Sometimes we wonder if the commentators and studio hosts are watching the same game we are. Perfect case in point was last night’s LSU/Auburn game down in Baton Rogue at Tiger Stadium where it seems the Tigers have 15 game scheduled this year.
Down 17-10 at half, LSU made their now-customary comeback to take a 23-17 lead in the 4th. Auburn finally awoke from their own 2nd half slumber to retake
the lead 24-23 with about 3-1/2 minutes left. But instead of kicking the ball away deep and counting on their special teams to cover LSU’s speedy return men and thus make LSU work their way down field to kick a field goal, Auburn instead squib-kicked the kickoff resulting in LSU getting the ball at their own 43 yard line!
LSU drove into field goal position around the 15 yard line and with 9 seconds left, on 2nd or 3rd down (can’t recall exactly), instead of kicking the game-winning field goal, Matt Flynn went up top hitting receiver Demetrius Byrd for a touchdown. There was one second left on the clock.
The announcers went bonkers saying how gutsy a call that was by Les Miles (pictured above at right) because if they didn’t score on that play, the game would’ve been over. Huh….? Don’t incomplete passes stop the clock? It should be noted that the clock operator actually let the clock run down to 1 at the conclusion of the scoring play… in reality, the play only took 5 or 6 seconds so there was probably 3 or 4 seconds left on the game clock but no matter…. If it were an incomplete pass, the clock would’ve stopped allowing the LSU kicking team to come out to kick the game-winner. (Mike Patrick was the play-by-play guy and Todd Blackledge did the color. Patrick is mediocre at best and as noted before, it is Ron Franklin who should be doing these ESPN prime-time games).
And in the studio after the game, all they were talking about was the touchdown pass. No one that we saw questioned Auburn’s decision to basically hand the game to LSU and their idiot-savant coach, Les Miles by giving LSU a short field with that squib quick. Even the usually reliable, Mark May (who does magnificent work having to cover for “Granny” Holtz in the ESPN Game Day studio) gave Tommy Tuberville (pictured above at left) and the Auburn coaching staff a pass because we didn’t hear him mention anything about it.
… and don’t get us started on Fox Sports Net whose decision to give San Diego the Stanford/Arizona game instead of the Oregon/Washington game had us fuming. Up until about 3-4 years ago FSN was always good about hooking us up with the 2nd best Pac-10 matchup after ABC/ESPN snatched-up the “A” game. Just two years ago, we vividly recall FSN broadcasting women’s college volleyball during rivalry weekend, eschewing Oregon/OSU, Washington/WAZU and Cal/Stanford all. That sort of non-sensical programming has been the rule rather than the exception lately.
O.K. Since we were tending to W’s imperial war machine for most of yesterday, we are trying to get the Substitute to chime in with his thoughts on USC’s 38-0 drubbing of Notre Dame yesterday. It may be a separate post or just added to this one…. either way, we’ll let you know when its up.
Down 17-10 at half, LSU made their now-customary comeback to take a 23-17 lead in the 4th. Auburn finally awoke from their own 2nd half slumber to retake
the lead 24-23 with about 3-1/2 minutes left. But instead of kicking the ball away deep and counting on their special teams to cover LSU’s speedy return men and thus make LSU work their way down field to kick a field goal, Auburn instead squib-kicked the kickoff resulting in LSU getting the ball at their own 43 yard line!LSU drove into field goal position around the 15 yard line and with 9 seconds left, on 2nd or 3rd down (can’t recall exactly), instead of kicking the game-winning field goal, Matt Flynn went up top hitting receiver Demetrius Byrd for a touchdown. There was one second left on the clock.
The announcers went bonkers saying how gutsy a call that was by Les Miles (pictured above at right) because if they didn’t score on that play, the game would’ve been over. Huh….? Don’t incomplete passes stop the clock? It should be noted that the clock operator actually let the clock run down to 1 at the conclusion of the scoring play… in reality, the play only took 5 or 6 seconds so there was probably 3 or 4 seconds left on the game clock but no matter…. If it were an incomplete pass, the clock would’ve stopped allowing the LSU kicking team to come out to kick the game-winner. (Mike Patrick was the play-by-play guy and Todd Blackledge did the color. Patrick is mediocre at best and as noted before, it is Ron Franklin who should be doing these ESPN prime-time games).
And in the studio after the game, all they were talking about was the touchdown pass. No one that we saw questioned Auburn’s decision to basically hand the game to LSU and their idiot-savant coach, Les Miles by giving LSU a short field with that squib quick. Even the usually reliable, Mark May (who does magnificent work having to cover for “Granny” Holtz in the ESPN Game Day studio) gave Tommy Tuberville (pictured above at left) and the Auburn coaching staff a pass because we didn’t hear him mention anything about it.
… and don’t get us started on Fox Sports Net whose decision to give San Diego the Stanford/Arizona game instead of the Oregon/Washington game had us fuming. Up until about 3-4 years ago FSN was always good about hooking us up with the 2nd best Pac-10 matchup after ABC/ESPN snatched-up the “A” game. Just two years ago, we vividly recall FSN broadcasting women’s college volleyball during rivalry weekend, eschewing Oregon/OSU, Washington/WAZU and Cal/Stanford all. That sort of non-sensical programming has been the rule rather than the exception lately.
O.K. Since we were tending to W’s imperial war machine for most of yesterday, we are trying to get the Substitute to chime in with his thoughts on USC’s 38-0 drubbing of Notre Dame yesterday. It may be a separate post or just added to this one…. either way, we’ll let you know when its up.
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2 comments:
Dean,
I agree 100% about that last call. The call really makes sense if you trust your QB to put it where only his receiver can get it. When asked about the call after the game, Miles was a little incredulous. HE KNEW that they had plenty of time left on the clock to then go for the field goal. You'd have thought his comments would have clued in the commentators.
WRT the squib kick, at first I thought Tommy was using an onside kick and I was cheering. Turns out the onside kick is actually better than 50-50 for the kicking team in situations where the other team is not expecting it. So if you are going to give up the short field anyway, at least give your guys a chance to recover and seal the game. At the high school level, I have seen onside kicks used early in the third quarter to get a team back in the game and don't understand why it doesn't get more use in college.
B-Daddy, Thank G*d... you saw it too. It was one of those situations where you question your own sanity because it seemed so obvious at the time but.... hey, maybe I missed something...did I???
In the case of the on-side kick, I think you have to pull out the sand wedge and loft it over the first line of blockers and hope one of those stone-handed back-up linebackers bobble it. You give yourself a shot at recovering the ball plus you buy about 15 yards in field position by pooching it vs. the traditional on-side kick.
At any rate, I feel validated, complete and at peace with myself now.
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