Two of the Westplex's favorite football teams achieved "firsts" this weekend. Unfortunately, both "firsts" were not positive.
Let's start with the good news. The St. Louis Rams finally won their first game of the season, after a 19-17 verdict over the Washington Redskins. Despite an early fumble lost by Steven Jackson at his own 3-yard line, the Rams didn't fold their tents after that. The Rams only gained a total of 200 yards in the game, but they got a fumble recovery for a touchdown by O.J. Atogwe and 4 field goals by Josh Brown--including a 49-yarder as time expired to give the Rams their first taste of victory this season. The Rams' defense forced 3 fumbles away from the Redskins, to help improve to 1-4 this season.
The Redskins didn't have much urgency in their demeanor, even as they let the Rams stay close all throughout the game. Their inability to jump all over the Rams for a big lead cost them a defeat that takes the starch out of their two previous games--victories over the Eagles and Cowboys.
Unfortunately at the college football level, the Missouri Tigers (#2 USA Today, #3 AP) didn't have much urgency either to start their game Saturday night against the #17 Oklahoma State Cowboys. On their home field before a national cable TV audience on ESPN2, the Tigers settled for a field goal on its first drive, and seemed to be befuddled by a Cowboys' defense that ranked toward the bottom of the Big 12 Conference. However, TV broadcasters Todd Jones and Bob Davie mentioned during the game that Oklahoma State a big part of the pre-season analyzing Mizzou's high-powered offense. That paid big dividends, as Oklahoma State upset Missouri 28-23.
Mizzou's defense has been much maligned by some media pundits, but it excelled Saturday night--forcing 3 turnovers from Oklahoma State and stopped a fake punt in Okie State territory. However, the Mizzou offense sputtered--going 3-plays-and-out several times in the game, for the first time this season. And, Tigers quarterback Chase Daniel damaged his Heisman Trophy hopes by throwing 3 interceptions--2 of which were bad throws, and the second of which ended Mizzou's last-gasp chance to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat.
Perhaps Missouri saw 5th-ranked Texas upset top-ranked Oklahoma 45-35 earlier Saturday afternoon, and got too starry-eyed about the chance of becoming the new #1 team in the country. Or, maybe the late start of the game of 8:00 left the Tigers left them too drained of energy. What we do know is that Mizzou laid a big black-and-gold egg in the middle of Faurot Field. Oklahoma State deserves credit for engineering the upset victory, but if Mizzou thinks the Cowboys were tough this weekend, what will the Tigers think about playing Texas on the road--where the Tigers have not won in over 100 years?
Mizzou's hopes for a national championship are still in play despite the loss, but there is no more room for error--even if the top teams in the SEC, Big 10, and Pac 12 conferences continue to beat themselves up. Chase Daniels' Heisman Trophy hopes are still valid, but since there are so many other quarterbacks performing well this season (including Oklahoma's Sam Bradford and Texas QB Colt McCoy in the Big 12 alone), his subpar performance against Oklahoma State may have cost him too much in the minds of the Heisman voters to give him college football's most coveted trophy.
We'll find out a lot about Mizzou's national title hopes and Daniel's Heisman hopes this Saturday night, as the Tigers visit the Texas Longhorns at 7:00. KFAV will have the broadcast of that game, beginning with pre-game activities at 6:00.
