Five Minutes for Blogging, Early Edition Dec. 30
It’s 3:55 a.m. and the night is young.
Crazy football game, eh? Mizzou wins over Northwestern 30-23 in OT.
I’ll always remember the Alamo Bowl…
1. FOR MUCH OF THE GAME I HAD TO RESIST THE URGE TO THROW A BOTTLE OF CHILLED GREY GOOSE THROUGH THE TELEVISION SCREEN, BUT AT THE END I WAS HAPPY FOR CHASE DANIEL: I’m telling you, as I watched Daniel struggle through those gadawful series in the second half, when he was freaking out, sailing passes and drifting swiftly into madness, I started thinking… you know what? We’ve seen this before. Or at least something like it… Rick Ankiel, on the mound, peppering the screen behind home plate with his wild throws during the NL playoffs. But late in the game, Daniel gathered himself and put together money drives to force a tie and carry this ordeal into overtime. And he threw a perfect strike to J. Maclin in the OT for the winning TD. Daniel surely can be irritating; some of his junior-year success swelled his ego. And he’s been in decline. He threw only one INT in the first five games of the season, but was picked off 17 times in the last eight games, including three on Monday. But considering all that he’s done for Mizzou football — all of those magic moments, all of those wins — it would have been a shame to see Daniel finish his MU career on depressing, dirty lowdown evening of failure. The Texan rallied himself. He didn’t go out like Ankiel against the Braves, Ankiel against the Mets, in 2000. Daniel went out a winner. And the kid deserved that.
2. WHAT THE HECK WAS GARY PINKEL THINKING ABOUT? Chance to tie the game, or win the game, less than a minute left in the 4th Q, ball at the Northwestern 23 yard-line. OK, Jeff Wolfert is a helluva kicker, as reliable as they come in the college game. He’s facing a 40-yarder there. Not a gimme putt, but a high-percentage kick. Except that Mizzou — instead of trying to carve out a few more yards to advance the ball and give Wolfert an easier shot — ran two passive plays that lost between four and five yards. (Pinkel apparently was trying to position the ball closer to the left hash mark for Wolfert. Heck if I know). So now all of a sudden, Wolfert is staring at a 44-yarder. Yes, I know up to that point he’d made 6 of 7 field goals from distances between 40 and 49 yards this season. But anything from 40+ is fraught with risk, especially at the end of the game. It’s never an easy kick. Not for Wolfert, not for anyone. You just don’t back your kicker up and put more pressure on him. You run a couple of low-risk plays there, maybe get Wolfert another six or seven yards, and let him hit the field goal attempt from about 33, 34 yards out. But you don’t push him back and give him a more difficult kick. That’s just goofy. Well, now… Wolfert, as you already know, missed the 44-yarder and the drama spilled into OT. And Wolfert didn’t deserve to have this on his conscience as he concluded his final game for MU. But for Wolfert’s sake, and Pinkel’s, the Mizzou offense and defense sharply disposed of Northwestern in the bonus stanza.
3. WHICH REMINDS ME OF FONTELLA BASS: It is my humble opinion that the greatest song recorded by a St. Louis Rock N’ Roll, R & B or pop artist is “Rescue Me,” by Ms. Bass. Controversial choice, I know. I’m not trying to diss all of that wonderful stuff from Chuck Berry, Nelly, Ike & Tina Turner, Uncle Tupelo or any number of acts we could mention. Yes, even “The Cheater” cranked out by Bob Kuban and The In-Men, featuring the late Walter Scott on lead vocals. But “Rescue Me” always jumps, always hits it, and never gets old. Feel free to discuss, and dissent. But “Recue Me” certainly applied to Daniel, Wolfert and Pinkel on Monday night.
4. JEREMY MACLIN, THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES: The kid’s gotta declare and head to the NFL, right? Mizzou’s sensational sophomore wideout, return man and blaze runner is going to make a lot of money in the pro game, and it is time for him to get paid instead of risking another major injury that could jeopardize his NFL draft status in 2010, or 2011. (Whisper: Maclin thrills the Rams’ scouts.)
5. WITH ALL DUE RESPECT TO BASEBALL AMERICA … I don’t care where the Cardinals’ player-development system is ranked. Sure, it’s nice to know that the Cardinals are apparently doing better in stocking the system with more talent. But until I see this brigade of wunderkinds, phenoms and prodigies up in the majors, tearing it up over the course of several seasons, I’m not going to buy into the hype. No sale. Not now. I want to see the players getting it done in the majors, and then I’ll be happy to start singing their praises. Until then, I’m not going to go Pavarotti and belt out “Nessun Dorma” in a tribute to a bunch of kids who may or not play in the majors. Let’s hold off on the parade, OK? Thanks.
