Duck & Cover!!!
DUCK & COVER!!!
For the first 4 games of the season and even subsequent close losses to teams like Tennessee and Texas, the Bulldogs looked like an improved team over last year's. The offense showed dangerous long range passing capability and occasional flashes of a solid rushing attack with Fluff and Booth. The defense, while not lock down, appeared much improved over last year's historically inept version and kept us in games. As with Saul in Acts 9:18, however, the scales have fallen from our eyes. In the past 3 games, the last two against the teams who (along with aTm) have been the most physical we've played and with the most potent running attacks, opposing runners have gone through State's alleged defense like crap through the proverbial goose. To our utter dismay our 2025 'Dogs look like a near exact replica of the 2024 defenseless Pups. And it was my personal misfortune to have ridden 1,172 miles in over 18 hours to have borne witness to the catastrophic display that verified that the stampede we had seen the previous weekend on Scott Field was most assuredly not a one-off. Hello again, Reality, you heartless SOB. 😢
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| Ahmad, the Night Visitor |
The Horror
There will be no "Good & Bad" or "Pluses & Minuses" because there was virtually nothing positive of consequence that happened for MSU in the game. (I feel obligated, however, to point out that despite their complete dominance the Tigers managed to keep MSU mathematically in the game until the 4th quarter due to their total ignorance and/or willful disdain for the rules of the game.) There were plenty of negatives though, but I'll just hit the highlights lowlights. We'll do them Late Night with David Letterman "Top 10 List" style, only these will be a "Worst 10 List" done quasi-New Testament style, meaning the worst shall be last:
#10 - State had only 7 penalties for 45 yds., but made them at the most inopportune times, e.g., a) consecutive dead ball false starts by our same offensive lineman when MSU had the ball 1st and 10 at the MO 32 and trailing only 7 - 0 (contributing to our settling for a FG); b) delay of game on 2nd and goal at MO 4 in the 2nd quarter trailing 14 - 10, which backed us up and led to a turnover; and c) jumping offsides on a MO 3rd and 3 at the MSU 16, giving them a 1st down and leading to Hardy's 1st TD.
#9 - MSU had the ball for nearly a full quarter (12 1/2 mins.) more than Mizzou did during the game, but lost by 22.
#8 - The Tigers are one of the top rushing defenses in the SEC, so naturally State chose to run their smaller, slower QB 18 times, which was more than their top 2 running backs (one of whom weighs 230 lbs.) combined carried the ball.
#7 - Having bogged down in the Mizzou red zone and trailing, MSU lined up to kick a FG from the Tiger 7, which never got off the ground because the snapper banked the ball off the holder's knee. 🙅No wonder Lebby didn't try those apparently obvious FG's against Florida and Georgia!
#6 - While MSU was supposed to be the explosive team, against the woeful 'Dog D the Tigers scored on runs of 72 and 43 yds. and passes of 26 and 34 yds.
#5 - Shapen's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Bad Night: Sacked 3 times, threw for 199 yds. (less than the average of all but 1 SEC team), threw 2 INT's, both of which were turned into Pick 6's, rushed 17 times for 32.4"/carry.
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| If at first you don't succeed, expect different results? |
#4 - The Offensive Lines' Even More Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Bad Night: Gave up 5 QB sacks, 13 TFL's, and enabled our backs to gain only 2.1 yds./carry. [Can you say "futile"? I knew you could.]
#3 - The defense looked like they were witnessing that F5 or the return of Cam Skattebo and were fleeing for safety. He was a beast with good speed and great power who had dominating blocking. Ahmad routinely had runs of 7 - 12 yds., but he had some home runs of 22, 34, 43, and 72 yds. Our tackling was atrocious, but he was a clear reason why.
