Upon Further Review: Missouri 31, Baylor 28

A win is a win is a win, right? I suppose.

Missouri surely won’t be receiving any style points for their dangerously close win over the Baylor Bears.  But then again, for a team that can ill—afford to stumble the rest of the season, Saturday’s 31-28 win won’t be taken for granted.

“I feel fortunate we got the game,” head coach Gary Pinkel said.

And he should.

With the exception of its first two drives, both of which produced scores, Missouri was basically outplayed by a Bears team that is beginning to indicate it is sick of rotting in the Big 12 South cellar. 

Led by true freshman quarterback Robert Griffin, the Baylor offense did pretty much whatever it wanted against a Missouri defense that appeared gassed towards the end of a hot day in central Texas.  When Griffin wasn’t reminding MU fans of former Tiger great Brad Smith with his running ability, he was playing pitch-and-catch with his receivers, who had little trouble breaking the half-hearted tackling attempts of Missouri defenders.

As lethargic as the defense performed, it was a mistake by the offense that could have very well cost Mizzou the game. On the Tigers' final drive of a tied game, what would have been Chase Daniel’s third interception thankfully slipped through the fingers of Baylor safety Jordan Lake, who had nothing but green grass between himself and a pick—six.  As fate would have, kicker Jeff Wolfert connected on the game-winning 34-yard field goal one play later.

Not to discredit Baylor’s fine performance to any extent, but this game was close because the Tigers allowed it to be.  With complete control 14-0 just eight minutes in and knocking on the door for another score, Missouri gave a lesser team hope.  Daniel’s first interception snuffed out a scoring opportunity, while another promising drive was halted by running back De’Vion Moore’s fumble in Bears territory. 

After methodically exposing Mizzou’s defense with a 13-play, 80-yard drive to make it 14-7 late in the second quarter, Baylor’s offense steadily gained a confidence that resulted in 21 second-half points. 

In the same light, the mantra of maintaining focus that Pinkel had so successfully preached a week ago against Colorado seemed to go in one ear and out the other.  The intensity that existed last weekend in Columbia was replaced by turnovers, mental lapses and sloppy tackling in Waco, TX. 

BCS aspirations aside, a loss Saturday would have been damaging for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, even with a one-game lead on Kansas, the Tigers, with a considerably lighter remaining schedule than the Jayhawks, don’t want to enter the Border War with the division title at stake.  Also, a loss to Baylor, a bottom-tier South opponent, would have only further weakened the image of the North in the eyes of the pollsters.

But the Tigers didn’t lose, so they’ll take the victory and run with it.

“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board, get it taken care of, flush it, and get ready for next week,” defensive tackle Ziggy Hood said.  “It wasn’t a good victory.  But it was a victory.”

Exactly.