Perception is Everything

[SoonerNomad]

I was thinking about this the other day. The Dallas Cowboys, NY Giants and Washington Redskins are all tied for the NFC East with identical 8-6 records. All three control their playoff destiny. However, not all is the same. The Giants are playing like crap and Dallas is continuing almost two full decades of painful to watch mediocrity. But in our nation's capital the outlook is much different, the Redskins are having their greatest year since Gibbs left the first time and the fans are as excited as a teenager on his first date. How can 8-6 be perceived so differently?

This difference in perspective is also at work in the Cotton Bowl. Oklahoma is 10-2, Texas A&M is 10-2. Both teams lost two hard-fought games at home, albeit to top 10 teams, both teams won games when their defense gave up close to half a hundred (or more) to good but not great teams and both teams fell a little short of their conference goals. But despite the similarities these teams are not the same. A&M is celebrating like it's "1999" (or more accurately, 1998), while the Sooners are wondering what the hell happened and how does it get fixed.

It's all about perception.

[KantoSooner]

you might say it's all part of the same thing, but you could break out 'recent history' from 'perception'. TAMU, for all that they've been a major Div 1 name for many years, has basically sucked dung for about 60 years. Sometimes good-ish, never great. During that span, OU has won 7 national titles.

[BoulderSooner79]

I'm sure many aTm fans had angst about how they would do in the SEC west. The results had to exceed most fans' expectations. Speaking for myself, OU pretty much met expectations, so I certainly don't wonder what the hell happened - it seemed pretty predictable to me. I was disappointed in some things such as why we couldn't adjust to WVU using Austin as an RB and why we couldn't run at all against KSU and ND when we had pretty good numbers against other teams. But I was elated that we could finally hang in there in a tight game all the way through the 4th qtr and even into (gasp!) OT. But overall, 10-2 and competing for the conference title was exactly my expectation. So I'm not bummed, but not giddy either.

[8timechamps]

I'm sure many aTm fans had angst about how they would do in the SEC west. The results had to exceed most fans' expectations. Speaking for myself, OU pretty much met expectations, so I certainly don't wonder what the hell happened - it seemed pretty predictable to me. I was disappointed in some things such as why we couldn't adjust to WVU using Austin as an RB and why we couldn't run at all against KSU and ND when we had pretty good numbers against other teams. But I was elated that we could finally hang in there in a tight game all the way through the 4th qtr and even into (gasp!) OT. But overall, 10-2 and competing for the conference title was exactly my expectation. So I'm not bummed, but not giddy either.

Yep, pretty much how I feel too. The big difference is that Sooner fans expect success, its surprising to A&M fans.

[VA Sooner]

Hard to not get your hopes up after several good years... the expectations, the perceptions... all unreal sometimes.

But I'm OK with that.... better than settling for mediocrity.