Connect with your Facebook Account

• Contact

Football Articles

4

Post-Mortem: Missouri Tigers vs. Nevada Wolf Pack

Posted by Guest Columnist on September 15th, 2008 under Football

Editor’s Note: More commentary from our friends at the soon to be re-launched Atomic Teeth blog and haberdashery. This time Gene Claude on the mic. – SR

______________________________________________

I imagine this is what it felt like to write the Spinks/Tyson post-mortem. 91 seconds in, Mike Spinks was battered and falling through the ropes; 178 seconds in, the Wolfpack were down 14-0, out gained 152 – 6 and the game was all but over.

This wasn’t an aberration—the Tigers ability to land knockout blows early and often (except against the dreaded Stoopsians) over the past two seasons has been rather Tysonic. Since the start of the 2007 season, Mizzou has played fifteen non-Sooner contests. In each, Missouri has either scored the first touchdown by the 10 minute mark of the first quarter or been up 14+ points at half. In fact, the average halftime score in those fifteen contests has been 29 – 8, and only once did Mizzou give up more than 17 points in the first half (18, at KSU last year).

The Tigers’ propensity for landing multiple first half haymakers in 2008—halftime leads of 31 – 13, 42 – 0 and 38 – 17—has made it difficult to determine if the defense is good, bad or simply unnecessary. To further confound the issue, defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has exploited the combination of 10 returning starters and cushy double digit leads to do a bunch of truly bizarre shit. To wit, first two defensive plays of the season? Two corner blitzes!

In less than two full games, we’ve seen William Moore in more positions than Jenna Jameson in a double feature. A glass is half full guy would applaud Eberflus for showing future opposing coordinators more looks than Dennis Rodman at a transgender conference, all the while getting a veteran defense some valuable on-the-job experience at esoteric blitz packages. A glass is half empty guy would scream WHAT THE FUCK while throwing up his hands and spilling his friend’s carefully smuggled pint of Jack. An unscientific survey of Mizzou fans finds that the latter outnumber the former by a 5:1 margin.

Nobody knows how good this defense will be when Mizzou’s Buster Douglas comes a knocking. The defense has not yet played a snap without the lead, tip o’the cap to Jeremy Maclin. The only three second half defensive series that mattered thus far came with Mizzou up 10 against Illinois. Those series contained 2 sacks and 2 interceptions, the last a pick six by Sean Weatherspoon that effectively iced the game.

With all that in mind, we didn’t learn much about either the Mizzou offense or defense that we did not know coming into the game with Nevada. An inferior defense can still take it from Chase Daniel and company more ways than Lindsay Lohan at a Tailhook convention. The offense is humming along at about 98% efficiency. The keys have been an offensive line that Pinkel describes as the best he’s had in his 8 years at MU; a real, live downhill running game; and a dwarf as prolific at operating the spread offense as he is at metal working and gem cutting. It was nice to see Chase Coffman acknowledge Hurdlegate and branch out into other Madden multi-button tackle-dodging maneuvers. I believe the level of complexity, Knowshon, has been set at 4.5 successful stiff arms.

I hope this turns into an arcane tackle avoidance pentathlon between the two, everyone wins in that competition.

The defense continued to struggle, at least for a half, with either overly aggressive play calling or busted coverages. Or, in the case of Nevada’s first half ending touchdown, both. Seriously? You can’t play two safeties deep with eight seconds left in the half and your opponent on the 42 yard line with no timeouts? Eberflus continues to alternate a base 4 – 3 and a nickel package, with Garrett and Del Howard at safety and William Moore playing the hybrid OLB/safety nickel position, and Weatherspoon and Christopher at linebacker. He also continues to blitz Moore way too often, often from 10 yards or more off the line. I have no problem with using Moore in the nickel spot and blitzing him periodically to keep o-coordinators on their heels. I do have a problem with that approach representing 25 – 40% of his usage, and another 10 – 20% coming as a lockdown third corner. Moore is best used in space where he can read and react to the quarterback and effectively play the run and short passing game simultaneously. It was entertaining to watch him try to bait Kaepernick/Graziano into throwing 8 yard outs / pick sixes in the third quarter, though. Unfortunately for WillyMo, Graziano didn’t take the bait until something called a Jeff Gettys was there to set the hook. This engendered a spirited discussion amongst our group about how we were able to secure a walk on from Houston. My, how far we have come. Uh, no. Houston, Missouri. Nevermind.

Colin Kaepernick is the sort of non-BCS quarterback that can give any defense fits with his zone read and option running skills and strong arm. I don’t know how many times the entire crowd cheered a smack down on a Wolfpack running back only to realize Kaepernick was skipping to his lou 15 yards downfield, while the cameramen furiously zoomed out to wide angle. The dude has the ball hiding skills of Rupaul. (Seriously, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY?) Ironically, once Pinkel called off the dogs, and Eberflus went to a base cover 2, the Tigers did a much better job controlling Kaepernick. Granted, by that point Kaepernick was probably exhausted from carrying 21 grown men on his back all afternoon.

