Missouri tight end Brett Norfleet (87) takes off his helmet after Missouri was stuffed at the goal line and failed to score in the second half of a game against Texas A&M on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. (CAL TOBIAS/ROCK M NATION)

Yesterday was unenjoyable, but as the rest of the day showed us, there is still plenty of football to play.

It’s as if the entirety of the 2023 season has now been wiped clean.

For most of the offseason, and even through the entire month of September, we’ve been talking about this team within the context of that team. Every missed throw, flubbed red zone opportunity, and penalty flag over the first four games flashed memories of the opposite happening last year.

Finally the team we’ve watched be merely okay so far this season walked into Kyle Field in College Station, Texas and got flattened by a hungrier looking team in the Texas A&M Aggies.

Mizzou looked nothing like the team we watched last year. They looked nothing like a top 10 outfit. They looked nothing like those things because they aren’t those things.

Through five games the Missouri Tigers look like they’re a good football team who had a rough game on the road at A&M. Vanderbilt certainly proved their near win in Faurot was no fluke by taking down number one Alabama last night for the first time in 23 tries. Boston College has proven they’re feisty, Buffalo even has show they’re decent. Winning those games shouldn’t be completely discounted, but applied in context. The context being that Missouri is a better team than you think they are right now, but they’re not what we thought they were coming into the season.

Texas A&M quarterback Conner Weigman (15) completes a pass right before being hit by Missouri linebacker Triston Newson (14) in the first half of a game on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. (CAL TOBIAS/ROCK M NATION)

There’s no hiding in College Football. If you weren’t aware, Alabama wasn’t the only ranked team to go down along with Missouri. #4 Tennessee went down to unranked Arkansas. #10 Michigan went down to unranked Washington. Then #11 USC lost to Minnesota, also unranked. And unranked SMU moved to 5-1 with a win over 22nd ranked Louisville.

Forget what you knew before August of this year. Forget the rankings, the projections. Sit for a moment with what we know of this season.

Missouri is 4-1. If you looked at the schedule before hand the two games pegged as most likely losses would have been at Texas A&M and at Alabama. Most Missouri fans, even on the optimistic side still had this team taking at least one loss. Most thought they could still be in the playoff hunt with two losses. The game at Texas A&M presented an opportunity for the Tigers and they failed. But while the failure stings it shouldn’t be overstated. The way the game happened likely soured the taste moreso than the result.

The flags being picked up or not thrown, those are documented. The missed calls, the missteps, the missed tackles. A lot went wrong.

That doesn’t have to define this season.

Missouri played like a team who expected to be more than who they are. A team given a top 10 ranking and a berth in the playoff before the season started. Having been given those things, just skip through the games and accept your reward. And not to be so cliche but there’s a reason they play the games. This weekend proved the games still being played are important. Seeing it all unfold it looked like nobody is really all that good, and even the best teams are prone to a performance where they get outclassed.

It’s past time for the Tigers to start figuring out who they want to be and who they can be. The wilderness brotherhood has been exposed. But that doesn’t have to define who they are. It doesn’t have to define the season. The beauty of the new playoff is you do get a mulligan.

And the benefit of a mulligan is you are not as bad as your worst moment, as long as you can show the rest of the time you were not that worst moment. Success can be fleeting, but for this season’s Missouri Tigers, it doesn’t have to be.

Other SEC Scores

Vanderbilt 40, Alabama (1) 35
Arkansas 19, Tennessee (4) 14
Georgia (5) 31, Auburn 13
Ole Miss (12) 27, South Carolina 3
Florida 24, UCF 13
Texas (2) bye

LSU (13) bye

Oklahoma (19) bye

Kentucky bye

Mississippi State bye