My Hypocritical Sporting Stance

[Sooner04]

As a young lad, I became a devout fan of OU Basketball and reasoned that the only way the game was to be played was at a fast pace. I'd watch the '90 Sooners run clinics that doubled as track meets twice a week. If I stayed quiet enough, and woke up easily on Tuesday morning, I could watch the WCC or Big West game of the week on ESPN late Monday night. Loyola-Marymount and UNLV were gazelles on the hardwood, and it was a joy to watch.

Today, if a game is played in the 80s it's a shock. Games in the 50s are the norm. The game has been mucked up, roughed up, and it's hideous features are goblin-like to behold. I still watch it, I still follow it, but I hate it.

My views on college football, on the other hand, are a complete reversal. Everything about the spread: the high scoring, the passing all over the place, the long games: I hate all of it. Nothing makes me gag more than a college football game with a final score of 49-45. I've been sitting here trying to rationalize why I loved 100-95 games in BBall while loathing 47-40 games in football.

The old adage I'd scream at Kelvin Sampson about not winning if you can't score is a direct violation of what I'm internally stewing over as I watch our football team. I guess the old thesis of winning a football game by controlling the clock and stocking a defense with a bunch of flesh-eating piranhas in pads has been thrown by the wayside. All that said, I do miss it.

I watched the Tennessee Titans last night put on a ball-control clinic against the Colts. In their three four second-half drives, the Titans scored two touchdowns and a field goal while chewing up 164 yards on 33 plays. That's barely under five yards a play. It was so methodical, so time-consuming, so boring and............so beautiful.

I don't know why I want to see the tempo picked up in one sport while seeing it slowed in the other. Maybe the rules of the sport dictate the fall of scoring in one and the rise of scoring in the other. In BBall, the defense gets away with murder, while a tap to the helmet of the QB is met with a walk-off of 15 yards. I detest the vulgarity of one side and the sissification of the other.

Maybe I'm just a hypocrite. Maybe I just like to bitch. Who knows?

And see there, sports fans, is a whole topic that didn't bash our defense or talk politics. It CAN be done!

[Stoop Dawg]

I like the higher scoring games. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but watching PSU and OSU the other night was downright painful. Does the Big 10 know that it's now legal to throw the ball forward? It's called a "forward pass". My wife is a badger fan so we've watched a few of their games. BOR-ING!

Sure it's weird (and frustrating) watching a team like TTech - or Arizona against USC - being completely incapable of running for a short 3rd down conversion. Being totally dependent on the passing game is probably not a sound offensive strategy, but it sure is more fun to watch!

[humblesooner]

I don't watch the NFL and have not for several years.
However, I think the problem with the game is in your post. You mentioned the Titans three four (either one, doesn't matter) second half possessions.
A real NFL game has now been reduced to approximately 8 possessions per team per game. In the "old days" of power/defensive football, it would take some teams 4 or 5 possessions to just get warmed up.
Hell, OU scored 8 TD's in the first half last Saturday.
When I hear of a team only getting 7 possessions (with one being a non-event end of the first half possession) it drives me nuts.
That's a lot of money to pay to see 6 or 7 meaningful possessions for your favorite team.
I don't care how you get there, but I think any football team should have anywhere from 10-15 possessions per game.

I also have a couple of crazy ideas for the gurus trying to change the game.
If you are concerned about 4 or 4.5 hour games, don't try to change the fundamental game itself. How about adopting the World Football (soccer) rules and give us 45 minute quarters and let the clock run. Then you have a three hour game, plus the half time that television can plan their schedule around. If you want to make it exactly 3 hours, make the quarters 40 minutes.
Or how about playing 10 innings? Give each team 10 (or 12 or 15)possessions to do with what they can.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

For me, it has to do with the way I view basketball, I don't know that anybody leaves a basketball game talking about a great steal, block, or posession defensive stop. What we leave talking about is the 3 pointer from 2 feet behind the line, the great dunk, or the player offensive performance...We'll know how many points a player has, but not have a clue on the other stats..

In football, the big hit stands out...the goalline stop...the interception...the forced fumble...3 and outs....since you have players that don't play on O, the defensive side of the ball is a lot more noticed...

I m with you though..I cut my teeth on track meet basketball and wishbone O that crammed the ball down your throat and hard hitting D at a slower pace

[fadada1]

i like high scoring games when we're the one doing the high scoring. at the same time, in those games, i LOVE seeing OU act like a brick wall.

case in point - 77-0. a day of pure delight.

04, some of my fondest memories of OU b-ball come from my freshman year at OU (89-90). ku and mizzou in the spring of 90 will forever be etched in my memory of two of the loudest events i've ever been witness to - and i spent a year on an aircraft carrier watching flight ops.

[JLEW1818]

12-0 Oklahoma over Texas....... hard to argue with that.

13-2 (0) good one too

[KingBarry]

If you are concerned about 4 or 4.5 hour games, don't try to change the fundamental game itself. How about adopting the World Football (soccer) rules and give us 45 minute quarters and let the clock run. Then you have a three hour game, plus the half time that television can plan their schedule around. If you want to make it exactly 3 hours, make the quarters 40 minutes.
Or how about playing 10 innings? Give each team 10 (or 12 or 15)possessions to do with what they can.

Those ARE fundamental changes to the game itself. You realize that, don't you?

[PDXsooner]

those low-scoring games are great because a TOUCHDOWN MEANS SOMETHING!!! this wac-style crap is terrible. once you score, you're praying for a turnover because you know the defense won't stop anyone.

when the opponent has a 3rd and 8 now, it might as well be a 3rd and 1. it's painful.

i hope this WAC-hijack of the Big 12 is an anomaly and not some type of permanent evolution.

