By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(MIZ)—The Missouri Tigers have proved they can play with the big guys. Now they have to prove they can beat the big guys. Thirteen penalties, some at crucial moments, and a couple of bad passes led to a 30-21 loss to Georgia, the nation’s number one team in the AP and USA Today Coaches poll (but #2 in the bowl playoff list).
Missouri went into the game ranked 14th in the polls but 12th in the playoff list. The loss likely dooms Missouri’s changes for an SEC division title or one of the playoff bowls but its performance likely impressed several top-level bowl scouts.
Missouri traded leads with Georgia and the game was in doubt until the four-minute mark when a Georgia interception led to a field goal that boosted the Bulldogs’ lead to nine points. The game turned in the fourth quarter when a Brady Cook pass aimed at a receiver cutting across to the left was intercepted by 300-pound defensive lineman Nazir Stackhouse, who lumbered deep into Tiger territory before going down.
The game stats showed Missouri out-rushed Georga and had more tackles for loss on defense. Cody Schrader toughed his way to 112 yards rushing with a touchdown in the fourth quarter that tightened the game. But Missouri couldn’t get a dagger play that would put them back on top.
Tiger Kicker Harrison Mevis helped Missouri to a first-half tie with a 38-yard field goal and gave the Tigers a second-half lead at 13-10 when he hit from 42 yards out, a kick that made him the top scorer in MU football history.
Next up for the Tigers is Tennessee. Both teams go into the game at 7-2. Tennessee beat up on Connecticut 59-3 Saturday. Both teams are likely to be ranked in the second half of the top 20 going into that game. (ZOU)
(CHIEFS)—What many thought would be a shootout became a tight defensive win for the Chiefs Sunday. The Chiefs’ 21-14 win was the result of an tough and opportunistic defense that held Miami scoreless in the first half and sealed the win with a huge play that stopped a Miami drive for a tying score in the closing seconds. Kansas City scored 21 points in the first half, with the ultimate winning points coming on a 59-yard fumble return by Bryan Cook.
Perhaps most satisfying for Kansas City fans was that the fumble was by former Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who caught what was intended to be a screen pass two yards behind the line, but was immediately hit by defender Trent McDuffie and dropped the ball, which was scooped up by Mike Edwards. Edwards, about to be taken down, lateraled the ball to Cook who streaked down the sideline for the touchdown.
The Chiefs couldn’t score in the second half but Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa let a shot at tying the games slip through his fingers—really slip. The last snap for the Dolphins went slightly to his right and off his fingers. He fell on the ball, but it was Chiefs’ ball with seconds left.
While the Chiefs offense again struggled to put big points on the board, the defense forced Miami to punt five times in the first half, more times than they have punted in any full game all year. The first-half shutout was the fewest points scored in a first half in the Dolphins’ last forty games. And the scoreless first half was the first since last year’s Christmas loss to the Packers. Tagovailoa’s 193 yards passing in the game was his lowest total of the season. And Hill never could break free, finishing with eight catches for 62 yards.
The Dolphins shut down Travis Kelce, who had only three catches for 14 yards. But his final catch of the day put him a yard past Tony Gonzalez former team record of 10,940 yards receiving. He broke the record in his 152nd game. Gonzalez reached the 11,000 yard mark in his 191st game. Kelce needs only 59 yards to get there and become only the fourth tight end in NFL history with 11,000 yards.
He still needs a lot of work to catch Gonzales, who caught passes for 15,127 yards. Others who topped 11K yards: Jason Witten, who had 13,046, and Antonio Gates, with 11,841.
There are some other Gonzalez records within Kelce’s reach. He’s within 46 receptions of Gonazalez’s 916 catches and is within three of the 76 touchdowns Gonzalez scored while with the Chiefs.
Hill had told his teammates not to let Kelce out of their sight. If that’s what they did, the Dolphins were soft on a lot of others. Patrick Mahomes completed passes to nine receivers. Kelce, Hardman, and Gray had three each. Nobody else had more than two.
The win makes the Chiefs the first NFL team to win games in four different countries: Germany, Mexico, England and——*
(TIGER ROUNDBALL)—We got our first look at this year’s talent assembled by Mizzou basketball coach Dennis Gates last night. Missouri opened with a 101-79 win against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Sean East II, with 21 points lead the team in scoring as Gates gave fans a first look at a dozen players. Tamar Bates played ten flashy minutes and scored 18 points including 10 within a minute and a half. Aiden Shaw chipped in with five blocks and nine rebounds as the team racked up 17 assists with only 13 turnovers.
