A chaotic, controversial and exciting weekend of college football has provided me with plenty of candidates for villainy on the gridiron. Here’s the worst of the bunch:
Michigan
The story of the weekend. A soul-destroying loss for the Wolverines, who controlled large chunks of the Battle of Michigan inside the Big House, only to have a special teams nightmare, fuelled by Australian punter Blake O’Neill, fell them at the death. Literally, on the last play of the game, during the last few seconds of regulation. Football can be such a cruel game.
Jalen Watts-Jackson, the Michigan State player who took the fumbled punt into the end zone for one of the most unlikely victories in college football history – and certainly the most unlikely since the end of the 2014 Iron Bowl – will forever reviled in Ann Arbor, just as much as he will be feted and celebrated in Ann Arbor.
I feel desperately sorry for O’Neill, who was put in a bad position late, and is now being subjected to all sorts of abuse – see below – but we need to remember that football is a team game, and although it was O’Neill’s botched play that sealed the loss, there were plenty of other mistakes by the Wolverines throughout.
This one is going to sting for the longest time – defeat from the jaws of victory. Lost in the post-game chaos is the fact that Michigan proved they’re back in a big way. Not that that’ll make it any easier for Wolverine fans to get any sleep tonight.
Angry Michigan Fans on Twitter
At the end of the day, football is just a game. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not important and really never will be. Things happen in this game. Sometimes you, as a fan of your team, won’t like them. But, it’s how you deal with adversity that counts.
Unfortunately, in the wake of Michigan’s heart-breaking loss to Michigan State on an error by their Aussie punter, a group of unsavoury people on Twitter thought that abusing the life out of Blake O’Neill would be a good idea.
For the uneducated keyboard worries out there: it is not and never will be okay to suggest to any given player that they should go and hang themselves – or anything similar. Yet, that’s what happened. Run a Twitter search if you dare. It’s not pretty reading. The irony is that these guys don’t have anywhere near the talent required to play football at the level that the targets of their misguided and stupid abuse have achieved.
The sad thing is that a loud but definite minority of Wolverine fans have cast a dark shadow on the rest of the moderate and generally pleasant Michigan fan base. A few idiots is all it takes. There’s no place for such abuse.
We saw the dark side of social media today, and therein lies the one fundamental problem with Twitter and similar platforms: it provides a global soap box for people who definitely don’t deserve it.
UCLA
The Bruins had a chance for a big victory on the road, to really stamp their credentials as far as Pac-12 contention goes. Instead, they dominated by the Cardinal, and particularly RB Christian McCaffrey who gashed the Bruin defense again and again, running for 243 yards and four touchdowns on twenty-five carries. The Bruins scored two touchdowns in the meaningless fourth quarter, which made the scoreboard look fractionally better, but this one was well and truly over by the end of the third. Back to the drawing board for Jim Mora and his coaching squad.
Kansas State
Seven days removed from pushing Texas Christian right to the edge, the Wildcats apparently forgot how to play football. They were thumped 55-0 by an Oklahoma squad coming off an embarrassing loss to Texas in Dallas – and, clearly, out to make some sort of statement – and never looked likely to challenge the Sooners. Three turnovers and just 104 total yards of offense doomed them. It’s funny how much difference a week makes, isn’t it?
Kyle Allen
If Texas A&M were ever going to beat Alabama, they were going to need a flawless effort from their young quarterback, Allen. And they didn’t get it. In fact, Allen delivered the opposite, the stuff of nightmares. He threw three interceptions, all of them returned by Alabama for defensive scores of 33, 93 and 55 yards. Suffice to say, it wasn’t the day Aggie fans were hoping for.
Defense in South Bend
The annual renewal of the USC-Notre Dame rivalry at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend was an epic, eventually won by the Irish 41-3s1. USC gained 590 yards and the Irish a shade less at 476. Defenses stacked with immense talent were victimised by big plays seemingly on every second snap – I mean, how often do you see Adoree’ Jackson torched on multiple plays of 40+ yards. Not a game for the defensive purists.
Boise State
A week after a near-flawless demolition of Colorado State on the road, the Broncos, who seemed to be heading towards a New Year’s 6 Bowl appearance for the second straight year under Bryan Harsin, were blown out of the water by a rampant Utah State squad, 56-20 in a game where the Broncos turned the football over eight time. Eight! That’s unheard of in big-time college football, and you can’t win games when you commit that many turnovers.
For the first time since his stunning debut earlier this year, Boise’s freshman QB Brett Rypien actually looked like a freshman. The Aggies took full advantage and recorded a memorable victory.
Indiana
The Hoosiers, at home, had a twenty-five point lead in the third, and proceeded to give it up, letting Rutgers convert three fourth-quarter interceptions into touchdowns, leading to Kyle Federico’s 26-yard field goal that lifted the Scarlet Knights to an improbably 55-52 victory. A devastating day for the Hoosiers.
Northwestern
A week after being shut out 38-0 by Michigan in the Big House, the Wildcats returned to Evanston for Homecoming weekend and were embarrassed by Iowa, 40-10. The offense was anaemic, and the defense was shredded by the Hawkeye ground game, which amassed 293 yards – without their starting running back Jordan Canzeri. Didn’t matter. The Wildcats couldn’t tackle anyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment