re: Rewatched the game

You cant fix the talent level of the secondary which is basically dog shite. As I said before the season started, Sherills is overrated, Cheadle is awful, and it appears the Freshman have no idea what they're doing or know how to tackle.

Just expect to give up 40 ppg and plan accordingly on offense.

We need Perkins back. He's a reliable tackler and we need that in the worst way.

Cheadle played fine. He also didn't draw their top WR, but he had a good game.

Acy was just brutal and that's very disappointing. We need him to step up and be CB1 in the worst way.

No idea why Hines even plays. I'm guessing he won't going forward.

Second half Mizzou gave up just over 100 yards, and 1 TD. Looked like the changes started to be made by late in the 2nd quarter.

On 4 plays Mizzou gave up 260 yards and 4 TDs. If the second half D was the D we see the rest of the season, that should be enough to give the team a chance to win.

According to BO in his press conference today Mizzou had 1 play call on defense the entire second half. Says it was as base/vanilla as could be.

Bo has had 1 full class as a head coach.
13 first year players got into the game on defense.
If you exclude first and second year players, here's who Mizzou payed that were GP recruits: Beisel, Cheadle, Lee, Burkett, and Sherrils. Frazier, Hall and TBJ are GP recruits, but BO was DC when they were recruited.

quote:

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After early breakdowns, Missouri simplified its defense against Missouri State

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It seems with the guys we recruit the defense can't be simple enough

My take was the D was vanilla, but still too complicated for our college boyz.

After rewatching the game myself (with Jack Daniels by my side), I feel much more confident when I say Mizzou can still field a good football team in 2017. Here are my takeaways, good and bad, from the MOST game:

• Crockett reminds me a ton of Le'Veon Bell in terms of running style. Both are physical runners who are sometimes frustratingly patient with inhumanly quick feet. How many runs did Crockett have where he literally never got touched for 20 yards? And I'm not talking about it being because of the OL.

• I can tell Cross is still trying to implement the TCU stuff on the back end of the defense. It's sound as hell and damn near unstoppable when run correctly. But it takes lots of reps and is therefore ROUGH when you have freshmen back there. It requires a lot of communication before and during the play and that is hard for guys who aren't used to that stuff. Watch how many times our DB's aren't even set at the start of the play bc they're talking to each other. This will (hopefully) get better as the season goes along, but for now it is best to be patient with it.

• As a high school OL coach, our front five are a thing of beauty to watch. Elarbee has got those boys playing nasty. Still have some things to clean up (getting the head across on backside scoops) but overall they get an A for the game.

• Beckner is going to be a little tentative for a while bc of his knee injuries. It's just natural. That's why his getoffs have been so poor. Even on his one sack, he lined up a yard off of the ball and was initially catching the OL instead of attacking. He is still physically dominating, but it's usually too late in the play for it to matter.

• Johnathon Johnson has the heart of a lion. The guy goes all out every play. His pancake on the CB on J'Mon Moore's screen TD was a perfect example.

• I was very relieved to see our defense sucked not for lack of talent or heart, but because we had guys not doing their own job. A lot of guys tried too hard to make a play. As crazy as this sounds, it's true. LB's know that they aren't supposed to be the first guy there on a jet sweep. But because they were, they were completely vulnerable to the various companion plays off of it. DB's were jumping underneath routes and leaving the medium/long range routes wide open behind them. Just watch the play where 3 guys immediately bite on the tunnel screen and abandon the wheel route. If the back end guys wait a second longer to see what's going on, we could limit those big plays to short gains. Our guys just need to calm down, don't go until they know, and do THEIR job instead of overreacting.

All in all, I am seeing the glass half full when it comes to our defense right now. I think we'll look rough against SCAR and Auburn, but we will turn the corner once we get into the middle of the schedule. Our offense is phenomenal. I don't care if it was MOST. To make division one football players consistently look that stupid isn't normal. Do I think we'll look exactly like that vs UGA/UF/Auburn? Of course not. But we are definitely capable of putting up 35+ against those guys.

I honestly think this a consequence of playing so many players and not have an established depth chart. These guys are literally out there trying to win their position still.

I fricking hate this "OR" crap