I love this team. After coming to terms with the fact that demolishing Illinois did not a ten win team make, I learned to enjoy what this team is – a scatterbrained, flawed, but extremely athletic group of fighters. I doubted the last part after the Baylor game, but turns out that was just part of the journey for this erratic and always interesting team.

Nothing about the KU game surprised me, except maybe that the Tigers won. I expected an offensive shootout with Reesing, Briscoe, and Meier proving, once again, to be too much for the Tiger defense. I also expected Gabbert, Alexander, and Mizzou’s running game to come up big. Lots of points, lots of back and forth, lots of yards, and lots and lots of drama. Yes indeed, this is Armageddon KC style. Have a seat and enjoy. Winning the game was a good counter to my defeatist attitude when it comes to big games. Sometimes good things do happen to good people. And me too.

Gary Pinkel is not the best game coach ever. I mean, he’s better than Les Miles, but that’s not saying much. Pinkel again went for two when he shouldn’t have and he punted when maybe he shouldn’t have. But it wasn’t just Mizzou making questionable calls. There’s been a lot made about KU’s playcalling down on its three yardline at the end of the game. KU could have run the ball into the line three times and taken the clock down to about one minute if it didn’t get a first down. Was it really wrong to throw the ball? MU hadn’t stopped the pass at all, so to think Reesing could get a first down and keep the clock moving more easily through the air makes some sense. Reesing going deep was a suprise and surprise plays often work. That was Mangino looking for the Tiger jugular. Reesing going short to Briscoe is usually a successful play. Football pundits will tell you KU botched it by throwing the ball. It certainly was unorthodox. Why did KU do it?

I like to think that Warriner called the second down pass for one reason – Reesing had 498 yards on the day. Just two more yards and he’d have the first 500 yard game of his career. The allure of two yards caused KU to forego the easy time suckage and, ultimately, gave the Tigers a chance to win the game. Coaches love to help their guys reach milestones and it was Reesing’s last hurrah – let him go out a 500 yard passer. The short pass to Briscoe, I bet, was such a high percentage shot that the coaches thought “we’ll get Todd 500 yards and we’ll run the clock.” Didn’t work. And KU called the safety play at the end as an homage to 2007, KU’s glory days. Nice touch.

Tigers got lucky. Questionable calls on the Tigers’ part were negated by Mangino’s own questionable calls. Sometimes even your favorite snake-bitten team gets the breaks. It’s clear now that the Tigers were bit by a regular old cottonmouth while the Jayhawks were attacked by a Faint-banded Sea Snake. Tigers 41, Jayhawks 39. A sweet sweet win for Pinkel’s first post-Chases Maclin team. A season many called the most important in the Pinkel Era ends well. That makes me happy.

The Good:

– Grant Ressel is 24 for 25 on the season in FGs. His only miss came in the Monsoon Bowl. What a weapon. KU’s kicker went one for one, bringing field goal kickers in 2009 Tiger games to 42 for 44 – one miss by a D1AA kicker and one in a driving rainstorm. If your favorite play in the game is a successful field goal, Tiger football is for you.

– Game-winning field goal – Wolfert never did that.

– Harry Four dropped all five of his punts inside the 20. It’s not like he was pooch kicking either – the kid averaged almost 50 net yards a punt. 50 net yards. Unbelievable. He will not be easy to replace.

– Special teams played its best game of the year.

– DA. He now leads the nation in receiving yards with 1,644. He’s not a Bilitnekoff finalist. I was watching football on ESPN last night after I got home and the crawl had the top five WR NFL prospects – DA was not listed. Is that the quietest 1600+ reception yards ever for a BCS Conference WR? Only four BCS receivers have ever reached 1600 – Josh Reed, RaShaun Woods, Michael Crabtree and DA – so there’s not a lot of competition for the title. Alexander is destroying all the Mizzou single season receiving records. He should be an All American and a first round pick.

– Blaine Gabbert wasn’t at his sharpest, but he rushed for a career high and didn’t throw a pick. The extra 15 practices, the bowl game, spring practices, and fall practices will help turn this already very good QB into an All Big 12 performer. Hell, he’s already sporting the second best passer rating in the conference. Maybe he’s second team this year….

– DWash ran hard. Two big runs in the fourth quarter that helped set up the two fourth quarter field goals and he finished with 100+ yards for just the second time this season. Two more TDs give him 28 on his career. When he has the time to pick his way through the line and get into the secondary, DWash makes a difference.

– Reesing’s career is over – I’m calling that good for the Tigers. In his three starts against Mizzou, Reesing has thrown for 1,222 yards (407 yds/game) and ten touchdowns. I don’t know much about Kale Pick, but I know he’s not Reesing and that pleases me. I’ve made fun of Reesing in the past, but he’s one of my favorite non-Tigers in recent memory. Off to the CFL with you, son.

– Tigers have taken three of the last four in the series and Pinkel is now over .500 – 5-4 – against the Jayhawks.

– Tigers much-maligned rushing game broke off more than 7 yards a carry. Over 200 yards in all for a very balanced attack. With Gabbert healthy and able to contribute on the ground, this offense is difficult to contain.

– Even without DA and Gregory, the future is bright for this offense. Jackson looks to be the #1 WR in waiting and I’m told there is plenty of talent on the bench.

