Quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
122014471311
All Big East
Posts: 5151
(6/4/05 10:08:24 am)
Reply * * * * Re: Just Can't Let this go...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Those turnovers weren't just blind luck or Miami gifts. Three of them were strips by the defense. They made a good play to beat the left tackle and strip Dorsey from behind. They made another good play to strip Parrish. They made another good play to strip Taylor. You can't just write those off as bad luck for Miami - they were positively good plays by Ohio State. You could add in the interception where Dorsey was flushed from the pocket by pressure and overthrew Parrish.
I guess the only reason we beat FSU in 2003 is because we got really lucky with all the gift turnovers they handed us, right? It's not like we deserved those turnovers by forcing them with constant pressure on Rix on anything.
Yes, the RB injury and depth situations were bad luck for Miami, and therefore good luck for OSU. But what are you going to do if you're either team? And as someone pointed out, it's not like McGahee had been able to get anything going in the first half. Yes, he had had a few nice runs to start the second half, but there's no guarantee they wouldn't have been able to stop him the rest of the way as they had most of the game.
The OT rules never had to come into in. Miami wasn't forced to play for the tie with the ball on the OSU 20 and almost two minutes left - but they did.
And of course it's more fair to let the team that plays D last in the 1st OT play it first in the next OT. There's a big advantage to going last on O in an OT session. Saying that the team that gets to go last in the first OT should always get to go last is like saying that the team that wins the game's opening coin toss should receive the first half kickoff and the second half kickoff.
As for Taylor, he was stripped. Clarrett had the ball. No one made Taylor run the ball out of the end zone in the first place, or carry it on his inside hand, or let Clarrett take it away.
Yes, I think if that game were played 100 times, Miami would win about 70 of them. But not 100. This was one of the other 30% of the time. Bad calls occur in every game. We only beat UCLA in 1998 because of a terrible fumble call that went against UCLA's Melsby (he was clearly down). The 1989 title was won with the partial aid of a questionable call that went our way in the Sugar.
We had bad calls in the Rose Bowl. Nebraska scored a TD on a "do over" punt return. It didn't matter and people aren't still complaining here because we won anyway. If you want to be immune from one bad call possibly costing you the game, there's a simple solution: outplay the opponent by 10+ points, not by 3.
I know some losses are frustrating and it sometimes seems like all the planets have to align exactly right in order to produce an unlikely sequence of events that results in a loss. But don't you think that Louisville and FSU felt that way about Miami last year? FSU in the 2004 OB, WVU and UF in 2003, UCLA in 1998, FSU in 1991 and 1987, Michigan in 1988, WVU in 1996, BC in 1999?