#2 - In the 2nd quarter the Red Zone Asylum opened for business: With State trailing 14 - 10 Shapen ran and passed the Bulldogs to a 1st and 10 at the Tiger 16 with 10 mins. to go in the half when both teams were stricken with brain cramps, and lunacy reigned: Mizzou committed 3 major penalties (unnecessary roughness, targeting, and grabbing the face mask) in 5 plays, each resulting in half the distance to the goal line and had their defensive captain ejected for targeting. [This has to have been a dirty trick, but for the 2nd game in 3 weeks our most effective rushers by far were the SEC zebras!] Not to be outdumbassed, however, MSU assiduously ignored their running backs and ran their QB's 6 times (Shapen 3 rushes for -2 yds. and Taylor 3 for -1, all on alleged QB read options) and tried 1 pass that fell incomplete. They then lined up for a FG attempt for which the snap zipped straight to the holder's knee, bounced away, was recovered by Mizzou, and returned 63 yds. to the MSU 23. They, of course, went on to score a TD. 🙈
And finally #1 - When asked by the media after the game about why in the hell we ran the QB up the clogged middle on the RPO repeatedly (and ignored our RB's or tried short passes -- or anything different) when the QB run clearly was going nowhere -- our 2nd year coach, a supposed offensive guru, reportedly replied according to Gene's Page, "I'm really frustrated we weren't able to find a way to go get in the end zone. We snapped the ball 7 times down there inside the 10 yard line. Those were moments that to me ended up costing us a ton of momentum." [We fans were pretty damn frustrated too, Coach.🙄 Still are.] Then to clear things up, when asked WTH we were doing running the QB so many times early, he elaborated, "It gave us answers, the way they're structured defensively, playing with a heavy box, so having the ability to play 11 on 11 was necessary. [Playing with as many players as they were was damn sure advisable! Our 12 or 13 on their 11 would've been even better!] Depending upon what the C gap player did dictated whether we handed the ball or pulled the ball. That way we had hats in the run game." 🤠[Looked like we needed Bowie knives and 6 shooters more than the hats! We were outmanned and outgunned.]
Implications
Unlike our coach, I can admit I was wrong. A few games into the season I thought the defense had significantly improved over last year. I was mistaken; we were just playing less physical teams on the front end of our schedule. Our tackling has digressed to 2024 levels. I thought our offensive line was better. I was wrong; we can neither run block nor give our QB any time against physical defenses. And perhaps most disappointing of all, I thought that our coach was developing and that our team would grow with him. Not bloody likely. What is it about being paid silly money that makes a person think he's a genius and his decisions infallible?! The field goal that wasn't attempted at Florida when all common sense said to kick it and win it, and instead doing the one thing that would certainly lose it. Then repeating the mistake late in the first half against Georgia when you had a chance to keep it close and instead trying something that had little chance. And now when it was still a game with a chance to take the lead against a superior team on the road he has chosen to repeatedly run a play/scheme that was consistently ineffective, costing us a chance to take the lead and put pressure on the favored home team. Then he is unable to man up and utter that one key word, much like Happy Days' Arthur Fonzarelli https://youtu.be/CvdY3HfepOo?si=gQd_CTjl-GrZYuD2 .
Now to borrow the words of "Dirty Work," a song written and recorded by Steely Dan in 1972, "I foresee terrible trouble, and I stay here just the same." I love my school and my school's team, but .... The most immediate trouble comes in the form of the offensively potent TSUN Rebels, the #5 or #6 team in the country, depending on which poll you believe. How can a team that's allowing 28 points/game, as we are, and is struggling to stop the run hope to compete with a team that's averaging 37 points a game, as they are, and has a runner averaging 103 yds./game? I can't imagine anything sweeter than beating TSUN and in the process becoming bowl eligible and knocking them out of the playoffs. But wantin' ain't gettin'.
Of more importance and concern to me now is the longer term future of Dear Ole State. Until these last couple of games in which we were noncompetitive I had felt like the only logical choice for MSU's gridiron future was to trust that the improvement I thought we had seen meant that we should trust Lebby to grow as a head coach and our 'Dogs gridiron fortunes to grow along with him. Sadly, I can no longer realistically feel positive about his and our future. Losing games in the SEC is neither surprising nor embarrassing, but Lebby's failure to realize and acknowledge his mistakes gives me no confidence in his ability to learn from them and improve his and our team's skills and talent to the point that we can actually compete.
I hate to think about DOS being in the queue of those schools hiring new coaches this year because realistically we'll be pretty far down in the pecking order. Starting over yet again this soon may be worse, especially in the short haul. But I honestly have little confidence that we won't be seeking to replace a coach at midseason next year. I'm even asking myself whether our AD and powerbrokers are now asking themselves if we'll be better off marking time and getting near the head of next year's line of schools with "help wanted" signs rather than jumping into the back of this year's line. Glad I'm not the one to make such decisions because, as we've learned in several previous coaching changes, it can be worse rather than better.
Please understand that I'm not advocating firing the coach. I'm saying that I personally no longer find it unthinkable and foolish to consider doing so. Let's hope the gridiron gods are feeling kindly toward Lebby and DOS ... and that we pull off the miracle by beating TSUN and march into 2026 with realistic hope for better days. Just don't ask me to bet on any of that. Experience can be a cruel mentor.
GTHOM!
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