Deep Thoughts by The True Son: K-State Troubles, Missouri's Blitz Woes

From time to time I come up with a few random things that aren't necessarily related to one another but that I want to give my thoughts on nonetheless. I usually have a hard time thinking of a way to form those thoughts into a blog post.

From now on when I'm faced with this dilemma, I'm going to title the post "Deep Thoughts by The True Son." A special thanks to SNL's Jack Handey for the inspiration for this idea. 

K-State Blows

How bad was K-State last night? More specifically, how bad was Josh Freeman? All summer we heard the hype about Freeman being a potential first round draft pick, and there were plenty of NFL scouts and GMs in attendance for last night's game against Louisville. But Freeman looked like the QB we've been watching for the last two years. 

Personally, I've always kinda liked Freeman. I've always thought he had the potential to become one of the better QBs in the Big 12 and he may do that by the time his career as a Wildcat is all said and done. But at this point, he's nothing more than a slightly above average quarterback who battles bouts of inconsistency. 

His stats on Wednesday (pretty soon we're going to have college football games seven days a week) looked better than they actually were. He ended up with over 300 passing yards and three touchdowns. But as Jason Whitlock pointed out this morning, his numbers were inflated by a couple big plays. 

For over 90 percent of the game Freeman was awful. He threw 20 incompletions (22-42) and two interceptions. Many of his throws were thrown off-balance or off his back foot.

But even Freeman didn't look half as bad as the Wildcat defense, which was gouged for 577 yards by a mediocre Louisville team. I can only imagine what Chase Daniel and Co. will do to them.

Coming into this season, I considered K-State a bit of a wildcard. I saw a lot of similarities between where they were at and where Mizzou was going into the '06 season: a confident QB with little fanfare outside of the Midwest. A coach who has his share of detractors calling for his head. Mixed success in the previous few seasons. Sound familiar? 

I thought this would be a make or break season for this team, and it appears to be breaking. I think Ron Prince's perception as a coach is more positive than it should be because he seems to be such a good guy and knows how to work the media better than anyone in the Big 12.

I also think the overall perception of the K-State program during the past couple years is better than it should be because they had those big wins against Texas. But this team only won five games last year. Fact of the matter is, it's taken several steps back since Billy Snyder retired. 

Blitzing Woes

When analyzing the defense the past couple weeks, I've been more critical of the blitz packages Mizzou has been implementing than I have of the secondary, which is the opposite of what most fans have done. But Mike DeArmond seems to know what I'm talking about. 

Last night I was watching Armageddon on DVD (the game, not the movie), and on one play early in the second quarter (could have been late in the first) Kansas was lined up in the shotgun.

Willy Mo looked to be lined up in coverage, but as soon as Todd Reesing hiked his leg Moore sprinted to the line and made it into the backfield untouched. The ball was handed off to Brandon McAnderson, and Moore dropped him for a big loss. 

The timing of the blitz was perfect. Moore never had to slow down, and he hit the line of scrimmage at full speed. Kansas obviously had no idea it was coming.

In my opinion, when Matt Eberflus has blitzed Moore this season, he's been sending him too soon. Moore's had to slow his momentum, which makes the blitz much less effective. But you don't hear Eberflus denying that these are problems. I'm confident that adjustments are being made. 

DeArmond also throws out a statistic that suggests that this year's defense is on pace to be considerably better than last year's:

"Against Illinois, Mississippi, and Western Michigan last season, Missouri had 18 tackles for losses, six sacks, and five interceptions.

"Against Illinois, Southeast Missouri, and Nevada this season, Missouri has 25 tackles for losses, seven sacks, and four interceptions, including three returned for touchdowns."