Think Wink.

This past Saturday night was the season opening Saturday for College Football and the University of Missouri’s #6 ranked team. They continued their fun rivalry with the University of Illinois and the Missouri/Illinois Border War. The teams assembled at the home of the St. Louis Rams and battled the game out. Mizzou’s offense proved to be just too much for Illinois despite how good they were, MU winning 52-42. The Mizzou defense showed some mistakes in the the second half that really looked more like mistakes that can be corrected because it was the first game rather than a lack of talent that can’t be fixed. Here are some highlights of the game, pay close attention to TE Chase Coffman (#45) at the 4:00 mark and you will see his Touchdown and then an athletic move that will make your jaw drop–that’s about 4:10 mark.

Now my real beef with the game: the broadcast team that ESPN had in the booth. It was very one-sided in who they covered and how the called the game. For the vast majority of the game, the broadcast team covered Illinois. The Illinois QB spent the offseason under the mentorship of one Donovan McNabb. That’s cool and amazing and it showed out on the field, especially in the second half of play. Juice Williams was a great pocket passer. The broadcast team kept talking about that for most of the first half. But what was on the TV scree was this QB constantly getting beat up throwing 2 INT’s (one ran back for MU’s final score and sealed the game) along with his 5 TDs (he had a great second half, I’ll admit that) and at one point had -19 ruching yards–and he set a record last year for most rushing yards for a QB in either his schoool, the Big Ten, or something. In spite of that, they kept talking him up and no the MU defense for corralling him for most of the game. About the only time the team decided to speak of the Tigers is when they scored. The talked for about a brief moment about the MU kicker dropping his diving scholarship to kick for the Tigers and they talked about Daniel being a Heisman candidate again, and after J-Mac ran back the kick return for a touchdown they said that J-Mac should also be considered for the Heisman . But then they went right back to Juice Williams or what the Illinois team should do to stay in the game to win. The commentators were constantly offereing commentary on how Illinois needs to play. Nothing was offered by way of MU to stay ahead–granted what can you say about a team that was up by 17 or more points at one time. The sidelines reporter stayed over on the Illinois sideline unless an MU player was injured. The team was unbalanced and unfair, may I even say biased against the Tigers. After Williams threw his first interception, the talk wasn’t how good of a job the MU LB (Weatherspoon, #12) played the ball, it was how Illinois can stay in the game. When Daniel threw his only pick of the game, it wasn’t how MU can stay in the game, it was how well the Illinois DE (#91) played the ball! In the first half, Tommy Saunders (whose first half wasn’t impressive but his 2 TD’s in the second half made up for it) dropped a pass. The broadcast team commented that last year he did some 100,000 push-ups to strengthen his hands. When he dropped a pass they commented he needed to do 100,001 push-ups. Any time he dropped a pass they kept bringing up the push-ups in that same negative sort of way.

I hope that if these broadcasters ever do a game again, that they will cover both teams and not just one team, in a fair and objective manner. I’d like some information about my team every once and a while, not just when they are injured. I would also like it if you wouldn’t insult my players as well. It was a pathetic showing. ESPN you have really disappointed me. You won’t cover the Chiefs, even if they play well. Please at least cover the Tigers when they do. Midwest teams don’t get any of your love. Try showing it once and a while eh?

If I Were a General in the US Civil War…

Vespasian

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