<table> </table> For me, this Missouri football season all went back to a fourth-and-goal call way back in October. You might remember the moment &#8212; it was at the beginning of the Missouri-Oklahoma State game, fourth and goal, the crowd going crazy at Faurot Field.</p><p>At that moment, everything looked to be going Missouri&#8217;s way. The Tigers were ranked No. 3 in America. They had just obliterated Nebraska, and that was the first Missouri victory in Lincoln in 30 years. They had this unstoppable offense and this equally unstoppable sense of destiny. This, finally, was going to be the Year of Mizzou.</p><p>And then, inexplicably, the Tigers settled for the field goal on fourth down.</p><p>Sure, it was only one play, and it was long ago, and it didn&#8217;t even have much of an effect on the game. You have to figure the collapse would have happened anyway. You have to figure that Missouri, when it came down to it, just wasn&#8217;t that good a football team. You have to figure that, in the end, the Tigers were just good enough to get here to the Big 12 championship game, but not good enough to put up much of a fight against a dominant Oklahoma team. The Sooners scored 60-plus points for the fifth consecutive week, they made Missouri&#8217;s Chase Daniel look baffled, and they very methodically and unemotionally crushed the Tigers 62-21.</p><p>Now, the Sooners are going to the BCS championship game, where they probably will play Florida in an interesting game. How will Oklahoma&#8217;s fast-paced offense do against Florida&#8217;s great athletes? What plan will Oklahoma&#8217;s Bob Stoops and his coaches come up with to slow down Florida&#8217;s Tim Tebow? How will the voters feel about Texas, which still has the victory over Oklahoma and a legitimate claim to the crown?</p><p>There are a lot of fun questions going into this bowl season as we try and figure out just how good the Big 12 quarterbacks are, just how good the SEC defenses are, just what to make of the Big East and Big Ten. Sadly, none of those questions have anything to do with Missouri. It all just went very wrong for Missouri; the Tigers have now lost four of their final eight games. They were beaten by their rival, Kansas. They have now been eradicated by both Oklahoma and Texas, the two teams they had hoped to measure up against.</p><p>&#8220;We have not arrived,&#8221; Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said after Saturday&#8217;s game. &#8220;I&#8217;ve said that &#8230; often.&#8221;</p><p>And maybe, in a small way, it does go back to that one play in October, when Pinkel decided to kick the field goal against Oklahoma State. The thing that was so striking about the moment was that Missouri had, against all odds, created this aura. Chase Daniel was the Heisman favorite &#8212; heck, there were plenty of people ready to just <em>give</em> the guy the Heisman and beat the Christmas rush. Missouri was ranked ahead of Texas, ranked way ahead of Florida, and in the coaches poll the Tigers were actually ranked No. 2 and ahead of Alabama.</p><p>And the Missouri offense was like something out of a comic book. The Tigers up to that moment had not had a single three-and-out <em>all season</em>. That looked like a misprint &#8230; but it was true. The Tigers were the talk of the land.</p><p>Then, on fourth down and goal, at home, facing an Oklahoma State team they were expected to beat &#8230; the Tigers kicked the short field goal. You could make all the football arguments you want. True, Missouri was not a particularly good short-yardage offense. True, it was early in the game, and it&#8217;s good to put up points early in the game. True, the field goal would give Missouri the lead, and it&#8217;s good to get a lead early in the game.