Try and ignore the horrible music. Last year's highlites...

Much has been made of the errors, some blown calls, the personal fouls, the decision to rush the punter and the dropped pass/overthrown ball. However, the one stat that jumps out at me is 4 yards rushing by Missouri tailbacks for the game and zero plays involving a tailback in the second half. With Missouri back in the hunt and standing on the OU two yard line, the Tigers went empty backfield out of the shotgun four plays in a row. Two of those plays the Tigers threw the ball.

Now I'm not a complete convert to the spread offense, but I'm not going to completely dismiss it as gimmicky. I've seen it work well and with Daniel at quarterback, it can be effective against a strong defense. However, there isn't a coach out there from the NFL to pee wee football who would have run those four plays from the two yard line. In that respect, the Tigers stand alone in the football universe.

Throughout the second half, OU, which has a very strong defense, rushed three and dropped eight into coverage. Except for the one touchdown drive in which the Tigers were acting so fast that OU couldn't make personnel changes or get set in time, they took away everything underneath and everything over the top. The obvious answer to this is to keep them honest by running the ball...something Mizzou refused to do.

OU, like A&M, steadily ran the ball and controlled the clock. OU had the ball three times as much as Mizzou in the 4th quarter. I realize that Temple got hurt, but is there no other tailback on the sideline? Is this offense so one dimensional that we must go with an empty backfield when Temple goes down?

I'll pick on one other play. This may seem nitpicky, but it illustrates my feelings that Pinkel's coaching staff has trouble with game situations. With OU up 13 and going for a field goal with about 3:55 left to play, Mizzou dropped a safety back to watch for the fake. There was a better chance of the Earth crashing into the sun than for Stoops to fake a fieldgoal that if made, would ice the game. Where was the special teams coach screaming for the all out block?

So a few game observations:

• Adam Crossett takes about three seconds to get the ball off. He can easily cut that in half.
  
• Missouri's receivers sometimes gave up on the play while Daniel scrambled. Until that whistle is blown, play.
  
• Dead ball personal fouls like pancaking a guy 5 seconds after the play is over is something I just didn't expect to see nine games into the season.
  
• Spend a few days and draw up a goal line play that doesn't involve hiking the ball six yards backwards to an empty backfield. Put Coffman in as fullback. Anything but what we saw.
  
• Just because you're down by two scores doesn't mean you have to throw the ball every down. If they drop eight like OU did the second half, you simply have to run.
  
• I'm not prepared to say Mizzou is a better team than OU, but the game was clearly there for the taking. This game illustrates perfectly the differences small coaching decisions can make as well as mistakes and sloppiness. Stoops is an outstanding coach and expertly exploited Missouri's failings.
  
• Kansas City Star Missouri beat writer Mike DeArmond called the incomplete pass to Chase Coffman early in the game "perfect". The play happened right below me. While Coffman maybe could have caught the ball by diving, the pass was long. I just don't want this to turn into a Jackie Smith-esque bit of folklore that Coffman dropped a creampuff pass. He'll tell you he should have caught it, but he's just being a good teammate and displaying a good attitude.
  
• Despite a nightmarish showing on the big stage, Missouri is significantly improved over any Tiger team of the last 35 years save 1998. The 1998 team may not have achieved as much in wins (remains to be seen), but it was a very disciplined team and played an outstanding power running game. Pinkel has Missouri heading much higher, but will the Tigers' playcalling and discipline keep up with the potential?

Below is our artist's conception of what it might look like on Saturday. Unfortunately our artist isn't good enough to take out the Colorado football players, so you'll have to use your imagination...

• Cardinals win 7-2 I declared Reyes the sacrificial lamb and he turned out to be an eight foot troll with six arms.
  
• Tigers beat K-State The cheap shot thugs from Silo Tech got run out of Columbia. It's been a long time since that dark, foggy day in 1992 at Faurot when the Tigers last beat the Mild Cats.
  
• KU loses yet another heart breaker Let's see...that's two overtime loses and two last minute losses for Mangino, the walking planet.
  
• Nebraska loses a heartbreaker to Texas I can't stand Texas, but I really really can't stand Nebraska. Plus, they're in the North, so it's good for Missouri for them to lose. Nebraska losing in Lincoln is one of the finer experiences in life.

