cvsooner
1/4/2008, 05:24 PM
Okay, back from Phoenix, with random thoughts about the game, the trip, etc. This is kinda long, and disjointed, and I apologize for that, but I’ve been jotting things down as I think of ‘em.
Second straight year to go, from central California. My son and I went. It was his birthday and Christmas present rolled into one. Flew out of Burbank on Southwest on the day of the game, picked up the rental car, drove to our hotel. Checked in, donned Sooner garb, had some lunch, headed to the stadium.
It’s really a nice stadium, inside. It’s a little odd-looking from the outside. Kinda like somebody squashed a toaster.
Went in, found our seats. Section 452. Pretty good, kind of on the corner of an end zone on the home team side. Fiesta Bowl staff-stadium staff-very friendly.
Not many WVU fans. I think we had them outnumbered about three to one. Lots of empty seats on the visitors’ side.
Hartley was kicking 63-yarders in warm ups. Wow.
WVU’s punter/kicker was a huge factor. Unorthodox rugby style punter but boom…what a leg. Pinned us deep several times. We dodged a bullet when Franks tried to field that punt over his shoulder. That was three kinds of dumb.
Missing four starters on defense was a killer. (I’m counting English in there. He didn’t play much.) That’s a third of the defense. Odd, though, with the exception of five plays, the defense wasn’t that bad. Those five plays, though, added up to about 300 yards. Overpursuing, out of position defenders will just get walloped every time.
Pat White is Vince Young-light. He’s not as good a passer as Young was his final year. He finished what, 10 for 19 for 170 yards? 110 of them came on two completions. His biggest threat, though, was they’d be in a passing down and he’d run it. Killed us over and over and over.
Our offensive line was getting beaten off the ball regularly, especially early. When they weren’t getting beaten, they were getting flagged for holding. Loadholt isn’t getting false start penalties, though. Just holding calls. And not being far enough up the line.
I haven’t seen so many yellow flags since I toured the New Mexico state capital.
Note to Sam: it’s okay to run with the ball, especially if the pocket has broken down and you’re gaining nine yards every time you run.
Another note to Sam: if there are four white jerseys in the end zone because they know you’re throwing it to Gresham, somebody else is probably open.
Incredible runbacks by Patrick and Iglesias, though most of those seemed to be negated by penalties. The other downside—they’re runbacks because they just kicked off to us again. Murray would’ve scored if he had the Patrick runback, I think.
Quentin Chaney is only used for the Fiesta Bowl? Didn’t we go through this last year? At least somebody wants to play in the bowl game.
Malcolm Kelly has a pulled hamstring or a bruise or the flu or something, the guy next to me says. Oh, great. Just what we need. He’s out there, warming up, though.
Joaquin: if the ball hits you in the hands, you have to catch it.
Only fumble I think was by Sam but he recovered it and didn’t get a concussion. Good news.
Were there three sacks on that possession? Okay, we can’t pass-block now?
I only encountered one WVU fan who was a jerk. Most were okay. “And you guys are paying Stoops how much?” My son: “At least our coach wants to stay at our school.” Heh.
We’re going for two? Now? No. Do we not have a run-pass play in the book somewhere? Apparently not.
Onside kick followed by a quick score was a huge turning point for the worse. WVU scores 28 points in its next SEVEN plays.
Slaton’s down…dang, his backup is better than he is.
Midway through fourth quarter, to quote Pete Fiutak, we’re doing a Roberto Duran “no mas.” Running the ball. Guess we’ve decided we’re done. ‘ Bout as accurate a summary as I’ve seen.
Classy move by WVU coach Stewart. Five minutes to go…he’s running out the clock. The no-huddle offense is looking up at the play clock and coming to the line with nine seconds left. Easy runs. Probably wouldn’t score if he had the chance. I guess he figures 20 points is good enough for a whipping. And he’s right.
Stewart seems like a nice guy. Real throwback, though…talks about the players as “lads.”
A bald eagle flying over a football-field sized American flag will make your eyes water if you have one scintilla of patriotism in your body.
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons should never NEVER sing the national anthem anywhere.
Sooner fans show class and not change the final word of the phrase “home of the brave.”
WVU fans have an interesting variation, shall we say, of the “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-U” we do on kickoffs. It still ends in “YOU” preceded by a certain word. And, yeah, that’s pretty much what they’re doing to us, too.
I really thought we had a pretty good chance at this one.
If that’s a catch in the Orange Bowl, Joe Jon Finley got robbed of one of the all-time great catches.