First 30-second bonus: Missouri winning at least 10 football games in consecutive seasons for the first time in school history is a significant achievement — even if the diabolical Mizzou hater Joe “El Diablo” Strauss only gives the Tigers credit for several legit wins over the two-year period because of the soft schedule.
Second 30-second bonus: Debate topic for all of you former or current J-Schoolers out there. The Alamo Bowl got me thinking (which can be dangerous). Who’s got the better journalism school these days, Missouri or Northwestern? Let the throwdown begin. Keep it clean.
-Bernie
Is it possible that the O-line wasn’t as good as we thought 6 games ago? Did the coaches know that and put Daniel between a rock and a hard place? For two years we have watched MU ignore the running game in crucial situations. handing the ball to maclin in motion is technically a run play but the base running game disappeared in crunch time. I don’t know how many times I caught myself yelling that they need to get physical and run the ball with power. The MU linemen could have worn out the Nw D-lineman but MU chose to go one dimensional. So much so that Jack Arute heard the DC of NW say they weren’t patient enough to run down 3 points with 10 minutes to go! And how hard is it to know it’s a pass when there isn’t even a running back in the backfield. Slaten says it best “one coach is dumber than the next”.
Bernie, some of the Tigers play calling this season has been questionable to say the least. Pinkel seems to have fallen in love with the pass. When he runs the ball it looks as if they have never practiced a running play! I think the lack of a running game made Daniel’s feel like he had to make a play via the pass for them to be successful. Maybe that is why he made some bad decisions throwing the ball.
Bernie, the more I read your blogs, the more I agree with you…I think I may be alone in that tho.LOL Some Mizzou fans have gotten a little spoiled from last year and are expecting a bit too much, too soon. I’ll grant you this team underachieved this year, but pulling out a 10 win season is still an accomplishment. Let’s not forget it wasn’t all that long ago that Mizzou normally equated to “Who?” throughout the country. Love him or hate him, Coach Pinkel,(a fellow Kent State alum), has this team on the right track.
I agree with your assessment on the Cards farm system, let’s see some of these kids flourish at the major league level and then we can talk. Guys like Rasmus need to become more than potential, but producers.
Ive been a cardinal and rams fan forever and have seen the best and worst of st. louis football. remember dallas and bob hayes ? i just saw the fastest man on earth on t.v. and i thought why not. this man is tall and very fast, let tory holt mentor this man and with his speed he could change this football team now. it doesnt hurt to look beyond our nose and maybe tory would want to stay and mentor this man. just remember how bob hayes changed the game and this speedster could do the same,
Cornhead: Missouri’s journalism school is the oldest west of the Mississippi, not Iowa’s. It’s also the oldest on either side of the Mississippi. They even teach fact-checking there.
I had the same thought about the endo of the 4th quarter as Bernie stated. Try to gain some yards to increase the likelihood of a successful field goal. Any field goal attempt of more than 40 yards has a significant chance of failure. It seemed like Pinkel was paranoid about a possible fumble.
First as a season ticket holder and as a supporter I am pleased and relieved that the tigers won last night. What rings in my ears are Pinkels comments at the half.”lack of focus” Also the comments of the announcers in the second half after the Gettis failure “mental error after mental error”. I am sorry but this was exhibited repeatedly this year. I am glad that CD is getting out with a win and the annoucers were being cautiously critical because he is a student athlete. I look forward to 2009 with lower expectations and a desire to seedifferent athletes. Thanks to the 23 seniors who are all graduating and to the underclassmen who made the last couple of years memorable.
I agree with all of your points today, especially #2 and 5. On 2, I made almost the exact comment to my son. On #5, I also wonder why all of the good(I won’t say great)prospects are not given a real chance to make the major league roster.
Alright people, if you want to defend the schedule go right ahead. If you think going to bowl games some how legitimizes Buffalo and Nevada as major programs, go ahead and fool yourself. Moreover, if Pinkel/Alden had realized they would be as good as they were, they would have tried to get out of playing those guys as well. It was an incredibly boring non-conference schedule. I always hated the Bill Snyder way of doing things with watered down scheduling and was always critical of it, and Mizzou now does the same thing. You can have your Nevadas and Buffalos, I would rather play teams from big conferences, the Mississippi series a few years ago was an excellent one. If you are satisfied playing the Nevadas, SEMOs and Buffalos of the world, then so be it. However, it is not good enough for me. In the 70’s, Mizzou knocked off Alabama, USC in Los Angeles, Ohio State in Columbus, Notre Dame in South Bend. Now we would not dare schedule these games. But I guess many of you would rather see the San Jose States and Eastern Michigans of the world.
Good grief, someone said Iowa!