– Congrats to Kip Edwards on his first career interception (followed by his first fumble). He played a lot, which I don’t think is necessarily a good thing considering the success of KU’s passing attack.

– Gettis played hard, as did the rest of the secondary. The Jayhawks were just better. Gettis recovered two key Briscoe fumbles. The first set up the first Tiger touchdown drive – all of 5 yards. He also forced a fumble and had nine tackles.

– Beast Mode. I loved the uniforms.

– Post-game video.  Nice that somebody carried Jared Perry off  the field on his shoulders – gotta take care of that leg.  Pinkel doesn’t quite pull a Paul Rhoads, but it’s good stuff.

– 70,000+ in the stands. Is there any question that playing at Arrowhead is the right thing to do? Place was electric.

The Bad:

– Defense showed lots of effort, but as I mention above, was no match for KU. Teams can’t run on the Tigers, but they sure as hell can pass. And pass they do. Opponents now average more than 260 yards on the Tigers through the air – 109th most in the nation. The rush defense is 11th best. Go figure.

– Where was Weatherspoon? I don’t recall Spoooooooning very often, if at all. Spoon ended the game with 3 tackles. It wasn’t just a linebacker tackle void either as Ebner had ten and Gachkar seven. I watched the game again on TV and saw #12 many times, but rarely in the thick of it.

– Third down defense was again atrocious. KU converted on 60% of its third down tries meaning Mizzou hasn’t improved on this problem area on 2009.

– Third down offense was again atrocious. MU converted on 36% of its third down tries meaning Mizzou is still one of the worst in the conference at converting here.

– It’s one thing to go for two when you shouldn’t.  I mean, I guess there’s an argument that Mizzou should have gone for two down by two with about the whole second half to play.  Not a strong argument, mind you.  Still, when you go for two you have to call something that might work.  Pinkel does not have Brad Smith back there anymore but it’s apparent that the staff hasn’t updated its two-point conversion playbook since 2005.

– Will someone steal Pinkel’s two-point chart and tear it up?

– According to this chart, Pinkel made the correct call to go for two if he felt that his chances of being successful on the two point try exceeded 35%.  That’s a pretty low threshhold, actually. In the NFL, two point tries are successful on average 40%, so using that percentage, then going for two is correct. However, Mizzou’s ability to gain three yards at the goal line is fairly bad. In addition to the missed two-point tries, Mizzou’s red zone TD offense has been awful. The linked chart also does not take into account the score total – there was no question more points were going to be scored in this game. Going for two with Mizzou’s offense down by two at the start of the second half was a bad idea. Calling for Gabbert to take the corner made it even worse.

– Now, the punt with three minutes to go. I’m pretty sure that was a bad call, but don’t think it was as bad as the two-point conversion attempt. Harry Four is an excellent punter and its likely KU will be pushed back inside its 20. Pinkel has to believe that KU will run the ball and, considering that, must believe the Tigers’ chances of getting a three and out are very good. KU would kick the ball back to Mizzou with over a minute to go, Mizzou would get good field position, and would need to get to the KU 30 for a game tying field goal. The alternative would be going for 4th and 4. With a young QB who hasn’t shown himself to be Elway under pressure, Pinkel must not have liked MU’s chances. He probably assessed them at around 30%. If the Tigers don’t get it, KU runs the ball, MU gets a three and out, KU punts and Mizzou has the ball at its own 20 with a minute to go and no timeouts. My gut reaction at the time wasn’t to boo the call, but I completely understood the booing. Still, I don’t think it was a terrible Les Miles type call.

– What was with all the personal fouls? Tigers must have been whistled for four of them altogether.

The Ugly:

–

The Jayhawks respond to the badass Tiger helmets

by putting that silly cartoon bird on their hats. Seriously? Their Woody Woodpecker/Toucan Sam strikes fear in nothing. Now, if Mizzou had brought out the Truman helmets, then KU’s response would have made sense.

I’m sending this artist’s rendition to Alden immediately. I think we have our bowl helmets.

– Blair Kirkhoff’s bowl projection: Mizzou v. Minnesota in the Insight Bowl. Ugh. Minnesota is bad. I’m not just talking a little bad, I’m talking 4.7 yards/play bad. I’m talking a QB ranked 97th in the country in passer rating. You know, Okie State screwed Mizzou twice – once for not getting a BCS bid and once for letting OU get to 7-5 and be an attractive bowl selection. I’ve always hated Mike Gundy.

– Yeah, the Tigers lost to Baylor. That sucked. Still, had the Tigers merely held on against NU they’d be playing in the Big 12 Championship game next weekend. The 4th quarter meltdown in the rain is all that matters. To those who prophesized before the game that it was for the Big 12 North, I salute you.

And then there was one. One game left for what has become one of my favorite Tiger teams of all time. These Tigers have a chance to be the first Tiger team to win its final four games since 1965 – thanks to Roberto to tipping me to that. That fourth game was a 20-18 win over the Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl. This fourth game will not be nearly as dramatic unless, maybe, just maybe, the Sun Bowl picks the Tigers to play USC. That would nice.

Beating KU is always sweet. Beating them on a last second field goal is all the sweeter. Beating KU when every fiber of your football being tells you all week long that you’re going to lose is the sweetest victory of all.