Missouri was basically running clock in the closing moments of its blowout loss to the Crimson Tide yesterday. After a 38-minute lighting delay in the second quarter—which came with Alabama already ahead 28-0—and a full day of getting pretty relentlessly pounded by both the weather and an Alabama team that Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel called "maybe the best team [he had] ever seen," it didn't make much sense to air it out and risk injury on what would be the second-to-last drive of the game.


But it's tough to completely take the risk out of football, especially when 6-foot 7-inch defensive ends are tackling 5-9 freshman tailbacks. On the first play from scrimmage in the game's penultimate possession, DeMichael Fanning flipped Russell Hansbrough alllll the way over, despite pretty much having him wrapped up and stopped on forward progress already. Alabama was assessed a 15-yard penalty, and Hansbrough, amazingly enough, took the hand off on the Tigers' next two plays. The Hulkster would approve; the NCAA will not.