Saturday’s SEC Championship was quite revealing.It shed light on several topics, providing clarity in some and confusion in others.First of all, we learned that as good as Missouri’s season was, the Tigers still haven’t quite reached elite status.On the contrary, Auburn was better than expected.Mizzou competed admirably, battling closely for three quarters before letting the West Division Champs separate themselves in a 59-42 contest.But the Tigers were exploited and ineffective in areas that had appeared to be strengths entering the game in Atlanta.Prior to the defeat, Missouri had the second-ranked rushing defense in the conference and was certain to present a challenge for Auburn’s talented backfield. Eh, not so much.The orange and navy Tigers gashed Gary Pinkel’s defense to the tune of 545 yards on the ground. Simply put, running the ball proved to be no challenge at all for the team that advanced to play Florida State in the final BCS Championship.It was baffling for Tiger fans, many questioning the limited number of defensive linemen Pinkel was using to pressure Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall at the line of scrimmage. With Auburn’s tricky triple option reads, discerning who had the ball on each play often resulted in late reactions from Mizzou and additional yards for the opposition.In spite of its defensive woes, Missouri did manage to score five touchdowns.But many feel the Tigers were capable of more, given the limited use of Dorial Green-Beckham and a stubborn persistence to continue running the ball despite limited success. DGB showcased his play-making ability, scoring two touchdowns and racking up a career-high 144 yards on six catches.But why not continue attacking with him more?After all, Auburn let Heisman finalist Tre Martin tote the ball 46 times for a whopping 303 yards.Why? Because it worked.Missouri could have beaten Auburn, but “coulda” doesn’t get you over the threshold. The Tigers still lack that finishing element that has resulted in the program falling one game short of the title game twice over the past six years. Pinkel has won a lot of games, but I still question his ability to conquer the most critical ones. There are a couple of substantial regular-season wins over Top 5 teams on his resume, but he has yet to win a conference championship game in three tries and Mizzou still hasn’t reached a BCS bowl.I realize many are now praising Pinkel, unlike earlier in the season when they were calling for his job. While he has done an impressive job of guiding an overachieving team to 11 wins, the real Coach of the Year candidate was standing across the field at the Georgia Dome on Saturday.Gus Malzahn has led Auburn to a miraculous turnaround during his first year back with the program. His impact was actually revealed more by his temporary absence. He left for a coaching job at Arkansas State the season after Auburn won the 2010 BCS Championship. The next year the program fell off the map, and last season it won just two games.Enter Malzahn again and now the Tigers are back in the National Championship. This goes to show who the brains behind the operation was when Auburn won in 2010 — Malzahn, offensive coordinator at the time, not head coach Gene Chizik.Let’s not discredit Auburn’s talent, which was quite evident on Saturday. Sure, the Tigers had their share of lucky breaks along the way, but they have progressively gotten better and have got a legitimate shot at winning another title.As for Mizzou, I saw many fans lamenting just as I did after the Tigers lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship in 2007. Only this time Tre Martin was Sam Bradford, the unstoppable offensive player that haunted Missouri.I said after that defeat six years ago that Mizzou would never win a National Championship. In the back of my mind, I was actually hoping to eat crow on Saturday, but I had an unsettling feeling that I was unfortunately accurate.Missouri still isn’t there.COMMENTARY