A View from the Stands – Troy 24 Vs Missouri 14

24 to 14 against a Missouri team ranked as high as #15 in some polls and expected to win the Big 12 this year. I could also say the score was 3 to 1. That would be Troy played 3 quarters of good football to Missouri’s one. As with Marshall last year we beat the best team to ever visit Troy and we tore down the goal post again.

I arrived early enough to watch the warm-ups and I figured Troy would have a tough time with this big physical team. I watch as Brad Smith was deadly accurate on his passes and I hoped that our defensive line would be able to pressure him and not give him the time he wanted. I thought we were overmatched but I knew our defense was fast and resilient. I knew that we would give Smith trouble but I wasn’t sure how much.

When the game started I was stunned. The Tigers were running and passing at will and we threw an interception. I imagined this was going to be a long night. But then almost as suddenly as the Tigers’ first two touchdowns, the Trojan defense suddenly stiffened and began to stop everything the Tigers offense tried to do.

The offense wasn’t great but we came up with the big plays. When Leak sets his feet and squares his shoulders, he is a good, strong, accurate passer. But when he starts to dance in the backfield the likelihood of an interception increases dramatically. He has got to get better judgment. Samples’ pass to Richardson was the first shock we gave the Tigers. The next one came due to a little luck and a lot of hustle. Betterson, as usual, was a workhorse. Even when he fumbled he did it correctly and gave Junior Louissaint a lineman’s dream; 63 yards of open field dragging a defensive back into the end zone for the last six of them. After we tied the game at 14 all it was a new ball game. Missouri wasn’t going to walk all over us. Gregg Whibbs gave us a 3 point lead at the half on a 43 yard field goal and Missouri looked like an aging heavyweight that just took an eight count. Seven more points from an excellent pass by Leak to Samples in the last quarter was the knockout punch and Missouri never recovered.

The defense was spectacular. They seemed to be outclassed in the first quarter but they came back and took the Tigers out of the game for the next three quarters. Brad Smith, a heisman candidate, never completed one long pass. Some of this was due to the defensive line putting the pressure on him and some of it was due to our secondary covering the receivers, but all of it was a credit to our entire defense.

Special teams were awesome. Tomas Olmstead is an All-American class punter. He booted seven punts for a 45 yard average, with four of them inside the 20 and two inside the 5. A blocked punt, a field goal, and three extra points added to a flawless performance by the special teams. They improved a lot in the four days since Marshall.

We’re a good team. We beat a nationally ranked team on national TV. Sure it was an upset but it wasn’t a fluke. Missouri has a great team and they’ll win a lot of games but last night we were the best team on the field. We’ve beat an excellent team two weeks in a row now. No one will take Troy lightly in the future.