The new Tigers shot 56% from the field, 40% from behind the line.
The Lady Tigers opened their season with a 72-61 victory over Belmont, with new players, including freshmen, scoring all of the points in the first quarter.
(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals will play a special game in a special place next June 20—Rickwood Field, the oldest professional ballpark in the United States. They’ll play the Giants in a game honoring the Negro Leagues.
A special guest for the game will be Willie Mays, who played at Rickwood Field as a member of the Birmingham Black Barons. Tickets will be hard to come by—the stadium seats only 11,000.
The park opened August 18, 1910, the realization of a dream by Birmingham industrialist Rick Woodward, who asked Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack to help him design it.
Want to take a look?
Rickwood Field was shared by the Birmingham Barons, a white team, and the Black Barons. Future Hall of Famers played on the diamond through the years, as the park’s history tells us:
History of Rickwood Field | Rickwood Field
Now, on to the end of NASCAR for the year—
(NASCAR)—-The checkered flag has fallen on the 2023 NASCAR season with two winners at Phoenix: Ross Chastian gets the race but Ryan Blaney gets the Cup after a day of close racing among the remaining competitors for the championship.
Chastain, Blaney, Kyle Larson, and William Byron—the latter three being in contention for the Cup—raced each other intensely for almost sixty laps including a pit stop and a restart after a caution flag. Blaney’s car owner, Roger Penske, had to tell Blaney to turn down his intensity as he battled Chastain, assuring him he could with the championship by conserving his car and settling for a secod-place race finish.
Blaney contented himself to second place after that, finishing 1.2 seconds behind Chastain with Larson third and Byron fourth. The fourth driver who entered the race running for the championship, Christopher Bell, broke a brake rotor just past the one-third mark and finished last.
Blaney becomes the fourteenth driver in NASCAR’s 75-year history to win a Cup championship before turning thirty (Jeff Gordon did it three times). The youngest was Bill Rexford in 1950.
He sees the championship as a responsibility in addition to being an accomplishment because the championship brings a platform. “I feel like if you get the privilege to be a champion of your sport, it is part of your job to promote your sport and do the best you can to be the best champion that you can,” he said afterwards. “I think it’s part of your job to kind of, hey, embrace it, push the sport. You have this awesome platform now to where you’ve done something incredible; use that, promote the sport. I’m excited to see what happens this offseason, see what comes up, to where you’re not only growing yourself, you are growing the sport of NASCAR as well.”
Racing is in his blood. His father, Dave, ran 473 Cup races in a 17-year career. His grandfather and an uncle also were racers. He won his first race at the age of nine in a quarter midget. He won in NASCAR’s top series three times this year and finished in the top ten in half of the 36 races. He has finished in the top ten in points in seven of his eight full-time seasons.
The race was the finale for Kevin Harvick’s career. He led 23 laps early in the race but his car lost some of its handling as the sun faded. He finished seventh, the 21st consecutive top-ten finish at Phoenix.
The next race that counts toward the 2023 championship is only 101 days away, the Daytona 500, February 18.
(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen has won the Grand Prix of Brazil with Lando Norris in a McLaren and Fernando Alonso in an Aston Martin sharing the podium with him. The victory extends his record for most wins in a season, now at 17. Each race is a new recordfor Verstappen this year. Even if he fails to win any of the final two races, will finish the year having won more than 77% of the races on the schedule. That would break the record set in the hearly days of F1 when Alberto Ascari won six of he eight races in 1952. He has won 32 races (so far) in the last two seasons, another record. He’s been on the podium nineteen times this year, another record. His 922 laps-led is also a new record. He will far surpass the record for the greatest winning margin for a championship. Sebastien Vettel won the title by 155 points ten years ago. Verstappen leads his nearest competitor by 256. He has a record run of 39 consecutive races leading the points. He has won eleven times from pole this year, another record.
Verstappen has led the championship standings across two seasons, since the Spanish Grand Prix of May 2022, and is guaranteed to end the season with a record run of 39 races in a row as leader.
*The United States, of course!!!
(Photo credit: NASCAR/Chris Gaythen/Getty Images)