1) Let me first say that I can't tell you how to feel. I can tell you how I feel. I can tell you how I think it is reasonable to feel. But how you feel about Missouri's 2-2 start is how you feel. The way I feel is that the start is a bit disappointing, but not shocking or disastrous. At the beginning of the year, we divided the schedule into three types of games:
Wins: Central Michigan, SEMO, North Texas, Vanderbilt
Losses: Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M
Swing games: Kentucky, Boston College, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas
Missouri was won the two games it absolutely had to win. It has not yet played any of the games we expected it to lose. It has lost two swing games. A successful season was always based on going 3-2 in the swing games. That is still on the table. I understand why some believe it to be far less likely than they used to, but it has not been eliminated. What has been eliminated is the margin for error.
Before the year, I said seven wins would be deemed as the baseline. Seven might not have you over the moon, but it should not be viewed as disappointing. I said that six wouldn't be a disaster, but it would probably leave most people feeling a little bit disappointed. I thought the most logical path to seven was winning either Kentucky or Boston College because that would provide a little bit of cushion and allow you to have a subpar day which resulted in a loss against Tennessee, South Carolina or Arkansas. That cushion is gone. You now need to win one of the three swing games (and it is fair if people want to switch Arkansas to the likely loss column and move A&M to the swing game category; either way, you've still got three swing games and you pretty much have to win all three).
Here's how I'd handicap it: Four wins is guaranteed (they aren't losing to North Texas or Vandy), five is possible, six is likely, seven is not off the table. Anything more than seven would be relatively miraculous at this point. Again, if six makes you angry or leaves you questioning the direction of the program, I can't tell you not to feel that way. I don't agree with you and I think the issue is more with your expectations than it does with any failure of the program, but I'm not going to be able to talk you out of it.
2) The one thing that shouldn't be up for debate is where the blame lies here. The Solid Verbal, a good college football podcast, has a thing where they talk about good half-teams. Those are teams that are good on one side of the ball, but so bad on the other side of the ball that it doesn't matter. Missouri is approaching quintessential half-team status. Here are Missouri's national rankings in the major statistical categories:
Total offense: 20
Rushing offense: 73
Passing offense: 12
Scoring offense: 20
Total defense: 117
Rushing defense: 129
Passing defense: 33
Scoring defense: 108
So what you have is a top 20 offense and a bottom 20 defense. When we have a situation like this, our blame often times starts to get cast in the wrong direction. Basically, we know the defense is terrible. We expect the defense to be terrible. So we then begin to put unrealistic expectations on the side of the ball that is actually pretty good and we blame them when they aren't perfect. Missouri's offense isn't perfect...but it is good enough to be 4-0 at this point in time. Missouri is better offensively than both the teams it has lost to. The defense would not even have to be good for Missouri to be 4-0. It would just have to be not awful. Unfortunately, it has been awful. But any ire directed to the offense--and, more specifically, to the quarterback--is misguided. Connor Bazelak is 13th in the country in passing yards per game, 10th in the country in touchdown passes and 40th in the country in quarterback rating. This isn't his fault and it isn't the offense's fault.
3) That's not saying Bazelak has been perfect.
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