tigers

The Chiefs terribleness this year has been mitigated by my happiness on Saturdays. Chiefs get decimated by Carolina? Its ok, Mizzou smoked Nebraska the day before. At least that is how I justified things...until last night.

Mizzou lost. I couldn't even speak for about half and hour after the game. This was made worse by the fact that while I was watching my team in the bedroom, Lelaine is screaming at the TV in the living room while celebrating UF beating #4 LSU.

I knew Okie State would be tough, but we probably would have won had any aspect of the team played well. It is tough to beat a ranked opponent when your defense takes many plays off (as a Chiefs fan I am quite used to this), your QB uncharacteristically throws three interceptions (although tough to blame him on the first one since it bounced off Alexander's chest), and your special teams misses two FGs and your stud punt returner can't get it going.

Since I have never liked him, I will blame the loss on Coach Pinkel. Don't get me wrong, under Pinkel our team has improved immensely. I never would have dreamed of being ranked so high this year and last. The fact that I am so upset after one loss speaks to the success he has brought. My freshman year we were something like 5-6 and it was our best season in ten years. Now I'm mad at losing to a team ranked #17. Pinkel does a lot of things right, particularly recruiting. But common sense escapes him. He makes two basic mistakes that prohibit a good team from being great.

First, and something my friends know I complain about approximately 50 times a game, is that he has created an offense designed to score a lot of points and jump out to an early lead, but his system doesn't know how to maintain the lead against a good opponent. What does every other team do when they have a lead? Run the ball. Other than last year's Cotton Bowl, what can Mizzou not do against good teams? Run the ball because every play is from deep shotgun. The RB doesn't get the ball with a running start and has to go from standing still with the ball to seven yards just to break even. Maybe it would help if we had a play where the QB lined up under center. Pinkel's refusal to be able to run the ball when we need it is particularly problematic in goal line situations, like last night's opening drive when we had to kick a FG from the one. Figure out a couple passing and a couple running plays to use when you are within three yards of the end zone. That keeps things simple for the offense and forces the defense to stay on its toes. Daniel might be short, but he is certainly capable of lining up under center, reading the D, dropping back and finding a receiver. If Corby Jones could do it, Daniel can.

Second, Pinkel is as stuborn as Bush about changing strategy. He can't make adjustments. If something doesn't work, and it is clear it won't work, most teams will tweak their gameplan either on the fly or at halftime. Mizzou? We do the same thing over and over. Our DBs unable to cover receivers? Don't try to change coverage schemes, just continue to get burned. For Okie State's last touchdown last night, they had two receivers standing next to each other, relatively open for the fact that they were thirty yards downfield and standing right next to each other in the end zone. Completely ridiculous. Mizzou is always a better first half team. When was the last time Mizzou had a come from behind victory? I can think of one since Pinkel started, the Independence Bowl in 2005 when Brad Smith decided he wasn't losing to South Carolina. Compare that to how many times we nearly blow a big lead because we go into a game with one plan and stick to it, no matter what the opposition is doing. Last year alone the Tigers gave up a ton of late points to Illinois and Kansas but held on. Against Oklahoma both games last year we were either winning or tied in the third quarter but ended up having the Sooners pull away. In previous seasons I remember blanking OSU in the first half, only for them to storm back and beat us in the second half; choking a 21 point lead to KSU in Columbia circa 2003; the Sun Bowl against Oregon State a couple years ago; as well as several others.

Bill Simmons, the ESPN Sports Guy, talks about how each team needs a VP of Common Sense. Mizzou would be a lot better with one. There is still time to make things better. Next week we play at Texas, who I expect to be the #1 team when the rankings come out tonight. Beat them in Austin, much easier said than done but still possible, and all of the sudden we might be the best one loss team. But until we make changes, particularly figuring out how to run the ball with a short field, we won't be able to beat top notch teams. This is something every top team can do, but Pinkel has made not effort to figure it out.

I'm probably wrong when I tell people Pinkel is a terrible and will wind up at Hickman if he wants to stay in Columbia, but he definitely makes mistakes almost no other coaches do. Maybe he just needs a "Coaching for Dummies" book. Lets hope that this ends up being the worst game of the year. I would hate to have to post something else about two of my other pet peeves of his - trick plays against horrible teams that lead to not being able to use them when you need to and never getting your team to beat someone they shouldn't.