I got the email yesterday with a link and a password saying that I could buy World Series tickets at exactly 9 am today. Unfortunately they opened the virtual turnstile at 8:50 and by the time I and a lot of other people logged in, all three games were sold out.

Cardinal management, either open sales when you say you will or go back to the old lottery style.

A small group of Missouri students have raised the issue that Brady Commons should not be named after T.A. Brady.

In 1966, the University Board of Curators ratified the following resolution:

“Thomas A. Brady served the University of Missouri for thirty-eight years as instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, professor, vice president, and dean. Thomas Brady distinguished himself in his chosen field both as a teacher and a scholar. Thomas A. Brady brought distinction and honor to the University by being the first University faculty member ever chosen as a Guggenheim Fellow. Near the end of World War II, Thomas A. Brady made a major contribution to American higher education through his study of the educational needs of the returning veteran and his plans for meeting those needs in Missouri and elsewhere. Thomas A. Brady held an abiding faith in the dignity and personal worth of each individual and made this faith operational in the daily life of our students through the student personal services, which he organized, developed and supervised. Therefore, be it resolved that the Curators of the University of Missouri do hereby recognize the long and distinguished service that Thomas A Brady rendered to the University and especially to its students by naming the building now known as the Student Commons the THOMAS A. BRADY COMMONS in testimony of our esteem and gratitude for his devoted service. "

Until this debate, I wasn't really aware of who Mr. Brady was or why he had a building named after him. I don't get GCB either or why someone came up with that classic name.

This group has protested Mr. Brady's apparent efforts to identify and remove homosexuals from the student population in the 1940s.

I guess I have a problem with this for a few reasons. First, you can't look at history in a vacuum. Today, it would be considered scandalous to engage in this activity. At that time, homosexuality was far out of the social mainstream and in many ways still is. Gay rights groups congratulate themselves on their progress to browbeat America into cheering them on, then turn around and want to project contemporary opinion 60 years into the past.

Second, Mr. Brady wasn't honored for his efforts regarding homosexuality. He was honored for his contributions to academics.

Finally, there are many historical figures who had values and acts that would be considered unimaginable today. Take Thomas Jefferson, for example. His concept of the perfect design of a university is captured by Missouri's Quadrangle. It is horseshoe shaped, symbolizing knowledge flowing out of the open end. Moreover, his original tombstone which he personally designed rests on the Quad. Yet, he was a slave owner.

How will Mizzou's leadership react to this? Academia leads the fight in the tolerance/diversity movement, which is designed to cleanse actions, speech and policies to placate the last offended person.

As such, I'm not confident that the University is capable of standing up to political correctness. On the other hand, pressure needs to be applied to see that reason rules the day.

Contact the Board of Curators.

The loss to Texas A&M hurts particularly bad since it was a team effort by the players and coaches to give the game away to a far inferior team. The Tigers spotted A&M 14 points on turnovers while two amazingly bad 4th down calls sunk the Tigers.

Without researching it, I am pretty confident that Pinkel is the first coach to ever attempt a fake field goal after a delay of game penalty. Then going to the option with a passing quarterback on 4th down with four minutes to go in the game makes me wonder why I spent three hours of my Saturday watching this game.

This was a case of a coach trying to outwit himself and losing.

Up next, K-State. I think we win the next two, but this spectacularly dumb game will be tough to forget.

Yeah I know, I posted predictions below. I'm posting a second prediction today and I'll see which is right and then brag about it.

Chip Donaldson has a huge game, throws 3 tds and the Tigers run in another.

I thought Mizzou wouldn't win this game. I also said that any other Missouri team from the last 10 years would lose it, but if we could win, it's a new day at Missouri.

I'm a convert to the gym short, arena ball offense Pinkel is running. With Chance's gun and a multitude of high talent receivers on top of a solid running game, Mizzou could very well win the Big XII North this year. I am duly humbled.

• Red Raiders
  
• Bobby Knight
  

I'm just not familiar with them.

This nonsense about The Zou has to end. It reminds me of 90s talk like The Dew and The Turtles (Teenage Mutant Ninja...), etc. It sounds more Nickelodeon than college football.