Missouri Tigers' Lopsided Loss to Texas Worthy of Anger, Speculation

There were a few fleeting seconds this week when I actually thought the Missouri Tigers would pull a miracle over third-ranked Texas on Saturday night.

What a fool I can be.

I should have known better. After all, it's a well-known fact that a program like Missouri simply doesn't sneak up on a program like Texas. Especially when history suggests the two don't even reside in the same stratosphere.

With 839 victories all-time, Texas is the nation's second-winningest program, behind only Michigan. The Longhorns have won four national titles. Nearly 100 different Texas players have been All-American selections, two have won the Heisman Trophy, and 13 have won one or more national awards.

And when graduation and the NFL draft threaten to pick away at that traditional luster, the Longhorns routinely dip into their bottomless reserve of in-state talent, allowing for the cycle to begin anew and the winning to continue. 

Since Missouri football was born in 1890, the program has struggled keep its head above mediocrity, often resorting to periods of utter futility. Save for 1960 and 2007, the two most successful seasons in school history, Missouri hasn't come close to competing for a national championship. It's been 40 years since the Tigers last laid claim to a conference title. Inexplicable losses to inferior opponents have been upstaged only by massive-sized slaughters at the hands of superior opponents.

And when the Tigers haven't been raked over the coals by ranked teams, they've had landmark victories vaporized by moments of maddening misfortune, like the Fifth Down and the Flea Kicker. And then there's the whole matter of Texas treating Missouri like a disobedient red-headed stepchild for a quarter-century, having won 14 of the past 15 meetings, dating back to 1931.

But, of course, due to the topsy-turvy nature of college football, Missouri (4-3, 0-3) still had reason to believe it could register its second win over a top five team since 1978—and only its 10th in the last 70 years.

Upsets have been a weekly theme in 2009. A top 10 team has lost in each of the first seven weeks of the season; a top five team has gone down on six occasions. Hours before Missouri and Texas kicked off, a .500 Tennessee team was done in by a blocked field goal in an attempt to knock off No. 2 Alabama. And by the time the game had begun, perennial SEC whipping-boy Mississippi State was exchanging blows with top-ranked Florida.

Heck, even Iowa State, a team that had won five games the previous two seasons, took down heavily favored Nebraska for its first win in Lincoln since 1977.

Though it may have been a bit of wishful thinking on my part, it seemed as if the conditions were ripe for a one-of-a-kind performance from the Tigers.

If trap games do indeed exist, this was one for Texas. The Longhorns (7-0, 4-0) were a week removed from an emotionally draining win over archrival Oklahoma. And although Texas has never lost the week following the Red River Rivalry, it wasn't foolish to think the Horns weren't looking ahead to a Halloween matchup with Oklahoma State. Plus, Colt McCoy was nursing an injured thumb and the lingering effects of a week-long bout with the flu.

And, how fitting would it be if Missouri, in danger of falling into an inescapable 0-3 hole in the Big 12 North, would capture its first conference win of the season and end its two-game losing streak all in the same night, against the No. 3 team in the country?

Given all this, imagine my disappointment when it took all of one play for all my hopes and reasoning to be rendered meaningless, completely asinine, and idiotic. For as far as I am concerned, the second McCoy hooked up with his roommate and wide receiver, Jordan Shipley

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