Ten Thoughts on Mizzou's 51-32 loss to Mississippi State
I posted some initial quick thoughts last night and Mitchell had his instant takeaways after the game. Now we go a little more in depth after a little time to think about what we watched. Here are ten thoughts on the 51-32 loss to Mississippi State to end the regular season.
1) Eli Drinkwitz has been Missouri’s coach for about 375 days. Saturday was the first day I saw him appear to be worn out. If you ask anyone about Drinkwitz, the first word that comes to mind is energy. He looked and sounded like his had been sapped after the game Saturday. Sure, part of it is a disappointing loss. But these coaches and players have been on campus for six months to play ten games. They’ve been tested three times a week and had games moved and cancelled and postponed and rescheduled. They find out every Monday who they’re going to play then every Friday if they’re going to play then every Saturday who is actually available to play. They’ve done it all to entertain us and to make the schools money. I think they deserve a lot of credit and probably thanks for it. It was a weird season. A lot of it wasn’t really all that enjoyable. But I’m glad they had it. It took a lot to pull it off and I think they’re exhausted. I think the best thing to do would probably be to opt out of a bowl game or simply to cancel all the non-playoff bowl games. But that’s not going to happen. They’ll play and they’ll try to win and we’ll cover it.
2) Saturday was Connor Bazelak’s worst game. He’s been up and down this season. There’s been a lot of good, but it there have been some bumps in the road too. That’s to be expected. But I think after the LSU game too many people thought “Holy cow he was this good in his third start, imagine how good he is going to be in year three and four and five!” Progression isn’t linear. There are steps forward and back. Today was a step back without question. Beyond the three picks, there were just some really bad throws. Even a couple of the completions had to be saved by the receiver. It happens. Players have bad days, especially young ones. But I think today is a good reminder not to start building anyone’s statue just yet. I think two major things need to be the focus for Bazelak: His accuracy on the deep ball and his ability to use his legs. He doesn’t run much. He doesn’t really move around much. I assume he’s capable, but I haven’t seen a lot of it. Lastly, I don’t want to make too big a deal out of it because you don’t want your QB hurt trying to make a tackle in a game that’s already decided, but I’m betting something will be mentioned about his ole on the goal line when they watch the game on film.
3) While Bazelak was struggling, the guy we thought was going to be Missouri’s quarterback this year gave everyone a silver lining