[Sooner04]

You mentioned the Titans three four (either one, doesn't matter) second half possessions.
A real NFL game has now been reduced to approximately 8 possessions per team per game. In the "old days" of power/defensive football, it would take some teams 4 or 5 possessions to just get warmed up.
They didn't get three second-half possessions. Those three scoring drives just happened to come on their FIRST three possessions of the second half. They chewed up a ton of clock while getting about five yards per play. It looks a lot like the Wishbone in the box score, just without the breakaway threat. Although that young kid from ECU can flat fly.

[Widescreen]

So I guess you thoroughly enjoyed the 2002 cotton bowl? That was the most boring game I've ever been to.

[NormanPride]

Reduce the number of WRs you can have on the field. If you limit three WRs at one time, that reduces a lot of the spread fundamentals that you can run. I also like the idea of a constantly running clock... that wouldn't change the game too much, but it would make things interesting!

[Sooner04]

So I guess you thoroughly enjoyed the 2002 cotton bowl? That was the most boring game I've ever been to.
I enjoyed what our defense did to them. I don't remember our offense chewing up four or five yards a play. It was a dreadfully played game, and it was cold. And I was working on about three hours of sleep.

[The Maestro]

I like the teams I root for to do one thing on offense. Run the best damn play they can...hoops or football.

I like the teams I root for to do one thing on defense. Take offense that the other team is trying to score or move the ball and act like...hoops or football.

[1890MilesToNorman]

The style of football by the Sooners has really messed with the TV cover guys this year, that aspect I like. But now I don't even have time to get a beer or take a leak between plays? The new offense has forced me to bring a cooler into the living room and wear depends on gameday. All in all I like it very much, 55 points at half is pretty dawg gone cool.

Those Tubb's teams we're awesome in the late 80's.

[BoulderSooner79]

I had an opposite reaction to the PSU/tOSU game. I thought it was a hard fought, tense, exciting game. But I'm not a bigot for great D; I love our offense this year. Thinking about it, I guess in a big game, I like excellence where the game is determined by players making plays in pressure situations. PSU/tOSU looked like excellent defense to me and that puts tons of pressure on both D units to make a stop and don't give up the big play. One mistake on D could mean the game. But that can happen in a high scoring game as well, where the pressure is on the offense to score or at least drive the ball every time. One dropped pass or one over-thrown ball or one running back slipping on his cut can mean the game.

[Dan Thompson]

One thing I have noticed about our offense this year is that when Sam is having a good game and the receivers are catching the ball, it doesn't make any difference if it's 1st 10 or 3rd 20. Sam can strike at any time from just about any place on the field.

[TopDawg]

Great post.

I'm going to select option B: you just like to bitch.

[TUSooner]

Nice post. I have mixed feelings. I enjoy a hard fought struggle where the offenses control the game but defenses make plays and touchdowns mean something. At the same time, I hated to watch tOSU vs Penn State. I thought that was more a game of stale offenses than awesome defenses. I guess anybody can play good defense if you know the other team will run on 3d and 7. :D

[Stitch Face]

All I know is when we beat FSU 13-2 they were supposed to be the Best Damn Offense Ever or something and we shut them down and it was awesome. 80+ points in the first half feels like making crap up in the backyard.

[bluedogok]

In all the games that I watched this year I have yet to see a "great" defense. What I have seen in low scoring games is ineptitude of the offenses after watching the Big 12 offenses this season. there is always a period where offenses get ahead of defenses for a few years and then the defenses catch up and the cycle begins again. I think it is just in an offensive explosion cycle at the moment.

I think basketball sucks anymore, I hardly watch it anymore. It has become football on hardwood. My freshman year was the same as Wayman's, so you can see where my point of reference came from.

[Oldnslo]

I think you're a hypocrite who just likes to bitch.

[the_ouskull]

The 2001 Orange Bowl, and the 2002 Cotton Bowl were two of my favorite football games of all time. L.T. was my favorite football player, and the reason that I'm a Giants fan. Bosworth was my favorite Sooner. I loved Billy Ball. I loved Kelvin Ball. I loved Barry, running the ball down people's throats. I love Bob, throwing it down their throat from halfway up the field.

I hate poor play.

I hate losing; and seeing the teams that I love to root for, lose.

It's like I've always said about chicks... I don't care what flavor they are; hot is hot.

But, in response to the original post...

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Basketball is a game in which, even at slow paces, scoring happens much more frequently than in football. So, when watching basketball, we get conditioned, in a Pavlovian manner, to watch it a certain way. Football can be the same way.

Now, when you hear "the bell" of a basketball game on, you are conditioned to see high scoring games, because they're what you grew up with; they're what triggered your love for the game. When you see basketball, and DON'T see what you love, it induces a negative stimulus into an otherwise positive situation; creating a new, negative situation.

When you see the game being played a way other than you like it being played, subconsciously, you distance yourself from being able to call it the same game. Therefore, since you consciously know that it IS the same game, you react in a negative manner; channeling the negative energy into what the homies like to call "b*tching."

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What happened? I blacked out.

the_ouskull

[sooneron]

Great post.

I'm going to select option B: you just like to bitch.

Yes, B it is!:texan:

[OUmillenium]

In all the games that I watched this year I have yet to see a "great" defense. What I have seen in low scoring games is ineptitude of the offenses after watching the Big 12 offenses this season. there is always a period where offenses get ahead of defenses for a few years and then the defenses catch up and the cycle begins again. I think it is just in an offensive explosion cycle at the moment.

I think basketball sucks anymore, I hardly watch it anymore. It has become football on hardwood. My freshman year was the same as Wayman's, so you can see where my point of reference came from.

Agreed.

And I also agree with the original post except I also like OU lighting up the scoreboard. We just need to put a defense out on the field every few possessions. And cover kicks better. I love the OU offense though.