Missouri Recap

Apologize for the delay this week. Further apologies to Chuck Rounsaville. All complaints go to our Canuckian friend. Moving along:

THE GOOD

(Pictures from the Clarion Ledger)

Again Seth Adams continues to amaze. I was not expecting much from him starting the season but he has more than surpassed any expectation I had from him. He hit some deep passes that showed he had a better arm than I originally expected and showed that he can complete the long pass when needed. He also continues to do a superb job of managing the game and avoiding turnovers. He also does a good job of spreading the ball to his different receivers as 6 Rebels caught passes against Missouri. Would have to get the game ball for his services.

The Predator had another great day running the ball thanks the the solid blocking of the offensive line that accumulated 245 rushing yard and only allowed one sack. The Predator gained 228 of those rushing yards and scored a touchdown. He did however have a costly fumble in the red zone that turned the game in Missouri's favor.

THE BAD

The Rebels also let the poor tackling bug strike again. The Rebel defenders were flying all over the place diving for tackles and missing and trying to arm tackle defenders and coming away with nothing. Missouri repeatedly made long gains on intermediate routes after breaking away from the defenders. It looked like the ol' Don Lindsey defenses of the Cutcliffe days.

However the offense simply couldn't keep up with Missouri. We had the best offensive day in a while but Missouri has one of the best offenses in the country. What killed the Rebels in the first half was dropped passes when Missouri was loading the line to shut down the Predator. If the receivers could have sustained some drives in the first half like they did the second the Rebels might have been able to stay in it instead of getting behind an unsurmountable 28 points. This will only get to be a bigger problem against the better defenses in the SEC. One receiver is going to have to step up if this team is going to win the big games.

Of course a lot of the "comeback" has to be taken with a grain of salt. The reason the Rebels were able to come back some on Missouri in the second half was the Missouri's defense is horrendous and they lack a power running game. Missouri's offense scores a lot of points and scores them fast. When they get up big they have to back off a bit because they don't won't to necessarily run the score up and they don't want to give up the big interception that gets the other team back in the game. They then don't have the running game to grind the clock out and instead give the other team a lot of opportunities to come back. It's why they let Illinois, coached by the original Ron Zook, come back on them late just a week ago. They give the opposing team as much short distance routes as they want in the hopes that they run the clock out themselves.

THE UGLY

The Rebels still can't do anything to stop a spread offense and have one of the statistical worst passing defenses in the country. A large part of what's killing the Rebels in the spread is the lack of speed at linebacker and lack of depth. Even the Ogerzook admits as much. Its only going to be worse over the next couple of weeks as Jonathan Cornell is out. Walkon Jamie Phillips is expected to start in his place but no official work has come out.

Maybe this would be a good time to still have a few of the twelve linebackers* who have left the team during Ogerzook's three year career. A few including will get the face the Rebels this year such as Marquis McBeath who's starting for Louisiana Tech.

*(Quentin Taylor, Wallace Bates, Dustin Fortson, Jabarre Mitchell, Dontae Reed, Rogers Loche, Garry Pack, Retario Brown, Marquis McBeath, LeRon King, Rory Johnson and Robert Russell.)