Chase Daniel didn't look like the same quarterback for the last few games of Missouri's season -- in which the Tigers finished with back-to-back losses to Kansas and Oklahoma and a lackluster overtime win over heavy underdog Northwestern -- and the outgoing senior offered a plausible explanation why to the Columbia Tribune: He was playing with an injured thumb on his throwing hand for at least the last two games, and possibly longer. Daniel is quick to attribute his dropoff in production and increase in interceptions to "bad decisions" and downplay the effects of the injury, but he did have to wear a cast following the Big 12 Championship game and adjust his grip on the ball while undergoing treatment. That's what he hopes NFL scouts pay attention to, anyway.

Because the other possible explanation for Daniel's late struggles is the upgrade in the defenses he faced: 10 of the Tigers' first 11 opponents finished the season ranked 70th or worse (in the bottom 50 nationally) in pass efficiency defense, and Daniel's numbers against those teams were reminiscent of the dominant stats he put up on everyone in 2007 and that had at least some pro scouts intrigued. But add his effort in the Tigers' October loss at Texas (No. 59 in pass efficiency D) to the final stretch against Kansas (No. 69), Oklahoma (No. 46) and Northwestern (No. 25), and Daniel turns into a very average quarterback, very quickly:

Keep in mind that "Top 70" is not exactly a high threshold; Daniel was very mediocre against just mediocre secondaries, and against the only one that qualified statistically as "above average," Northwestern, he threw three interceptions in by far his lowest-rated game of the year, and needed a punt return by Jeremy Maclin and a stronger-than-usual defensive effort to have a chance at the win in overtime. Most of Daniel's positives against Texas and Oklahoma were with the game well out of hand; Mizzou trailed by 30-plus points at halftime of both games.

I couldn't care less about Daniel's draft stock, but his "legacy," as it were, is lower in my mind at the end of this season than it was at any point over the previous two. Really, I'd prefer to remember him as the insanely accurate master of the four and five-wide, no-huddle spread who couldn't miss in the freezing, winner-take-all game with Kansas to close a spectacular, unconscious season in 2007. So if Daniel's not willing to attribute his late slide to a thumb injury, I will: Get better soon, big guy.