Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Insight Bowl: Mizzou vs. Iowa—live game blog

Welcome to The Sandlot—I'm in my basement, toasty warm in front of the fireplace and hoping that Missouri plays better this year than they did last year against Navy. If Blaine Gabbert is serious about attracting serious NFL draft attention, he better have a big game. Let's get ready for the kickoff!

8:56 p.m. Commentator Sean McDonough just called Missouri "the best team in the country that's NOT playing in a BCS bowl." Can we just all agree that the BCS system is utter crapola?

9:03 p.m. Mizzou's secondary just gives up a huge pass completion on 3rd and 5. Just pathetic. Looks like we'll be playing from behind right from the get-go.

9:06 p.m. Touchdown Iowa. Nice to see our defense showed up to play.

9:19 p.m. 3rd and 19 and Gabbert throws a frozen rope for a first down. That was money.

9:21 p.m. It's disappointing to take the field goal, but it's still too early to just give away points. Now let's see if we can play some defense. Iowa 7, Mizzou 3.

9:39 p.m. No defense whatsoever. This is looking more and more like an Iowa blowout. Mizzou looks like crap tonight. The offense is slow and boring, and the defense can't tackle or cover. They better turn this around and score a TD the next possession, or it's gonna be a long night.

9:53 p.m. It's completely unbelievable how poorly the MU defense is playing. It's like they've never even been on the field before. If they score a TD here, I don't see how our ineffective offense can make any sort of comeback.

10:07 p.m. Touchdown Mizzou! Only down by seven now. Need some defense at the end of the half, though.

10:21 p.m. Good grief, catch the ball! Gabbert's gonna get stuck with the INT on the stat sheet, but that is the receiver's fault. That should have been a tie game. What a crappy half. Pinkel ought to tear them to pieces at the half.

11:05 p.m. Great drive by Gabbert and the MU offense. Down by 3. Will the defense step up? I doubt it, but maybe we can just outscore them the rest of the way.

11:11 p.m. Interception by Missouri defense—the line had some pressure on Iowa QB Stanzi before he threw the ball. This may be the break we needed. Time to score a TD!

11:20 p.m. Touchdown Tigers! Our first lead of the evening. Perhaps the tide has turned. Let's see if our defense can step up and play up to the same level that our offense has this half.

11:42 p.m. Another pick by Mizzou's defense. They stepped up when the offense crapped the bed on the previous series. Time for a long, clock-killing drive. Play was upheld by official review. Mizzou ball...let's go offense!

11:49 p.m. Pick six by Gabbert; just an awful decision. We're down by three now and will have to score late to win the game. Just a crushing turn of events.

12:03 a.m. Game over. We won't get another chance. Won't get the ball back. We deserved to lose this game for crappy play all over. Pinkel sucks in bowl games, which is why we don't get invited to the big ones. Have fun in the NFL, Gabbert—you never did anything for us.

12:05 a.m. Why is Pinkel not using his time outs?

12:09 a.m. Congrats to Iowa—they deserved to win the game. Mizzou really played a poor game all around tonight. Why Pinkel can't prepare them for bowl games is a mystery.