I can see why Stoops wanted to play Virginia Tech. We might’ve had a chance, plus they were higher ranked. The ACC stunk up the bowls this year. VT is 0-for-4 in BCS games, too. Nobody seems to know that.
I thought WVU would be a dangerous team. Lost a game they shouldn’t have, knocked out of national title chance, and someone is going to pay. We did. White averaged better than seven yards a carry, plus threw for nearly 200.
Our offensive numbers aren’t bad if we don’t give up 48 points.
Memo to Bob: first priority, work on blocking. Offensive linemen need to work with Coach Schmidt and not eat so much during the break. Man, they look like they could lose some weight.
The other first priority, work on tackling.
Get flu shots right after the Big 12 championship game.
Can we put in a half dozen new plays during the layoff?
Four trips into the red zone and we have an interception and three field goals. If we had had the red zone results of the rest of the season, we’d have 28 points and this thing would be a shoot-out. It was a shoot-out, as it turned out, just one-sided and we couldn’t hang with it.
Leaving the Phoenix airport, a couple of players in front of us in the security line (identities concealed to protect them). Striking up a conversation with them, I asked, “Was Stoops pretty upset?” Silence. A grin, a little laugh. “Uh…yeah.”
Lots of Sooner gear in the airport on various folks. Surprising number of OSU fans apparently stuck around for the Fiasco Bo…excuse me, Fiesta Bowl. The two I ran into wished us luck, though.
Debated about going to this game. Took money I was saving for an HD TV and spent it on this. Right about now I wish I had bought the TV. I’d still have the TV.
When does spring practice start?
Good, solid year with a disappointing ending. Okay, we competed with LSU, and with Boise State, I can live with those. But the USC game and now this one…I don’t get it.
My son says it’s lack of leadership amongst the players, in his estimate. No real on-field leaders like we’ve had in the past. Maybe that’s it.
Stoops on the big screen before we leave the stadium (yes, we stayed to the very end), looks dejected. He acknowledges the approach to bowl games isn’t working and will do something different, whatever that means. The off-season needs to be real productive and you’re facing some mighty good opponents next fall—two of them bowl teams and the other one has a really good quarterback who is fast, can run AND throw.
With the way we’ve played in past four BCS games we can’t help but be the underdog that everyone expects to lose next time. Maybe that’s the strategy. I sure hope so.
Second straight year to go, from central California. My son and I went. It was his birthday and Christmas present rolled into one. Flew out of Burbank on Southwest on the day of the game, picked up the rental car, drove to our hotel. Checked in, donned Sooner garb, had some lunch, headed to the stadium.
It’s really a nice stadium, inside. It’s a little odd-looking from the outside. Kinda like somebody squashed a toaster.
Went in, found our seats. Section 452. Pretty good, kind of on the corner of an end zone on the home team side. Fiesta Bowl staff-stadium staff-very friendly.
Not many WVU fans. I think we had them outnumbered about three to one. Lots of empty seats on the visitors’ side.
Hartley was kicking 63-yarders in warm ups. Wow.
WVU’s punter/kicker was a huge factor. Unorthodox rugby style punter but boom…what a leg. Pinned us deep several times. We dodged a bullet when Franks tried to field that punt over his shoulder. That was three kinds of dumb.
Missing four starters on defense was a killer. (I’m counting English in there. He didn’t play much.) That’s a third of the defense. Odd, though, with the exception of five plays, the defense wasn’t that bad. Those five plays, though, added up to about 300 yards. Overpursuing, out of position defenders will just get walloped every time.
Pat White is Vince Young-light. He’s not as good a passer as Young was his final year. He finished what, 10 for 19 for 170 yards? 110 of them came on two completions. His biggest threat, though, was they’d be in a passing down and he’d run it. Killed us over and over and over.
Our offensive line was getting beaten off the ball regularly, especially early. When they weren’t getting beaten, they were getting flagged for holding. Loadholt isn’t getting false start penalties, though. Just holding calls. And not being far enough up the line.
I haven’t seen so many yellow flags since I toured the New Mexico state capital.
Note to Sam: it’s okay to run with the ball, especially if the pocket has broken down and you’re gaining nine yards every time you run.
Another note to Sam: if there are four white jerseys in the end zone because they know you’re throwing it to Gresham, somebody else is probably open.
Incredible runbacks by Patrick and Iglesias, though most of those seemed to be negated by penalties. The other downside—they’re runbacks because they just kicked off to us again. Murray would’ve scored if he had the Patrick runback, I think.
