The Big Mo

Another football Saturday has arrived -- the season is rapidly disappearing, and Missouri will be the sixth of twelve games the Aggies have scheduled. The Tigers are 5-0 against a schedule roughly comparable to TAMU's. They haven't played any team as good as Arkansas, but they haven't played any team as weak as SFA, either.

Like Florida International and Oklahoma State before them, Missouri is much better than anyone expected them to be in August. In fact, the only team on the TAMU schedule sheet that isn't better than expected is probably TAMU itself. An argument can be made that Texas isn't as good as expected, after losses to UCLA and OU, and I'll get another reading on them this afternoon, when the longhorns face off against Nebraska.

Anyway, the Missouri game is pretty much a must-win for TAMU if they have any hopes for finishing the season with a respectable record. A 3-3 record, with games against Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas remaining, would signal nothing better than 6-6 (if that). Kansas looks like an easy win, but Baylor isn't a pushover this year. If TAMU can't beat Missouri at Kyle Field, my hunch is that we can stick a fork in 'em... they're done.

Added 12:44 pm, same day: Halftime in Aggieland, with Missouri leading 16-0 in a game that's more one-sided than the score indicates. TAMU has made a handful of good defensive plays and has looked grossly incompetent on offense. Making matters worse, the telecast is on Fox Sports. Their color man, Dave Lapham, runs his mouth constantly and repeats the same cliches over and over again. Between the Aggie incompetence and the FSN presentation, this shit is unwatchable.

Added 5:24 pm, same day: Another TV game, another embarrassing blowout loss (30-9). Missouri was hanging around the lower reaches of the Top 25, but TAMU made them look like national championship contenders. Meanwhile, on ABC the longhorns are stomping the proverbial mudhole in Nebraska's ass. Aggie fans shouldn't count on catching the longhorns in a slump next month. In fact, they'd be well advised to stop counting on anything good happening anytime soon.