margin for error for winning the SEC East has nearly evaporated.

For South Carolina, QB Connor Shaw put on a one-for-the-ages performance, coming off the bench to inject life into a moribund offense. He did what gutsy veterans do, not only playing through pain, but playing heroically to keep his team alive in the title chase.

Mizzou still has Tennessee and Texas A&M in Columbia, and a trip to Oxford to play Ole Miss. In other words, the road to Atlanta just became a whole lot rockier for the Tigers. It didn't have to be that way. Mizzou would have been standing on the precipice of an East Division title, if only it was able to close out the Gamecocks.
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Hey, see that wet blanket in the corner? Toss it over here. I need to throw it on this entertaining football game.

The coaching was questionable, highly. Connor Shaw apparently was too hurt to start ... but down 17-0 two hours later, all was healed? The end will justify the means for Steve Spurrier because it always does, but let's be honest ... that was a curious decision.

And then there's Gary Pinkel, bless his soul. I like Pinkel, think he's a good coach. I admire his ability to center this game and flying across the country right after it, win or lose, to speak at a service where his mentor is laid to rest (Don James).

But his conservative coaching tonight lost Mizzou the game. All season long to this point, the Tigers were calling plays with the ole "screw it. No one believes in us, so let's get nuts" mind set. Then, suddenly, with 9 minutes left ... not unlike a past season with a guy named Chase Daniel at QB ... they started calling plays like they were looking at the ranking and wondering if they could hold on to keep it.

Third and two in the fourth when a fourth down would put the game away, Pinkel called a run square up the middle which surprise no one, let alone South Carolina's defense. Punt, chance for the Gamecocks.

It was a stark contrast to earlier in the day, when Minnesota was throwing it 25 yards down field on fourth down desperate for an upset. That's what you do. Keep the other team on the edge.

Then, South Carolina inside the five when you have two timeouts and can almost secure around a minute of clock should you get the ball back and the game is tied. Pinkel chose to sit on them.

Touchdown South Carolina.

Forty-two seconds left, no momentum, let's sit on the ball and go into over time, one that the opponent is just thrilled to be in?

It didn't get much better from there. Mizzou ran off the left side of the offensive line with impunity, popping it in with ease for a 7-point lead. They had South Carolina backed up to the 15-yard-line on fourth down. And they choose to man cover Bruce Ellington, the opponent's top threat?

Then comes the second overtime, down three. Mizzou on first and goal chooses at no point to run a designed play over that same left side of the line, even once, to see if it's still soft. Instead, they left it up to a very passive field goal, which hits the upright and ends the dream.

Chalk another loss up to conservative coaching. This was a bad loss for Missouri, not only because it ends what was shaping up to be one of the great stories in college football, but because it could have been had.

"You play to win the game" is probably an over-used statement at this point, but it rings true all too often. Missouri played afraid to lose. And often when you do, well, that's what you get. It's like trying to hard with a girl. You don't wear a suit to Outback Steakhouse and have her home by 9.

And Mizzou, unfortunately for them, had her home by 8:55. Just in time for her to get changed and do something fun with the night.
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--

When the Missouri Tigers took a 17-0 lead over the South Carolina Gamecocks into the fourth quarter of Saturday night’s game at Faurot Field, it sure seemed as though a snake-bitten program with wary fans and a distrustful relationship with success was finally going to cross the altar.

The Tigers were just about to wrap up the SEC East for all intents and purposes. They would have cemented a two-game lead over multiple pursuers while securing head-to-head tiebreakers over all of them. Yes, Gary Pinkel – who entered this season with a lot of pressure on his back – was about to make a trip to Atlanta on Dec. 7 a near-certain reality in late October.

Was it all too good to be true? Perhaps in the minds of Missouri fans before this game began, yes, but at the start of the fourth quarter?

After South Carolina’s Mike Davis fumbled at the 2 and the Tigers hit a 96-yard touchdown pass just moments later?

After South Carolina dropped multiple interceptions, had multiple big-gainers called back by penalties, missed a field goal, and played as poorly as it had all season long?

After South Carolina quarterback Dylan Thompson shriveled in the heat of battle?

Surely, this was going to be the time when Missouri made happy memories on the gridiron and not sad ones.

Connor Shaw had other ideas.

Shaw, who was not expected to take the field on Saturday due to injuries suffered a week earlier against Tennessee, begged head coach Steve Spurrier for a chance to play. Spurrier saw how desperately his offense needed a spark, and he rightly concluded that South Carolina’s season wasn’t going to amount to a hill of beans if it lost this game. Shaw took the field. He wasn’t as fast as he normally is. His mobility was clearly limited. There was a tangible element of Willis Reed in Shaw’s mere presence between the painted lines.

Shaw’s performance was far better than his already-amazing presence.

Yes, Missouri couldn’t figure out a staple Spurrier play, a middle screen that evoked memories of Danny Wuerffel to Terry Jackson at Florida in the mid-1990s. Yet, Shaw completed passes other than middle screens. South Carolina finally avoided slipping on the banana peel. The Gamecocks put an end to the mistakes that were just about to destroy a promising season. Their defense found an extra ounce of resolve, and when the fourth quarter was over, Missouri was not rejoicing. The Tigers had to play more football.

Then came the 1-2 gut-punch sequence that dropped the Tigers to the canvas in desolation and all-too-familiar Missouri misery.

On fourth and goal from the 15 with his team trailing 24-17, Shaw had to put the ball in the end zone in the first overtime in order to prolong the game and save South Carolina’s season. He did so on a strike to Bruce Ellington, who battled his own injury-related issues on a night when the Gamecocks fought through pain of many kinds. Moments later, Missouri – trailing 27-24 – gained a first and goal at the South Carolina 8. The Tigers needed just eight yards to make Atlanta in December an unofficial but genuine reality. After three failed plays, kicker Andrew Baggett gacked on a 24-yard chip shot.

There was the Fifth Down against Colorado in 1990.

There was the Matt Davison “Flea Kicker” against Nebraska in 1997.

Those two Faurot Field nightmares for Missouri now join “The Carolina Collapse.” A haunted football history just added several new ghosts and demons on the last Saturday before Halloween.

The Mizzou Football Story is a nonfiction horror account that knows no boundaries.
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