ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Mizzou fans came into the season with very very high expectations and dreams of the Missouri Tigers having a legitimate shot at reaching the College Football Playoffs. However, following Mizzou disastrous loss to Alabama, those dreams have all but ended.
Mizzou went into its matchup against Alabama with question marks on the availability of quarterback Brady Cook and running back Nate Noel out for the game. While Cook did manage to play a bit in the first half, ultimately the Tigers offense still wasn't able to do anything and a hand injury forced Cook to leave the game and be replaced by Drew Pyne, who only completed six passes for 42 yards and was picked off three times.
The Tigers would lose to the Crimson Tide 34-0. It marks their second blowout loss in a true road game for the Tigers, with the first one coming earlier in the month with an embarrassing loss to Texas A&M at Kyle Field, losing 41-10.
Matt Pauley, Kevin Wheeler, Bernie Miklasz and Tom Ackerman discussed Mizzou's loss to Alabama Monday in a roundtable discussion, with the four discussing Mizzou's offensive line and lack of success in the passing game being a main factor why the team isn't as good as it was last year.
"The thing that is alarming, and we all appreciate Brady Cook on a lot of levels, but even before he got hurt, he was not having a good season in terms of his accuracy," said KMOX Sports Commentator Bernie Miklasz. "Drew Pyne is doing the best he can, I don't want to pile on him, but here's a stat for you: there are 69 power conference teams and Mizzou ranks dead last, 69th, in catchable ball rate and on target passing rate."
"Their passing game is literally and factually the least accurate passing attack among the power conference teams at this point. That is a huge difference from last year because they were one of the better teams in that area."
KMOX Sports Director Tom Ackerman said when he went up to Columbia, Missouri ahead of their game against Alabama to attend a press conference, he did not get a good feeling out of it.
"It was very low energy, I didn't feel a lot of optimism and I was a little surprised," said Ackerman. "They came out of a big win against Auburn where they pulled it off with this incredible storybook, but I just had this bad feeling knowing they were going to go down and get beat. Maybe it was because of Brady Cook being sidelined for a lot of the week and that was a downer for all of them and Noel, (Mookie) Cooper and everyone else who was banged up."
"Missouri was banged up, good times find ways to overcome it, and Missouri went the opposite way."
Wheeler said he never thought they had a chance to make the playoff.
"(In the preseason), they were not better than Texas, Georgia, LSU, Alabama," said Wheeler. "Let's not even count Texas A&M, at this point, and I'm not saying after the fact, I'm saying beginning of the year, I think your best case scenario was fifth in the conference. They are not going to take five teams from one conference."
"That's not a knock on Mizzou. I still think they are a pretty good team, even without a quarterback or a running, Alabama didn't embarrass them until later in that game. I don't think they are bad, but I don't think playoffs was a realistic conversation."