All in all, I’ll take a vintage Tyson smack down over an inferior opponent, as opposed to the football equivalent of a Turkey – Ukraine welterweight Olympic quarterfinal.

Article Tags:

,

More from this Barker


Share This

  • StumbleUpon

4 Responses

  1. Phenomenal Smith said:

    September 16th, 2008 at 5:35 am

    Last year Dan Hawkins called the Mizzou offense The Blue Angels. More of the same.

    Ault was disappointed in the Wolf Pack, calling the game a “fiasco.” That seems a little harsh. I really enjoyed it.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/15/sports/s143758D05.DTL

  2. ChicagoTTU said:

    September 17th, 2008 at 5:43 am

    I caught the first half of this game – Holy Shit, how good is Jeremy Maclin?

  3. Gene Claude said:

    September 17th, 2008 at 10:04 am

    Jeremy Maclin is, indeed, quite talented at football. I was impressed with Jared Perry as well, last year he seemed to be acquiring reptilian limbs at an alarming rate.

    Danario Alexander, however, did not look like he was back to 100%…not much explosiveness. He is still big and athletic enough to help this year, though.

  4. Euclid Pi said:

    September 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    Denario looked about as fast and mobile as Josh Freeman. That might have been a redshirt we would like to have back. We can only hope he came back a couple of weeks early and will improve as the season progresses.

Leave a Reply

Follow Us

Related Articles

Hot Forum Topics

Activity

  • Blake Stansbery commented on the blog post Recruiting the Trenches   ago

    I like my wine in a box…. I like my wine in a box GIIIRL

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • Sailor Ripley commented on the blog post Did Rick Barnes use a plant last night to distract KU players?   ago

    We commented on the lass during telecast. Thanks for, getting this up, so to speak.

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • Mister Mike commented on the blog post Recruiting the Trenches   ago

    Sailor’s sponsoring it? Holy shit…that likely means goats, togas, and lots of cheap wine.

    Welcome to the network!

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • skymonkeyhorn commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem   18 minutes ago

    Yeah your right, penders teams were at least fun to watch play. Barnes offense is pretty bad not as bad as Tom’s but its all relative to who is watching the worst offense in Texas history.

    “His teams did not play D, did not box out, and were generally unsound in the fundamentals of the game.”
    Close

  • czarcw commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem   19 minutes ago

    Our hoops team is the basketball version of Major League.

    Jake Taylor = Damion James
    Pedro Cerrano = Dexter Pittman
    Willie Mays Hays = Avery Bradley
    Roger Dorn = Justin Mason
    Isuro Tanaka (Major League II) = Dogus Balbay
    Rube Baker (Major Leauge II) = Jordan Hamilton

    If Craig Way starts drinking whiskey during the broadcasts, it’ll complete the analogy.

  • Farmer Ted commented on the blog post Recruiting the Trenches   22 minutes ago

    Nice job with this – and welcome to the network, on behalf of Better Off Red. See you at the Fantake retreat in Vegas that Sailor Ripley is sponsoring this summer!

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • J Rog commented on the blog post Game Day: Spurs vs. Lakers Open Thread   26 minutes ago

    Fell apart in the fourth quarter again. Can’t give up 28 points to close out a game. Spurs, Longhorns….heartache once again.

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • Farmer Ted commented on the blog post Thoughts on the win in Austin   29 minutes ago

    Nice job Hiphop. Very nice to win what is probably the toughest game on the schedule handily, although the Hawks obviously caught UT at a good time.

    The Morningstar FT was terrible and hilarious. He said the ball was wet, which clearly means Texas was cheating somehow. Would the second chance off balance leaner

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • Nickel Rover commented on the blog post Another night, another would-be hero   30 minutes ago

    I don’t think McCoy played anywhere near the level of Suh and the numbers make it clear that he did not. Suh had twice as many tackles (77-31), sacks (11-5) and nearly tackles for loss (22-14.5). Suh also broke up 10 passes, if he gets stonewalled on the rush he doesn’t allow it to take

  • skymonkeyhorn commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem   31 minutes ago

    We are bound to the past no matter how great the past is, we are bound to fail if we do not look to the future.
    The End

  • J Rog wrote a new blog post: Missed Opportunities: Spurs vs. Lakers Recap   36 minutes ago

    Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.  This game was served up on a silver platter for the Spurs and they managed to fumble it like a Minnesota Viking in the playoffs. 

    I think perhaps Will Ferrell can describe my emotions on the current state of the Spurs season better than I. 

     

    The Spurs hung around for most of the

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • slugfest commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem   39 minutes ago

    EP, I get your point, but I don’t think the fact that Texas hasn’t won a tourney came as an underdog doesn’t support it. Teams are favored because they are better. The odds that they win are greater than those who are not favored. It’s not like Texas goes into games with a secret weapon

  • Mister Mike commented on the blog post Did Rick Barnes use a plant last night to distract KU players?   44 minutes ago

    I think KU should demand an immediate investigation. Find someone to get to the bottom of this.

    I volunteer myself.

