USC 34, Notre Dame 31: College Game of the Year

Note to everyone who reads my blog: I know that you hate football, but try to read this anyway. If you hate it, let me know...

I just finished watching the USC vs. Notre Dame game, which was so good I had to do a post about it. Full disclosure: Besides Cal, USC is my favorite team. Even when they were not that good, I always enjoyed the games we played against them, and I feel that they are the all time greatest college team. Going into this game, USC had a 27 game win streak which includes winning the last two national championships (last year's outright, the year before it should have been outright) and they have last year's Heisman trophy winner, QB Matt Leinart, and last year's team MVP, RB Reggie Bush, considered by most people to be the best player in college football. Leading up to the game, even though USC had a 27 game winning streak and Notre Dame has already lost once this year, most of the experts were all picking Notre Dame to win, and the ESPN.com voters voted 59% in favor of Notre Dame. This game was played in Notre Dame with the loudest crowd I have heard in a very long time, but the weather was very good, 66 degrees and sunny.

The first half saw USC playing as bad as I have seen them playing since they were beaten by Cal, which was their last defeat. In this game Matt Leinart threw two interceptions, including one in the endzone, and he had only thrown three all year until this game. The sole bright spot was Reggie Bush, who averaged over 10 yards a carry over the course of the game. The whole game, the announcers kept on talking about time of possession, because Notre Dame had the ball almost twice as long as USC. This is meaningless though, because USC is a quick scoring team, so they just don't NEED the ball for very long. Both defenses played extraordinarily well both halves; there were several big sacks and good defensive breakups. For me, the first half was marred by two calls by the refs: One was when they gave a first down to Notre Dame on a reception where the receiver was clearly not in bounds (which was proven by the replay on TV, but was clear before that) and also by a penalty after a fumble by Notre Dame. Notre Dame fumbled on third down, and even though there was lots of pushing and shoving, and I even saw Notre Dame players shoving the ref, a USC player was called for a fifteen yard penalty, which instead of giving Notre Dame a fourth down on their 7 yard line, it gave them first down. This is one of the frustrating things about college officiating; they care more about making the home crowd happy than about making the right calls. Because of the first penalty, and because of poor punt return coverage by USC, Notre Dame lead 21-14 at the half.

But no one feels safe with a lead on USC at the half. They outscore everyone in the second half, but this is especially evident in the other two games this year in which they were down at the half, against Oregon and Arizona State; in those two games, USC outscored their opponents by a combined 70-7 in the second half.

So the second half arrives, and USC ties it up at 21-21, then Notre Dame scores a field goal to make it 21-24 in favor of Notre Dame. USC responds with another touchdown in the fourth quarter to make it 28-24. Notre Dame scores with about 2 minutes left in the game to put themselves ahead 28-31. So, a few plays later, it is fourth down and 8 for USC at their own 26 yard line, meaning that they have to get a first down AND still make it down and score. Matt Leinart throws to his off-season roommate for a 61 yard play, giving USC a first down at about the 13 yard line. A couple of rushes later, they pick up the first down, but they still have 2 yards and only 22 seconds left in the game. Matt Leinart rushes with the ball to the outside, and here is where the game gets crazy. At the end of his rush, he jumps, and the ball gets knocked out of his hands straight off of the field, but this was really close to the goal. One ref called it a touchdown, although it wasn't, and another ref started to talk with that ref, and in the meantime, the clock ran out on the game, and the game ended. The Notre Dame fans started running out on the field thinking they had won against the number one team in the country, and so did the Notre Dame coach. Because the ball had been knocked out of bounds with 7 seconds left, 7 seconds were put back on the clock, and the fans were cleared off the field, and the Notre Dame coach was scowling as he left the field. I was actually thinking that USC would run a play with him on the field so that they could have an automatic penalty against Notre Dame, but that didn't happen. The whole time during the controversy, which wasn't a contoversy at all by the time it got sorted out, it was just confusing to the people in the stadium, the announcers were going on and on about how lucky Matt Leinart was that the ball was hit out of his hands because the clock would have run out otherwise, which is absurd because he was in the endzone a split second after the ball left his hands, so if the ball had remained in his hands he would have had a touchdown. One thing though, even though the announcers did seem to take Notre Dame's position on a couple of items, overall they were pretty neutral, which is nice. I hate living in Sacramento and listening to the announcers kiss their ass during every play, and even watching John Madden on Monday night football with his complete and total lovefests with some teams and players. He and Tom Brady should just get a room together and save the rest of us from hearing about how he is so great. So, back to the game, USC went out to spike the ball with seven seconds so that they could attempt the field goal to tie the game to take the game to overtime. Except they didn't spike the ball, and they attempted another quarterback sneak instead, with Matt Leinart doing some good spinning at the line to take it in for a touchdown. This was a really gutsy call, because if they would not have scored, they would have lost automatically. USC got a 15 yard penalty for celebrations, which cost them the extra point, and then Notre Dame tried to do a Cal-Stanfurd (spelling intentional) band play to score, but it didn't work, and the game ended.

Awesome finish to a game that was good anyways. Both teams showed that they are deserving heavyweights. When Texas is out fighting creampuffs, USC is showing that it is the champion for a reason. Great game, and if you are still reading this, thank you. (Please comment if you made it through this post.)

ESPN recap of the game.

