Two poems that I often see quoted by sportswriters: “Do not go gentle into that good night,” by Dylan Thomas and, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” by Alfred, Lord Tenyson. You probably know them, they’re
quite famous.
I thought about these two poems writing this week’s Disrespectful Play Index. Because what happens when you’re no longer the one dishing out disrespect? When you’re the one being disrespected? On your home turf. With playoff hopes still dangling on the line.
Sometimes, the only thing you can do is face the impending truth head on and run head long into it.
Missouri’s hopes of a special season are gone. They could still have a very good season. But what does that mean in the face of an ever-expanding national playoff? Very good isn’t good enough anymore. Sometimes great isn’t either. You can only win with “special.” And despite how amazing some elements of this Missouri team are, they don’t necessarily qualify.
So ultimately, our disrespect then is aimed at “the dying of the light” or “the Valley of Death.” Pushing through and doling out middle fingers to the darkness of the offseason. You won’t be ours for another 6 weeks, you maudlin bastard. So suck it.
As a reminder, here’s the criteria with which we’re grading this week’s play.
Category 1: How difficult/impressive was the play? (0-20)
Category 2: How hard did the opposition try? (0-20)
Category 3: How much did his teammates help? (0-5)
Category 4: What did the player do immediately afterward? (0-20)
Category 5: How did everyone not involved react? (0-15)
Category 6: Is there a backstory/context to consider? (0-20)
And courtesy of Ahmad Hardy, here’s your Disrespectful Play of the Week:
Category 1: How difficult/impressive was the play?
Nothing is all that difficult for Ahmad Hardy, though you have to admit the holes the line has provided haven’t been as cavernous these last few weeks. How much does that have to do with the caliber of defense Mizzou has faced? I’ll let you decide.
What I can tell you is that this play develops in fairly standard fashion – Mizzou gets some good initial push, but A&M’s elite defense is able to keep their gap integrity and leave Hardy without much room to operate. The push is good enough to get Hardy a few free yards, but he’ll have to make the rest of the play himself.
We’ll get to Hardy’s performance more in the next section as it is directly tied to just how many A&M players it takes to get him down. But the overall play developed in such a way that I feel pretty good about giving Hardy a high score for the play as a whole. 15/20
Category 2: How hard did the opposition try?
All the credit in the world to A&M – they came into Columbia with a chip. You think they got tired of hearing questions on if they were actually the best team in the SEC?
Hardy is able to get some good push past the initial point of contact and has made this about a 10 yard gain at this point. Being up three scores, you kind of wonder if the Aggies would be hyper motivated to put their bodies on the line to bring him down.
Yeah… that’s three big dudes giving Hardy the business. And he’s still got both feet on the ground. So why not add a few more?
It’s hard to tell in this photo, but there are five players – 45 percent of the defense – currently involved in the effort to tackle Ahmad Hardy. I might be giving A&M too much credit here, but I don’t think they wanted him making them look foolish and giving the Tigers any way back into this game. Too bad he busted a 45-yarder to end this drive just two plays later. Still, I applaud the effort! 19/20
Category 3: How much did his teammates help? (0-5)
Yikes on bikes. If Giudice, Trost and Peagler looked anymore relaxed in this photo, you’d assume they were catching a quick breath. It’s become something of a hallmark of Mizzou’s line to push Hardy and Roberts as they chug along, but this one is all muscle on Ahmad’s part.
You can’t necessarily tell from this photo, but he’s actually thrashing like a feral badger at the end of this run. Do you think he wanted to score? 5/5
Category 4: What did the player do immediately afterward? (0-20)
You know, just uncorked a 45-yard run in which he was barely touched. My man said, “**** this YAC stuff, I’m going in clean.”
12/20
Category 5: How did everyone not involved react?
Sorry folks, not much of a celebration to note here. Hardy let’s out some frustration with a brief yell, but you don’t get to disrespect your opponent when they’ve got you down by a few scores. That’s just called street smarts. 5/15
Category 6: Is there a backstory/context to consider?
It’s been tough sledding for Hardy since his torrid start to the season, and it’d be easy to understand if he stopped running quite as hard. Credit to him though, he’s starting to show some of the explosiveness that was on full display in the early weeks of the season. And he was doing it facing an undefeated team that was taking his team behind the woodshed. Drinkwitz mentioned in his presser this week that the Tigers have too much fight to go out on a whimper, and I think Hardy’s performance this game shows that. 12/20
Ahmad Hardy’s first down run was 68-percent disrespectful to Texas A&M, the dying of the light, the Valley of Death and every punk-ass nerd who thought our man was going to quit trucking dudes because his team was down.
