Happy Thanksgiving!
Hopefully you bagged that big ol’ deer and had enough food to make you start checking every available diet out there.
Now there’s a football game left to be played, in case any of your were wondering (and judging by the availability of tickets for as little as $3 online a lot of you aren’t).
It may be one of the worst matchups for Arkansas of the season, which is the bad news.
Since coach Barry Odom basically threw a hissy fit with the Tigers sitting at 1-5, they have won five straight, in convincing fashion.
How convincing? The average score is 52-17. They also beat three straight SEC opponents by an average score of 47-17.
Don’t look at what they did prior to that. Whatever happened after the sixth game completely turned this Missouri team around.
Offensively they are balanced and the running game can do as much damage as quarterback Drew Lock, who has benefitted from the running game which ran for 433 yards against Tennessee, a team that has already lost it’s coach, but still may be a better team than the Razorbacks.
Defensively they are averaging holding teams under 100 yards a game for the last five matchups.
For Bret Bielema, none of this is good.
With a running game that has struggled all season, facing a defense giving up less than 100 yards a game is a challenge.
With a defense that gave up 38 points to the worst team in the Sun Belt, well, Missouri could put up another 600 yards like they did against Tennessee.
Hog fans holding out hope can’t even find a motivational reason they like. The only one anybody can come up with is the players putting together one last hurrah in what is likely to be Bielema’s last game.
That might work if the other team doesn’t have much to play for, but Missouri is trying to get to a better bowl game, something they’ve missed the last couple of years as the Odom era got off to a sputtering start.
He was on the hot seat until the last five weeks when he has shown the folks at Missouri he has the Tigers on a forward path.
Bielema hasn’t and, in fact, has nothing to substantiate his promises that things are going to get better. After five years, those promises have become a little hollow.
The final question is how many folks will show up at Razorback Stadium to see this one.
Sadly, the guess here is it won’t be many.
Predicting a score is pointless. Suffice it to say, it will likely play out like so many games this season.
Look for the Hogs to keep it close in the first half. The second half, which has been the problem all season, will be one again.
The Tigers will probably pull away in the second half for whatever final margin they choose.
