That wasn’t fun.  Any feelings of hope manifested during the first quarter quickly evaporated as our already depleted secondary started going down and the offense played about as poorly as it could.  The evil Oklahomans bagged their prey early and toted it off the field (slowly, though, as their wagon lost a wheel and got stuck for five minutes on the 20 yard line, so they had to actually carry us off pallbearer style).

Damn, that picture makes me sad. 

The media had handed the Big 12 Title to the Sooners before the game even started.  Stoops, confident that he’d dispatch of Pinkel’s Pussy Cats, held up the Chicago paper on his way into Arrowhead. 

I may be a giant prick, but I’m better than you!

Where does one begin assessing an all-time ass kicking like that?   62-21.  It’s like Pinkel brought in Bob Stull and Woody Widenhoeffer to game plan last week.  I guess one way to look at the game is address what I thought it would take to give the Tigers a chance.

Offense.  What an incompetent lot.  MU’s twelve possessions went like this:  Missed FG, Punt, TD, Fumble, Punt, Interception, End of Half, Punt, TD, TD, Interception, End of Game. 

The Tigers, thanks to a frantic second half comeback involving easier OU drives and painful MU drives, nearly caught the Sooners in time of possession.  The Tigers actually did okay in third down conversions, 11-18, but could not establish any sort of running game against the team with turmoil at LB and that sat in the middle of the Big 12 in stopping the run.  The Tigers averaged just 2 yards a carry.  With no run game to speak of, OU had little trouble stopping the pass.  Frankly, Chase Daniel looks like that true freshman Pinkel ran out in Arrowhead against Arkansas State all those years ago.  He was as nervous as Robert Downey Jr. when his dealer goes on vacation.  It hurts to watch.   So, the Tigers FAILED there.

The Tigers were also unable to keep the Sooners out of the backfield.  Elvis Fisher got beat like Robert Downey Jr.’s dealer after Downey tracks him down on his vacation.  The Sooners only ended up with 6 tackles for loss and 2 sacks, both under their season average, but they must have been yelling mean things at Chase because Chase wouldn’t stand back there for long.  He’s got happy feet.  FAIL.

English is coming … English is coming.

The Tigers turned the ball over three times, and twice when it really mattered.  Down 17-7, but fresh off an exciting TD drive resulting in a Maclin TD, the Tigers took over with excellent field position (as was the norm in this game).  First play Chase takes on Nic Harris’ helmet and loses, ball’s free, Tigers lose.  Chase then threw a pick later in the quarter.  If there was ever any doubt about the outcome, that fixed that.  FAIL.

Maclin and Coffman suited up, but that’s about it.  Maclin averaged 18 yards on his seven kickoff returns – enough to warrant Player of the Game status (which if you think about is really sad – MU’s player of the game was only player of the game because the Sooners kicked off 11 times).  Our two best players were silenced by the Sooners combining for 11 catches for 94 yards and two TDs.  FAIL.

Missed opportunites?  A few.  After the defense’s only stop of the night, Mizzou got the ball at the OU 41.  Tigers down 3-0 over halfway through the first frame.  A big hope sustaining drive.  Three and out.  Punt.  Another great chance to get in the game was blown by the aforementioned fumble.  Can’t waste an opportunity when your opponent has scored 60 points in its last five games.  FAIL.

Defense.  What an incompetent lot.  OU’s twelve possessions went like this:  FG, Punt, TD, TD, TD, TD, TD, FG, TD, TD, TD.  Pretty awful.  The D got off to a good start, but when the offense showed it wasn’t going to help, everything went south.  The stars and scrubs defense folded quickly.

Forced turnovers?  Nope.  FAIL.

Third down stops?  Nope.  OU converted at a rate of 75%.  Getting the OU offense off the would have been nice.  The Sooners had five double digit scoring drives.  The Sooners ran 92 plays.  The third down stop has been the bane of MU’s defense’s existence for the past several years, so it’s not a surprise that it couldn’t change the trend against the Sooner machine.  Still, it wasn’t even close.  FAIL.

 Playmakers?  Not so much.  Weatherspoon had 12 tackles, but the Sooners ran 92 plays, so lots of guys had lots of tackles.  Stryker Sulak was manhandled all night.  Hood basically the same.  Moore got hurt.  The Tigers had zero tackles for loss after coming into the game ranked second in the conference.  The Tigers had zero sacks.  Sam Bradford was as safe as Robert Downey Jr.’s dealer when he’s not on vacation.  FAIL.

Nothing went right for our boys in black and gold.  It was a cold frustrating night. 

On the upside, the AT crew made the most of the bad situation and had a good time.  Euclid, Gene, RoboFrank, Slim, and yours truly were there.  Mojo made a pre-game appearance.  Frequent commenter Sheriff Blalock was in the house.  We did our best – unfortunately, the Tigers did not match our efforts.

Also on the upside, I researched the Northwestern Wildcats and they look pretty awful.  Of course, they’re currently ranked ahead of the Tigers….

And, more importantly, the Tiger basketball team walloped Cal today.  As Euclid said – we’ve always been a basketball school anyway.

________

We should all remember the collateral damage of Mizzou’s drubbing – Scipio writes about the MU/OU game from the UT perspective.