Missouri DE out with broken hip.

[SoonerDood]

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=AnqXl5Nm2lfFLoL5e6aoEwkcvrYF?slug=ap-t25-missouri-smithout&prov=ap&type=lgns

[birddog]

that's unfortunate. he's a helluva player.

[Flagstaffsooner]

Damn, everybody is breaking bones everywhere.

[Rhino]

Poor kid. He's a great player.

Good to see it doesn't require surgery though.

[Blitzkrieg]

Big loss, hate to see anyone lose a season.

[goingoneight]

That is incredibly tough to recover from. Most people struggle just to walk again, my heart really goes out to people who suffer these horrible injuries in the name of a game. Get well, soon!!!

[Texas Golfer]

That's unfortunate. I hope he has a speedy recovery.

[picasso]

he deserved it (oSu fan)!

[SoonerJLB]

Sorry to hear that and wish him the best...that has to be painful. Damn, there have been a lot of injuries this year to key players all over. The QB of UW, AD, Braxton, a slew of SC players, and now the Mizzzou DE. Make it stop!

[Sooner_Bob]

Dang. Get well soon dude.

[RacerX]

David Overstreet's fumble return for a touchdown.

Should've been a Sooner.

[DocNice]

This probably won't hurt our run defense too much, but hurts our pass rush quite a lot.

[picasso]

This probably won't hurt our run defense too much, but hurts our pass rush quite a lot.
hmmm, which strangely enough is part of the defense.

[Egeo]

hmmm, which strangely enough is part of the defense.
i dont get it

[picasso]

I don't either. that's about as much smack as I can muster for Mizzou.

[DocNice]

hmmm, which strangely enough is part of the defense.

My impression is that if we can take away your running game without stacking too many in the box that your passing game is not going to be able to beat us. I think where you're most dangerous is when you get a nice pass-run balance, gaining 5 or so yards on first down and mixing things up. Does that sound accurate?

This is where Mizzou is weakest, when we can't concentrate on taking away just the run or pass. However, I think if we can stuff your first down running plays and force you in the second or third and long, then your drives will stall eventually. If I were Stoops, I'd run lots of passes on first down to keep us honest.

[David Earl]

My impression is that if we can take away your running game without stacking too many in the box that your passing game is not going to be able to beat us. I think where you're most dangerous is when you get a nice pass-run balance, gaining 5 or so yards on first down and mixing things up. Does that sound accurate?

That's about right, Doc. Our offense is showing an improved ability to run the ball, but without Peterson that is obviously diminished. Sooner fans are placing some hopes in the fact that Mizzou has given up some rushing yards this season.

Another thing that encourages me about this game is the fact that Mizzou's offense leans heavily on the pass. Granted your QB is the real deal, but defenses under Stoops have historically done well against offenses that tended toward being one-dimensional.

All that being said, I'm very concerned about this game. I heard Mizzou is about a two point favorite and I think that's fair. Though I have solid hopes of winning the game, I recognize a Sooner win will be seen by many as an upset.

[DocNice]

Sooner fans are placing some hopes in the fact that Mizzou has given up some rushing yards this season.

Mizzou has definitely given up some rushing yards this season, and will to OU as well, but don't be deceived into thinking you will run on us easily. Most of the yards Mizzou has given up this season have either been very early and we adjusted (CU, Ohio) or very late (KSU, A&M). KSU and CU both had a VERY speedy back that made us miss tackles. However, we adjusted against CU and Charles only had about 14 yards on his last 9 carries, versus about 70 on his first 5 or 6 carries. CU also got a lot of fluff yards on QB scrambles against our prevent defense at the end of the game. Against KSU, their speedy back gave us fits, and some of our defensive players blamed it on the rain. But to be honest, most of those yards came against the bench warmers when the game was out of reach. They averaged about 4.5 yards per carry until we were up by 4 TDs late in the game, after which they averaged nearly 9 per carry. 4.5 is not bad, but it wasn't consistent. Mizzou has a lot of 2-3 yard gains with an occasional 15-25 yard gain that really bumps up the average. They don't allow a lot in between.

A&M is the only team that IMHO has really legitimately run on us this year, but even that has a caveat. In the first 2.5 quarters, A&M averaged only about 2 yards per run. It was only after our defense had been on the field the equivalent of a full football game that they began to wear down and A&M started tearing off big runs. Even then we stopped enough drives that our offense should have won it for us.


Another thing that encourages me about this game is the fact that Mizzou's offense leans heavily on the pass. Granted your QB is the real deal, but defenses under Stoops have historically done well against offenses that tended toward being one-dimensional.


I don't expect that Oklahoma will be able to shut down our passing game, but I could be wrong. Kansas State came in all cocky because they hadn't given up many points or yards to anyone including Nebraska, and we smoked them pretty good. Every week we hear about how we haven't really played anyone and we'll get shut down, and every week we score almost at will. Sometimes we tend to get satisfied with a big lead, which we've had quite often this year, but the offense seems to be able to score when it wants to.

The exception is obviously A&M. In the first half we absolutely ripped them moving the ball at will, but killed ourselves with stupid fumbles. We would have had 35 in the first half if we could hold on to the ball. They literally could not even slow us down, and they weren't classic forced fumbles either. We shot ourselves.

The second half is where it got interesting. They dropped 8 back in coverage and absolutely blanketed our passing game, yet somehow also managed to stuff the run. I'm sure Stoops has gameplanned that to death, but don't expect it to work necessarily. Mizzou was 3 and out its first three possessions of the second half, but moved the ball very well in its final two posessions even though it didn't come up with a TD. When KSU came out and shut us down in the first quarter, I feared teams had learned how to defend us. They blitzed the living daylights out of us and threw off our timing, but Mizzou started going to the running game and screens working to loosen up the passes and from there it was a slaughter. From the first drive where we got our offense figured out through the time that Chase Daniel left the game, we averaged 8.4 yards per play, with a nice mix of pass and run. That's pretty good by USC's standards.

We've got too many receivers to cover. There are a few ways to stop us, and you'll probably need to do all three in some combination. a) drop a bunch back in coverage and hope your 3 down linemen can stop/limit the run, b) blitz the hell out of us while still defending the runs and screens, and c) take the hits and keep playing tough D every down. Mizzou's offense can be humiliating when it's rolling. It's not uncommon for us to go down the field as if we were playing intramural flag football, 15+ yards almost every play. You've got to take those hits and not let them bother you, because we'll just as easily get stuff for one or two plays and face 3rd and long or get penalties or turnovers on ourselves. We're good at converting 3rd and long, but too many will stall any team. Most of our TD drives we only face one or two 3rd downs if any at all.

[David Earl]

Thanks for the thorough post, Doc.

...And for diminishing my hopes! :D