It is pretty amazing.
As I said last night, congrats to the guys. For as much as we might be upset as fans, these losing streaks are far harder on the coaches and players. I'm glad to see our guys get a reward for the hard work they have been putting in.
This was a crazy win, there's no doubt about that. Not sure I have seen anything like that before. Well, I do (old people remember Chip Otten fumbling as BG was about to take UT out?), but that was something else.
I know. We're far from out of the woods and the loss certainly showed that the team has issues that have not been resolved. Yes, we beat a team whose starting QB was injured. All caveats apply. But we've handed games over to teams and this time they handed it to us and we closed the deal and took it from them.
The key moment is pretty unforgettable. Here's why. The narrative appeared to be just the same old thing. BG has lead, plays competently and can't close it out. Backup QB drives 77 yards and puts Miami in the end zone and BG falls to 0-6 for the first time in 80 years and its the same old story. I mean, it was right there. That's what was happening.
Miami is going for the TD. They are only down 1 and there's inside 2 minutes. They only need a FG, but they are trying to get the TD. They have a full house backfield and just a ton of beef lined up in the backfield. The snap goes crazy somehow. I'm watching...you could sense the confusion and then you could see the ball. Even if BG recovers, there's a good chance the game is over. But, Brandon Harris snatches the ball up---cleanly and effectively--and runs 93 yards to put BG up 8.
That's why we love sports. Because it goes from one feeling to the other in a literal blink of an eye. How about that.
For a few seconds, it looked like it was going to go back again. (And yes, in a world of robot football players Harris would have downed the ball on the 1. But, he isn't and it isn't like they talked about THAT happening in the huddle and you should be able to stop them from scoring in 1:21 with 1 timeout. And did).
UPDATE: I just saw Coach on the post-game and he definitely thinks Harris should have downed the ball. He said we want to be great not good, and that this would be a "teachable moment" and they could talk on the bus.
Miami went to Gardner on the first play for 31 yards, which is just an ouch. I was really worried about our guys and their psychology...here we go again. To their credit, things got more difficult. They had to convert a 4th and 12 and then there were 4 straight incomplete passes starting on the BG 27 and the game was over. BG called two timeouts before the 4th down play to make sure they had their signals straight, which I would say was a good move.
It was a crazy thrilling victory. This team still has a long way to go, but this, right now, stands as the biggest win in the Jinks era at BG. Yes, that's a low bar, but we were looking for incremental improvement. The schedule is really tough here for a while, but we've had tough losses and this was a tough win and we are thrilled to have it.
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