I’m only 28 years old.

I was a mere 205 days old when the infamous Fifth Down cost Mizzou a win against a Colorado team that went on to win a national title. I don’t remember the 1997 Flea Kicker game that cost the Tigers a victory against Nebraska (another team that went on to claim a national championship).

No, I’m relatively new to the gut-wrenching life of being a Mizzou fan, but that doesn’t make the pain of Saturday’s loss any less real.

The Tigers led 14-3 with 5:19 left in the fourth quarter, but I don’t need to tell you that. You saw it. You know. You realize that at the 5:18 mark, Kentucky punt returner Lynn Bowden crossed the goal line to cut Mizzou’s lead to 14-9.

Even before that point, if you took a poll of Mizzou fans, I’d wager that an overwhelming majority still thought the Tigers were going to lose. I know I did.

When Kentucky got the ball back on its own 19-yard line with one timeout and immediately took a sack, most fans still had no confidence. Of course the guy who threw for 18 yards last week was going to lead an 88-yard scoring drive in 1 minute and 24 seconds.

And yet, still, when there were only 4 seconds left and a pass went out of bounds as time expired, I allowed myself the faintest glimmer of hope. Then the pass interference flag came flying in.

As Bane famously says during The Dark Knight Rises, “There can be no true despair without hope.” Like an idiot, I was willing to believe that this game might be different. This might be the week that Missouri broke through.

After the South Carolina loss earlier this year, after Michael Porter Jr.’s injury last basketball season and Jontay Porter’s 2018-19 campaign coming to an end before it even starts, after getting passed over for the Orange Bowl by a Kansas team that Mizzou beat back in 2007, after losing to 15-seed Norfolk State as a 2-seed in 2012 — after all of that (and more that I can’t even think of right now), I still allowed myself to believe.

Then came the untimed down. Then came the absurdly easy conversion that gave Kentucky a 15-14 victory.

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Look, I’m not trying to take anything away from Kentucky. The Wildcats made plays when they needed to. Should Mizzou have tried to pass on 3rd-and-2 on its final drive? Was the pass interference really a pass interference? Why couldn’t Mizzou manage even a single first down on its final eight drives? These are all fair questions, but at the end of the day, Kentucky made one fewer mistake and left Columbia with the victory.

It’s like when your parents tell you, “We’re not mad. We’re just disappointed.” Disappointed in yet another gut-wrenching, kick-to-the-teeth, rip-your-heart-out-and-tear-it-in-two loss in which the Tigers snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The sad part is that fans are, at some point, simply going to stop caring. At 4-4, will this team even make a bowl game? Sure, the final four games are against Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Arkansas, but can’t you just see the Tigers entering that Arkansas game 5-6 and finding a creative way to lose to a Razorback team that will be playing for nothing but pride?

Is this team cursed? Well, the guys at The Mizzodcast contacted an actual, self-proclaimed witch this week to see if she could lift the curse on Mizzou. Not only could she not do it, she wouldn’t even take the case. If that doesn’t sum up the futility of being a Tiger fan, I don’t know what does.

Fire Barry Odom. Fire Derek Dooley. Bench Drew Lock. It doesn’t matter. The Tigers will still find ways to inspire hope, only to punch their fans in the gut when they dare to get their hopes up.

At least there’s basketball season … ah, crap.

What are we even doing here?