Week 10 recap:Waterloo, Appomattox and Lubbock?

History is full of monumental victories.  With every one of those comes a monumental defeat.  I've always defended Coach Pinkel as a man that I was proud to have in charge of my adopted team.  I will continue to support GP in spite of last night, but I've also thought if he had a major fault, it was the amount of loyalty he's shown to his assistant coaches.  It's apparent that a combination of things is threatening to tank the Tigers season and they have to be laid at the feet of offensive coordinator David Yost.  Yes, Blaine Gabbert suffered his 2nd consecutive bad game going 12-30 for less than 100 yards, although there were several dropped passes.  We appear to lack a guy that can stretch the defense, but you know what?  Good coordinators adjust their offense to fit the talent and we've not seen that.  The Tigers did rush for 260 yards, but most of that was in the first half.  And if you were looking for a season MVP, allow me to nominate Dominique Hamilton.  Since Dom went down in the OU game, the Tigers defense which had been so good against the run has floundered which has put more pressure on the pass defense.  Yet, that wasn't the cause of the loss last night as the Tigers scored exactly 0 points after intermission, although the inability to get off the field was a contributor.  To continue to improve, I'm afraid that Coach Pinkel is going to have to address some deficiencies in the coaching staff.   Next week Missouri hosts it's final home game against Kansas State, in a game that suddenly appears to be entirely loosable.  Tech travels to Norman to face a pissed off Sooner squad that is 30-0 in it's last 30 home games.

It was one of those Waterloo weekends for me also as I went 2-4 for the week and a hideous 1-5 against the spread.  For the year I'm 61-17 straight up but once again sitting at .500 with a 35-35 record against Vegas.
The only game I was completely successful in the week happened in Stillwater, as the Oklahoma State Cowboys ignored the fact that they were merely 7 1/2 point favorites as they routed the Baylor Bears 55-28.  Okie Lite now has to be considered the favorite to win the south as next week they take their 8-1 record to Austin to face the suddenly pedestrian Texas Longhorns.  Baylor is at home to face a Texas A&M squad that has discovered new life.
In Ames, it was hoped, at least by Missouri fans that the Cyclones could pull another upset over corn nation.  The hicks came in as 19 1/2 point favorites but it took an interception of a 2 point conversion attempt to allow them to escape with a 31-30 win.  Next up for the huskers is a date at home with the university of kansas while the 'Clones travel to Colorado.
Another loss for me happened in of all places lawrence as the jawhawks erupted for 35 4th quarter point to overtake Colorado 52-45 despite being installed as 9 point underdogs.  If Dan Hawkins was allowed to ride home on the plane it's a travesty of justice.

Another coach whose seat just went up another 50 degrees is in Austin after the Longwhorns fell to 4-5 on the season after losing 39-14 to Kansas State.  There are schools where a rebuilding year would be considered acceptable following an appearance in the national championship game the previous season.  However, the University of Texas isn't one of those places.  Things don't get any easier for UT as Oklahoma State comes to town next week, while the Wildcats will attempt to take over 2nd place in the north when they travel to Columbia.

At College Station it appears that Mike Sherman will retain his job for another year as the Aggies upset the Oklahoma Sooners 33-19.  A&M is now bowl eligible at 6-3 with a good chance to reach 8 or 9 wins with trip to Baylor and Texas and a home date with a Nebraska squad that despite it's record hasn't shown itself to be unbeatable by any means.
That's all I've got for this week.  I'm going to take a couple of days off to get some work on my new web site that will be up and running within a few weeks.  In case you'd like to stop by and see how things are progressing, just travel to www.merlinsedge.com    My Tiger blog will continue here, but there are other things I enjoy talking about and that will be more of a focus there.  There will also be a shopping site where you'll be able to purchase items that may be useful as well as many that will be nothing short of obscure.  Some interesting games to talk about and we'll be doing just that around Thursday or Friday.  Have a great week.