Happy Tailiversary

Rather than do a card this year, I decided to do a blog post about my wife, Carolyn, aka kittyinabasket. Today is our 2 year anniversary, yesterday was our 4.5 year dating anniversary, and we have known each other for almost 9 years. I remember when I first met her, I thought she was cute and fun. She was always quiet, but I enjoyed spending time talking to her. I think because I was always the new person growing up, I have a pretty keen eye for the quiet person in the crowd, and I know that they have something to say as well. She would often spend the night at Heather's house, and I would look forward to talking to her, usually when Heather was off showering (unless she was demanding that Carolyn be in there to talk to her). I remember Carolyn giggling a lot, and always having to go home early. She had the strictest curfew, so she was always gone soon after she got there. As it is when anyone leaves a group that is hanging out, the mood changes, whether that is good or bad, it is just different. I remember that she had the prettiest hair I had ever seen, maybe tied with Tony, my sister's ex, but he had really great hair, so to be his equal is nothing to be ashamed of. (Now I would say that she is the definite winner because he has cut his hair significantly shorter.)

Situations as they were, I graduated, moved to LA, and found that work was lacking due to a screenwriter's guild strike. So, broke in almost every conceivable way, I stumbled home to Roseville and lived with my mom for a month. I wasn't feeling well, so I asked my sister if I could move in with her in Tucson, and that is where I was for 6 or 7 months. I still don't know about my stay in Tucson, and it was nearly 5 years ago. My sister was going through troubles in her marriage, which led to divorce soon after I left. It was inevitable, but hard to be there for. I could have done more to help her out while I was there, but I guess after a while you just get used to the way things are, and you really don't see how things should be... My relationship with my nephew deteriorated pretty heavily while I was there. I know he was young, but it doesn't take much wisdom to learn to be cruel. I think he is doing fine now, but we don't talk like we used to. When he was a baby, I used to imagine us being great friends, but I know now what there is that separates the adolescent from the adult, and why we don't consider you an adult just because you graduate or you can smoke or sign your life to the army. To me, becoming an adult is all about failing supremely, about finding out that there isn't justice or even a market for justice, that despite what they have tried to shield you from all of your life, life isn't fair. You can know that life isn't fair by what you read in your textbooks or whatever, but you can only really learn it through experience. You learn to embrace it. I love big brother.

In Tucson, I got myself together, even though in some ways my relationship with my sister and nephew have never been the same. I think that I can believe that the largest part of our semi-rift is merely geography. Not everyone calls their family everyday...

Let's go back in time a little... In March of 2000, I had not been on a date in a while, and so I wanted a practice date, and so I asked Carolyn. (I think that I asked e-lor or Heather to ask her, to further indicate that it was practice.) In truth, it was not practice at all, it was very real, as I had built up a major crush on Carolyn over time. Carolyn accepted, but then reconsidered, and the date never materialized. So, from there, a lot happens. A lot. Then we are in Tucson, and I have my act together again, doing fine. I called e-lor, we still spoke back then, and I finally told her that I had a crush on Carolyn. That same week, Carolyn told Heather that she had a crush on me. Heather and e-lor talk, ideas fuse. So, in March 2001, I decided to return to California. Carolyn was having a birthday party in San Francisco with the whole gang, and I wanted to be there. We drove for two days, and an hour outside of Sacramento, with the party starting in about 45 minutes, we had a blowout. My sister changed the tire, but by the time we got home, they had stopped waiting for me. I had a change of clothes and a present ready. I was extremely disappointed to start like that, but I had been busy in Tucson, and I had researched approximately 45 restaurants for our first actual date. Obeying the golden rule of dating, I chose Esquire Grille. (Golden Rule: Find out what she hates and what she loves and choose neither one; if you choose what she hates, she will have an overall negative impression of everything; if you choose what she loves, you are catering to her comfort zone, which is not where you want a first date to be. If she is in her favorite place, she is on what Sun Tzu would consider to be the higher ground, and you should never start off in that way. If anything, you should try to make the ground appear level, but give yourself a slightly higher position; in this case I ordered for her, so that she would try something new. Remember, if she is not trying anything new, then why are you even on a date with her? Love is a battlefield.) It was a good meal; we shared a steak for two with some delicious potatoes. I remember how cute she was all night. She was so smiley and fun. We had a good time that evening...

I could recount a hundred different stories about Carolyn, and I could probably elucidate further on why I feel the way that I do for her, but I will try to keep the rest of this brief. We married two years ago, and I have never seen anyone as beautiful as you were on that day. I look forward to talking to you everyday, even on those days when I am a brutish beast and I don't want to hear from anyone. I still find you beautiful, and I am constantly relearning what it means to kiss you. I enjoy playing with your hair and looking at your eyes. I like to hear how your day is going, and I look forward to your calls. I miss you when you aren't around. I hate to disappoint you. I talk about you constantly at work. I want to try harder because of you. You don't just make me want to be a better man, you make me a better man. I am glad I like your family as much as I do, and I am even more happy that they like me. I enjoy cuddling with you on the couch. Because of you, I have tried to do two things: Never go to bed angry, and try not to leave without saying goodbye, preferably with a hug, a kiss and an I love you. You never know what life will bring... I try to provide for you now, so that you don't have to worry later. I love the great bear debates and the lots of little things that are just between us.

I love you, Carolyn, and I want the world (or at least the one or two other people who read this blog) to know it. I love you and that won't ever change. Happy 2nd tailiversary...

Papa's Got a Whole New Blog

I have started a second blog devoted exclusively to video games. Both blogs will continue to be updated frequently, so check both if you are interested, but this blog will be for everything that has nothing to do with video games.

For my other blog, click on this link, and let me know what you think of it.

virtualfanboy

For now, I am going to go to bed. Please check out the new blog.

New Computer!!!

Well, we finally got our new computer! It is setup in the living room, so I can now post to the blog without travelling to Carolyn's office. Her office is now going to be a craftroom, but it will still have the other computer. Look for several posts from me from now on, although I will have to learn how to prevent Elway from jumping on our keyboard.