I am afraid that even this replay does not turn out well for aggy 27 - 25 will stick in their minds for a long-long time
watching it, so far it doesnt look good for Texas. Down by 9 I am willing to bet Texas wins, any Aggie takers out there?
a story about that game. for a large part of my life, college football has been a big time focus/passion. i used to get absolutely pissed and inconsolable when the aggies lost (which happened often). then i got married. then i had my son. i elected not to go to that game because 1) i thought it would be the exact kind of game that we would lose and 2) i didnt want to be there if we lost, so instead i watched it with my inlaws (mixed company...more horn fans than aggies though). towards the end of the game my then 8 month old son was having trouble sleeping, so i picked him up and started rocking him. he was barely out when jeff fuller scored the go ahead touchdown, and the old me would have been yelling my *** off in joy. but the new me couldnt do any of that. similarly, at the end when tucker kicked the field goal, i just hung my head for a second and looked at my son sleeping...and realized that as much as it sucked, meh. it was just a game and i'd get over it. i congratulated my father in law, and my wife's uncle, took some good natured ribbing and moved on. i wont lie to you and say that i'm ok with losing that game...the thought of it still makes me involuntarily shake my head...and i wish like hell we had one that damn game. but that moment helped me to have some perspective about where, on my list of larger priorities, my fandom falls. it was still a kick to the balls to lose that one though. the difference in my opinion was yall's DL and kenny vaccaro absolutely shutting down ryan swope. vaccaro was flat out amazing that game.
PropJoe, the difference in the game was aggy expected to lose after Texas had hung with them in the first half, and Texas refused to lose.
viper, you're not too far from the truth. i told my father in law that if we didnt get any points on our opening possession of the second half, we were going to lose the game...that's was our MO all season long. lo and behold (if memory serves me correctly) tannehill got picked off by byndom. also, i'm still not sure how our defense was fooled by the shipley pass to irby. i knew that was coming the second case turned and threw a pass horizontally--we'd seen it all season long. i'm dumbfounded that our defense was fooled by that.
The part that makes the Shipley to Irby thing even harder to comprehend is that DeRuyter and Harsin had faced off the last 3-4 years at least with Boise State vs. Air Force. DeRuyter could not have been surprised having seen all those films of Boise State the last few years.
PropostionJoe... I am right with you. I use to let the game control my emotions and ruin or make my day based on the scoreboard. I prefer to watch at home these days where DVR has made dealing with tough games easier. I can walk away and watch later if needed. The past two seasons have been difficulty to watch more than the previous where there were only 1 or two losses. It is a game after all but the passion for our schools success does make some people out right fanatic. These days I prefer to watch alone where its only my emotions I have to deal with. I don't consider my self less of a fan/supporter if I chose not to watch a game in its entirety. Win or lose they are still my horns and I am behind them no matter what the score board displays.
Joe, you're not an aggy, you're a good guy who just happens to root for the wrong team. I'd trade 20,000 of our ******* fans to a&m if we could get you to be a Horn.
Joe if I'm not mistaken I believe you told that story last year after the game. I think it's fitting in that it puts sports in perspective; win or lose. I happened to click onto the game (home office!) with 6 min to go. (It's replaying tomorrow at 6:00 am I think). So here's my updated view... A&M lost that game that cool heads could have won: they scored too quickly. The anxiousness to not dare to fail to score kept them from running clock. 2:54 remaining, score 24-19, ball on Texas 26, 1st and 10, and A&M with all three timeouts, and momentum on their side. Pocket pass to Fuller right at the endzone on that first play. Why? If you score, you now give Texas 2:36 to try and win the game. Why score that quickly, though I understand the need to just score and not risk a turnover. 2nd and 10. 2:36 to play. Again deep pocket pass -- not even rollout/option plays with a chance to catch an opening, get yards, run clock -- pass to Swope, way into the end zone. Broken up. 3rd and 10, from 26, 2:29 to play. Time out, A&M as play clock winds down. Reset play. Tannahill drops back, runs straight up the middle out of the pocket to right at the yard marker, first down at the 16. Quick set of yard markers, clock running... 2:20.. now 2:19 and counting down. All this time, four plays, 10 yards from the 26 to the 16... a total of 34 seconds had run from 2:54 to 2:20. 1st and 10... ball snapped at time of 1:55. Tannehill in shotgun. 