As the Missouri Tigers prepare for their final non-conference game of the year against Buffalo at Faurot Field, the Bulls will be facing the nation’s top offense, but I say don’t get too excited.

Before you get ahead of yourself Tiger fans, let’s look at the opponents.  First, Illinois, ranked 20 th at the time appears to not be the team we expected.  They survived a three point win over Louisiana Lafayette.  The other two wins have come against SEMO, whose coach Tony Samuel said before the game, "this is a money game for us…we’re overmatched."  Then last week’s win over Nevada who while is an upgrade from the Redhawks is still not a formidable defense.

The numbers are impressive and they should be against some of those teams.  Mizzou enters Saturday’s game against Buffalo with the nation’s top-ranked offense in two major categories:  total offense (597.33 ypg) and scoring offense (57.67 ppg).  The Tigers have the 3rd-ranked passing offense (392.67 ypg), and also rank 5th in pass efficiency (186.19 rating), while rating 24th in rushing offense (204.67 ypg).

However, I tried to calm Tiger fans around my office when someone compared the Tigers to Albert Pujols.  They said "this is like Pujols hitting .550!"  I say to that you’re absolutely right, Pujols could hit over .500 if he was playing in A ball.  That’s exactly they level of competition the Tigers have played most of this season.

The score was 52, but 14 of those points came on a kick off return and interception by Sean Weatherspoon, so the reality is the offense chipped in a nice 38.  The rest of the Tigers’ competition has been like major leaguers playing low minor leaguers.

Let’s see what the Tigers can do when they need to go up to Nebraska on October 4 th , in front of a record 294 th consecutive sell out of 84,000 plus fans.  Let’s see how Mizzou handles a hostile environment in Austin when they need to play the Longhorns.

Even head coach Gary Pinkel is realistic and understands who they’re playing.  Click to listen to his comments on the upcoming game with Buffalo.  Pinkel talks his offense, defense, injuries, and Buffalo head coach Turner Gill

Download/listen to Gary Pinkel (mp3)