Go Ducks (or Get Over It, Sooners)!
So, everyone knows that the Oregon Ducks beat the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday by one point, 34-33, to move up in the college football rankings.
Most people know that there was controversy in the final minutes of the game, resulting from some bad calls made by the Pac-10 officials assigned to the game.
And now, the world knows that the Oklahoma Sooners and their fans are a bunch of worthless cry-babies.
Big words, I know. But they’re directed at those people who can’t get over the fact that bad calls are made all the time. In the Ducks/Sooners game, bad calls were made throughout the game, in both directions.
Yet the Sooners’ faithful insist on blaming the loss on the play-calling.
Every time I’ve been a fan of a team, and that team has lost (as I perceived it) because of play calls (i.e. last year’s Super Bowl also-rans, the Seahawks, who I previously blogged got jobbed by the officiating), I’ve been reminded that officials impact the outcome of games, but the players themselves are responsible for reacting to, and overcoming, those impacts.
In Saturday’s game, Oklahoma had control of their destiny until the end. At the final moment of the game, they had the chance to win by way of a 44-yard field goal attempt. Sadly (for them, at least) they weren’t able to capitalize on that opportunity, and they lost.
Did they get jobbed? Sure. But stop crying about it. Enough with the death threats. You suffered what every other team who’s ever played a game has suffered. You were affected by bad play calling. And you couldn’t get past it to win.
Oklahoma’s season truly won’t be the same. But it will be what they make it. If Oregon wins out (which is possible, but not likely while USC has something to say about it), and Oklahoma does the same, perhaps they’ll get a chance to take another bite at the apple. Or maybe, just maybe, we’ll have a season that goes just haywire enough that these two one-loss teams could face eachother for the national championship. To get there, though, Oklahoma’s president, coaches, players, and fans are going to have to suck it up and move on from what is understandably disappointing, but from what is also just a part of playing the game.
Your thoughts?
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My only thought is that I wonder what would have been the case if the two teams were in the opposite places-if the calls had been bad against Oregon, would Ducks fans be threatening death and bellyaching and blaming the loss on the refs?
The Okie fans are showing how dismal it must be to live in that dustbowl. Nothing else going on, no culture to be had, just college football. As a Duck fan, the game was REAL important to me too, but get some f-ing perspective, Sooner Nation.
The funny thing is, the blown calls against Oregon earlier in the game weren’t minor holding penalties, they were of game-changing magnitude.
Sooner Nation, I feel for you (I really do), but this shit happens. Get over it.
BLF:
If the roles were reversed, of course we’d be belly-aching. But death threats? Asking for the game results to be expunged?
Don’t get me wrong. There’s a place for appropriate unhappiness with how the game was called. But, like good ol’ TKrueg says, there is a lack of perspective being displayed by the Okies that is pretty appalling.
If an official had an opportunity to view the replay of questionable calls and by the conference’s own admission had enough replays to make the right call and then chose to make the wrong call deliberately. You decide what to call it. In Oklahoma we call it deplorable. The crew could not even come up with an explaination that made sense. Enjoy your brief moment in dubious glory.
Otis:
Hind-sight is 20/20. There was a good article in our local paper today about the replay official and what they actually had to work with. His statements that he was under a timeline and was working with only one feed were confirmed by his supervisor, so I personally will give them credence.
Of course, I’m not from Oklahoma.
Anyway, you can read it here: http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf?/base/sports/1158639907304430.xml&coll=7
Aside from that, as Oregon has been consistently in the top 20 in the last few years, and has even had a couple of years of solid top 10 performances (even outshining your glorious Sooners), our “brief” moment of dubious glory has been nice, and our 15 minutes, which has now lasted several hours, has no signs of ending any time soon.
Sounds just like the Bush people telling the Gore people to Get Over It.
Oregon’s win is tainted, and they should voluntarily forfeit it.
Everyone, and I mean every Oregon fan, is saying that bad calls were made both ways. That is a good point, and this happens in every college game. But this argument shows a huge lack of intelligence by any Duck fan that tries to make it. The bad calls against Oregon that are being referred to, push offs, delays, etc. were not reviewed. They were poor judgement calls by the officials, yes, but not reviewed, with the balance of the game in hand. The mistake of the replay official in this instance will go down in history as the worst, most blantant and game changing snafu in officiating history. Why? Because they took the time to actually review the play, and still blew it. That is a huge difference than other bad judgement calls that happened through out the game affecting both teams. So please do your self a favor and don’t use the arguement that this happens all the time, and there were bad calls against Oregon too. That is life, but the call in dispute was life-altering. Just ask the replay official about that.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, agrees that the call was wrong.
Everyone, and I mean every non-OU fan, thinks that OU is being a bunch of sissies for their on-going weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I think that it is clear that the official in the booth made the best call he could make given the information made availalble to him. Was he wrong? Yes. Is this indicative of problems with the way the replay system works? Yes.
But replay is just an extension of the human error on the field. Sure, replay is supposed to catch the mistakes the on-field officials make. But you have another human trying to catch human error.
The system isn’t perfect. Whether on-field during the play or off-field during a replay, mistakes are made. Get over it.
In the end, OU had a chance to win. Their fate was in their hands. And their field goal got blocked.
Suck to be OU? Sure. But everyone gets jobbed at some time or another. OU got jobbed, which is part of the game. Move on.