"Just Like Charlie Brown...."
So, when I woke my son up this mornng and told him we had lost 9-7 and the winning field goal went wide when the kicker fell on his butt, he said.
"Just like Charlie Brown."
Right. Just like Charlie Brown. Ouch.
In the interests of full disclosure, we were among the 5-6K people who braved the elements for at least the start of the game. However, ridiculous sheets of wind and rain chased us out in the first quarter. It was even more uncomfortable than the frigid KSU game of a couple of years ago--it was just nasty. So...
It was a tough loss for our team and program. We really needed a win, and when you battle through the elements and miss a FG in the final seconds that would have all made it worthwhile, that's tough. I think we all fell depressed well beyond the quantifiable importance of the game. Here's what Coach said....
"It's huge. It's the worst loss I've experienced as a coach or an assistant coach in a long time without a doubt. We just had guys play their guts out."
I mean, that's saying something there...including assistant coach and everything. They are heartbroken to have lost that one.
So were we, but I don't have a lot to be critical of. The missed FG was pretty unavoidable. I don't think there was any chance of Ellis getting his plant foot down in that muck. He was walking around and everything in his body language said that he didn't think he was going to get his plant foot down, either. Anytime the kicker watches the kick from his butt, that's not a positive sign.
Here's what Miami's coach said about the FG:
"He probably has a 10-percent chance of making the field goal."
I had hoped we would try harder to score a TD rather than relying on a very dicey FG attempt, especially remembering that the only reason that a FG was even an option was because Miami had mishandled the snap on a short FG and an XP. Unfortunately, by the time third down rolled around (about :30 left), we were out of timeouts, and the chances of getting tackled in-bounds and setting up a FG with the clock running were slim indeed. A sack would have been especially bad. So, we rolled out, "Miami covered it" (as Coach said) and we threw the ball away as coached. I don't really think we had any options, and I assume we called a play we thought could work.
The biggest tragedy of the game was the inability to score in the 3rd Q, when the formidable wind was at our back. Our offense was (in ESPN's words) dismal that quarter, and we missed our best chance to win the game.
The conditions were awful, and neither team managed much offense. In fact, we out gained Miami significantly. Unfortunately, they got good field position off a lousy punt by us, and threw a 25 yard TD pass in the middle of the field and that won the game for them.
Falcon fans today are very upset at the playcalling by our coaching staff. I guess I don't know what else they were supposed to do. We did run into the line a lot, but I don't think going wide was going to work consistently...even the guys with the ball were falling down.
Here's what Coach said about it:
"We struggled in the second half to make first downs and that was disappointing because we had run the ball decent in the first half on occasion. In the second half we just couldn't seem to move the ball and find a rhythm and I don't know if that was so much what Miami was doing or the conditions, but we couldn't get it going. ""That third quarter we squandered a lot of opportunities I think and we had the wind the whole quarter and we didn't exploit it."
So, it was certainly a disappointing loss...one that you really would like to have had, given how the season has gone. I am not too stressed out about losing to a 1-9 Miami team, because that team is better than that. They have had some late things go wrong where we had some late things go right, and that's pretty much the only difference between our two teams.
It does ensure our first losing season since Gary Blackney left. Our best hope is 5-7. I think our team and coaches put everything they had out there last night, and came up short. I hope we are a program that is on the rebound, but I don't fault them for anything that happened last night.
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As one of the 5-6K that was there for the start, and one of the 5-600 that was there for the end, I was REALLY hoping he'd make that kick. I knew he had less than a 10% chance, especially with as much time was spent playing on that section of turf in the previous 2 minutes, but I was hoping he'd find a way to get it through.
Watching the players walk down the tunnel after the game (and their faces during the alma mater), I felt awful for them. It wasn't the look of a defeated team, it was the look of a team that knows it can win, and isn't finding ways to do so. Maybe it was too soon to yell "Beat Toledo guys!", but even that was greeted by empty stares.
Ah well... BEAT TOLEDO!
Yeah, a BEAT TOLEDO post is on the docks for this week.
No, it won't save the season. But it would go on the plus side.
I feel very badly for our players and coaching staff. I know they left everything out there last night, and I hope they can find the energy to do it again.
You know, we all have some doubts about the direction of the program--reasonably. But we have to remember that when the players and coaches are lying awake at night, they're probably wondering how they're going to get around to winning again. Been there (non-athletic). Not fun to feel something slipping away, even if you do eventually turn it around.
Beat the Rockets. Congratulations for making it to the end.
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