The Worst Week in Missouri Sports
MU Tigers
All I can say is that I think this game has the looks to be the downfall for the Tigers this year. That is pretty unfortunate considering everyone in the stadium thought MU had this game in the bag going into the 4th quarter. Why did this collapse happen? I know I have my theories: (1) the rain – - It was pouring all day and all night. The rain let up for a little bit in the 4th which opened up the game some. I kept telling Jeff that I hoped the downpour did not stop. (2) the PA system – - I don’t know if anyone not at the game realized this but there was no sound or video (on the big screen) the entire game. The only boards working were the south endzone. What this meant was that no one in the stadium has any clue what was going on. We didn’t know why there was a penalty or anything else going on in the game. More importantly, the announcer was not able to pump up the crowd on all crucial third downs. It was just a weird feeling. The play clocks were also not working. (3) turnovers – - MU needed to capitalize on all the mistakes in the 1st half but did not. It seems like they got a 10 or 15 yard penalty every time we got in the Huskers territory. I think I read that they had 1st and over 20 4 times in the first half. (4) Blaine Gabbert – - A lot of the collapse has to fall on his shoulder. I believe he had 4 interceptions. I believe Nebraska scored 3 times in less than 4 minutes almost all because of Blaine’s crappy passes. Someone thought it was because he injured his ankle earlier in the game so he could not plant his foot. I don’t believe this at all. He has gotten lucky all season with a lot of dropped interceptions by defenses. The problem is that he stares down his receivers. He needs to learn to pump fake and read the overall field. He will never make it into the pros looking like he does now. Also, if he was hurt then he shouldn’t have been in there.
The Blues
I did not get to see any of the first two home games but they also lost both games. I read some headlines and it looks to be the game problem they had in Sweden against Detroit which is slow starts.
The Cards
This was by far the biggest disappointment of the week yet I am not really surprised. If you go back and look at the season you see a couple different teams. The 1st half was a team carried by Pujols. The rest of the team’s hitting was terrible but Pujols’ huge numbers kept us floating. We then had the awesome August run after we pulled off the Lugo, Derosa, and Holliday trades. All three players started off awesome along with Ludwick heating up. Pujols was a little cold but the whole team was hitting so we looked unstoppable. September came upon us and we went into a huge cold streak. I am not sure if it was tiredness, lack of competition, or August was really just overrated due to our easy schedule. What I do know is that we had some major let downs that did not help the team morale. Ryan Franklin was shaky and the blown 20th win for Wainright was a complete letdown.
I do not normally blame a manager for a teams loss but I am having a hard time not doing it this series. The players looked lifeless. If they were tired, then they should have been rested more in September since we had the division in the bag. If they were not tired, then Tony did a poor job in motivating his team. The players are still pros so they should have been playing their A game.
There are a lot of questions floating around … Did we give up to much for Holliday and Derosa? I say no because it gave us a legitimate chance to win a Series behind Pujols and two Cy Young pitchers. Are any of coaches going to return next season? I expect Tony to be back but I do no think the same for the hitting and pitching coaches. Duncan should come back unless he holds a grudge for no reason.
As for the series, Carpenters effort was a letdown but the lack of hitting with the whole team prevented us from winning. Game 2 was a disaster with Holliday’s dropped catch. I do believe the series would have a totally different outcome if we would have gone back to St Louis tied 1 to 1 in the Series. A perfect example of the clutch hitting that the Cards needed was demonstrated by the Phillies last night. They blew their lead in the 8th and was on the verge of losing the game in the 9th but was able to comeback in the game with 2 outs in the 9th to win the game. I believe the Cards had an equally powerful lineup as the Phillies but you would have never guess if looking at their numbers on paper.
The Rams
I watched the first half of this game. The Rams looked to have a healthy run game and a good passing attack by Boller against a good defense but could not capitalize when they were within the 5 and 10 yard lines. People are ragging on the Defense but I think they looked good. Of course you’re going to give up a lot of points when you’re on the field all game. With that said, I am not sure the Rams will win a game this year. The KC Cheifs also loss to maintain the zero wins by a Missouri team for the week.