Quentin Chaney is only used for the Fiesta Bowl? Didn’t we go through this last year? At least somebody wants to play in the bowl game.
Malcolm Kelly has a pulled hamstring or a bruise or the flu or something, the guy next to me says. Oh, great. Just what we need. He’s out there, warming up, though.
Joaquin: if the ball hits you in the hands, you have to catch it.
Only fumble I think was by Sam but he recovered it and didn’t get a concussion. Good news.
Were there three sacks on that possession? Okay, we can’t pass-block now?
I only encountered one WVU fan who was a jerk. Most were okay. “And you guys are paying Stoops how much?” My son: “At least our coach wants to stay at our school.” Heh.
We’re going for two? Now? No. Do we not have a run-pass play in the book somewhere? Apparently not.
Onside kick followed by a quick score was a huge turning point for the worse. WVU scores 28 points in its next SEVEN plays.
Slaton’s down…dang, his backup is better than he is.
Midway through fourth quarter, to quote Pete Fiutak, we’re doing a Roberto Duran “no mas.” Running the ball. Guess we’ve decided we’re done. ‘ Bout as accurate a summary as I’ve seen.
Classy move by WVU coach Stewart. Five minutes to go…he’s running out the clock. The no-huddle offense is looking up at the play clock and coming to the line with nine seconds left. Easy runs. Probably wouldn’t score if he had the chance. I guess he figures 20 points is good enough for a whipping. And he’s right.
Stewart seems like a nice guy. Real throwback, though…talks about the players as “lads.”
A bald eagle flying over a football-field sized American flag will make your eyes water if you have one scintilla of patriotism in your body.
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons should never NEVER sing the national anthem anywhere.
Sooner fans show class and not change the final word of the phrase “home of the brave.”
WVU fans have an interesting variation, shall we say, of the “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-U” we do on kickoffs. It still ends in “YOU” preceded by a certain word. And, yeah, that’s pretty much what they’re doing to us, too.
I really thought we had a pretty good chance at this one.
If that’s a catch in the Orange Bowl, Joe Jon Finley got robbed of one of the all-time great catches.
I can see why Stoops wanted to play Virginia Tech. We might’ve had a chance, plus they were higher ranked. The ACC stunk up the bowls this year. VT is 0-for-4 in BCS games, too. Nobody seems to know that.
I thought WVU would be a dangerous team. Lost a game they shouldn’t have, knocked out of national title chance, and someone is going to pay. We did. White averaged better than seven yards a carry, plus threw for nearly 200.
Our offensive numbers aren’t bad if we don’t give up 48 points.
Memo to Bob: first priority, work on blocking. Offensive linemen need to work with Coach Schmidt and not eat so much during the break. Man, they look like they could lose some weight.
The other first priority, work on tackling.
Get flu shots right after the Big 12 championship game.
Can we put in a half dozen new plays during the layoff?
Four trips into the red zone and we have an interception and three field goals. If we had had the red zone results of the rest of the season, we’d have 28 points and this thing would be a shoot-out. It was a shoot-out, as it turned out, just one-sided and we couldn’t hang with it.
Leaving the Phoenix airport, a couple of players in front of us in the security line (identities concealed to protect them). Striking up a conversation with them, I asked, “Was Stoops pretty upset?” Silence. A grin, a little laugh. “Uh…yeah.”
Lots of Sooner gear in the airport on various folks. Surprising number of OSU fans apparently stuck around for the Fiasco Bo…excuse me, Fiesta Bowl. The two I ran into wished us luck, though.
Debated about going to this game. Took money I was saving for an HD TV and spent it on this. Right about now I wish I had bought the TV. I’d still have the TV.
When does spring practice start?
Good, solid year with a disappointing ending. Okay, we competed with LSU, and with Boise State, I can live with those. But the USC game and now this one…I don’t get it.
My son says it’s lack of leadership amongst the players, in his estimate. No real on-field leaders like we’ve had in the past. Maybe that’s it.
Stoops on the big screen before we leave the stadium (yes, we stayed to the very end), looks dejected. He acknowledges the approach to bowl games isn’t working and will do something different, whatever that means. The off-season needs to be real productive and you’re facing some mighty good opponents next fall—two of them bowl teams and the other one has a really good quarterback who is fast, can run AND throw.
With the way we’ve played in past four BCS games we can’t help but be the underdog that everyone expects to lose next time. Maybe that’s the strategy. I sure hope so.