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • Trips Right commented on the blog post Top 8 Teams in College Hoops   47 minutes ago

    Georgetown?

  • RRR commented on the blog post Thoughts on the win in Austin   47 minutes ago

    Good write up, hiphop. I love the versatitility of the Morris twins on defense. Xavier Henry is probably the key to a big run in the tournament. If he starts hitting open looks, the inside game will really open up. Post to post passing is fun to watch.

    It’s pretty nice when

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • Trips Right commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem   51 minutes ago

    PB, just talking. I’m not ready to replace him but something has to change. The comment about playing 3 on 5 three quarters into the season is just astoundingly bad.

  • Blake Stansbery commented on the blog post Petrino Building Fence Around Arkansas   1 hour ago

    Here is more info on Frazier. He is such a great player, and Arkansas needs to land him in a big way.

    http://www.kiehlfrazier15.com/Home.html

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow1mOrMQXYw

    These Highlights are from his Sophomore year, and he had a bigger and better 2009. OH MY!

  • Blake Stansbery commented on the blog post Petrino Building Fence Around Arkansas   1 hour ago

    Here is more info on Frazier. He is such a great player, and Arkansas needs to land him in a big way.

    http://www.kiehlfrazier15.com/Home.html

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow1mOrMQXYw

    These Highlights are from his Sophomore year, and he had a bigger and better 2009. OH MY!

  • Blake Stansbery commented on the blog post Petrino Building Fence Around Arkansas   1 hour ago

    Here is more info on Frazier. He is such a great player, and Arkansas needs to land him in a big way.

    http://www.kiehlfrazier15.com/Home.html

    These Highlights are from his Sophomore year, and he had a bigger and better 2009. OH MY!

  • Trips Right commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem   1 hour, 2 minutes ago

    It takes more time…unless you’re a Kentucky fan.

  • RRR commented on the blog post Mid-Season Thoughts and OU Pre-Game   1 hour, 4 minutes ago

    Thanks Trips. I’m hoping for lots of Willie Warren trying to be Sheron Collins. TMG in sync is the scariest thing to face in Norman. That or we get beat up on the boards which seems to be recurring theme of Texas Tech road games.

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • slugfest commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem   1 hour, 5 minutes ago

    I don’t think it’s a case of RB not being able to coach, or doing a poor job of coaching. If you read the entirety of Katz’ blog post, he clearly sounds like a coaching searching for answers — answers that come in the form of players contributing, doing what they are coached to do.

  • Blake Stansbery commented on the blog post John Pelphrey’s Unconventional Approach   1 hour, 12 minutes ago

    I agree that an NIT bid would be acceptable this year, but that if the Razorbacks can get to 20 wins they will have a very good chance at the NCAA Tourney.

    Our RPI is bad, and we have no signature wins.

    However, we have 8 games left on the SEC regular season schedule. If we

  • Blake Stansbery commented on the blog post John Pelphrey’s Unconventional Approach   1 hour, 12 minutes ago

    I agree that an NIT bid would be acceptable this year, but that if the Razorbacks can get to 20 wins they will have a very good chance at the NCAA Tourney.

    Our RPI is bad, and we have no signature wins.

    However, we have 8 games left on the SEC regular season schedule. If we

  • Blake Stansbery commented on the blog post Recruiting the Trenches   1 hour, 16 minutes ago

    TP welcome to the network.

    I like how you broke this down, and identified which positions history shows a high star ranking has proven to be important. I personally feel that after what all the recruiting sites dub their top players that there is a major falloff. We all love that the recruiting sites bring

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • Art Vandelay commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem   1 hour, 17 minutes ago

    Groundhog Day said:
    February 9th, 2010 at 10:00 am

    “How can everyone on the team have worse basketball sense than my 5th graders? Honestly? We are the dumbest bunch I have ever seen. We weren’t earlier in the year. Hell, Bradley was smartest player, by far, in any of the summer h.s. games. Now he plays

  • Farmer Ted commented on the blog post Petrino Building Fence Around Arkansas   1 hour, 19 minutes ago

    Good stuff JA. But the Huskers call dibs on any dual threat QB named Frazier thankyouverymuch.

  • Hiphopopotamus commented on the blog post Did Rick Barnes use a plant last night to distract KU players?   1 hour, 22 minutes ago

    I’m convinced.

    SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });

  • skymonkeyhorn commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem   1 hour, 26 minutes ago

    “No, but I became a man in Juarez.”
    I bet in your fantasy you were the donkey in the show ? No ?

    “Eight Dollar drink-and-drowns, and cans that merely say “beer” in Juarez will turn anyone into a man”
    That is why Trips was drinking river water by the bridge for too many years. In the

  • Darius Pourceau commented on the blog post John Pelphrey’s Unconventional Approach   1 hour, 27 minutes ago

    I don’t think we have to win the SEC tourny necessarily. If we make it to the SEC Tourny championship game and have won about 20 games, I would say a tourny bid would look likely. But that is a pretty big task. I know no one cares about the NIT, but that wouldnt be