25 seconds had run, the full amount. Good move on A&M'S part. Finally. Pass to fuller from shotgun, over the middle, catch and run, down at the goal line, Touchdown! Clock stops at 1:48. A total of 1:06 clock time from 2:54 down to 1:48 from the time A&M had the ball 1st and 10 at the 26-yard line. Two plays accounted for all the yards. 10 yd scramble by Tannehill, and 16 yard pass for TD by Fuller. Total time for the actual plays was 9 seconds for Tannehill's run, and 7 seconds for the pass&run play by Fuller of the TD. So, 16 seconds total game clock on the actual plays that got all the yards once A&M got to the 26 yard line. The rest of the time used were in pre-snap, but much of the pre-snap was with the play clock stopped due to the incomplete passes. I would not have thrown those two deep balls on the first two plays from scrimmage. Because if you score on either play, you give Texas even more time. So my question is, what was the big hurry to score? Following stalled Texas drive, A&M had started on their own 32 yard line with 4:19 left in the game. A 1st down throw to Fuller took the ball to Texas 39. Ball down in the field of play, clock runs after markers set, next play starts with 3:43 remaining. On this very next 1st down, a deep throw to the goal line. Again, that in itself was crazy. You score on that play and you give the ball back to Texas with 3:36 to play (when the play clock stopped on that play). When you work this all out, A&M had gotten the ball with about 4 minutes to play, scored in half that time... 2 minutes.. and gave the ball back to Texas as if to say, "Okay we marched down and scored a have-to TD in 2 minutes... see if you can go less that distance and kick a have-to FG in the same amount of time. We used 2 of the 4 minutes, here you take 2 and see what you can do." The end of the last game in over a 100 years came down to A&M deciding what to do with 4 minutes of a game, of the end of the last game ever in that series. The decision worked out to dividing that time with Texas -- we'll take 2, you take 2. And in the end, Texas won by 2. Two points.
Prop Joe, thanks for that post. I wish more fans and alumni of all teams had that attitude. In the fall, I used to let my mood be determined by whether the Horns won or lost. I don't have a family like you do, but over the years, my faith has become more and more important over the years and put football in perspective. For example, I had a retreat in 2005 on the same weekend as the Ohio State game. At first I was going to skip it but prayed about it. Then I realized my Horns have disappointed me plenty of times and God has never disappointed me. So I went to the retreat and they had a rebroadcast of the game later so it worked out anyways. Now I still get into games and enjoyed the 25-2 run of 08-09. But those 2 losses were unbearable. I didn't move a muscle after Crabtree caught that pass and lost that game. I went to bed ill. Later that year, I was mad that the BCS picked OU over Texas to play in the Big XII game. Then, losing to Bama in the NC kept me up at night and felt cheated because Colt was knocked out early. But the next day, I was over it because I've learned there are more important things in life. I pity the person who's whole life revolves around following their teams.
Prop Joe is dead on, I have a 20 month old and frankly seeing her smile and being her daddy is so much more significant than any game. The games come and go, you win or you lose and you move on. Might be best post I have ever read, good for you Prop!
Stat that would be par for the course for Trent hunter because he also got that PI for the helmet to helmet love tap on mike Davis which led to mccoys gallop down the field.
Professional football players have problems running the two minute drill and you are expecting college kids to do the same? I can't wait for the game where the team is behind and they purposely don't score to run the clock and then turn the ball over. I can't wait to hear your thoughts then. You score and let your defense do their job!!! This is not some video game.
if it's any consolation to you Joe, we know all about scoring too quickly. But what I thought was interesting was all of that last second business didn't have to happen. I watched the game yesterday, and with about 6:00 to go, we got the roughing the passer penalty, we had 1st and 10 at our 35. Cody had been used sparingly, so he was fresh, and everybody else was tired, even the Aggy D. 3 runs from Cody to gain 10 yards would have almost ended the game right there.(We had the 8 point lead) Cody had moved the pile effectively earlier, as in running about 3 yards with everybody expecting the play, but with 6:00 left, nobody on aggy d would have been expecting Cody to run three times. One first down, clock down to 4:00, clock runs, 8 point lead, Aggy would have folded the tent.
good point. down 8 that late in the game, and there is no doubt in my mind that we would have lost. hell i'd almost be better with that kind of loss instead of tucker sticking the dagger in at the very end. at least in the first way i could have just turned off the TV at that point.
Nice post by PropJoe and I actually agree it's just a game. I must admit though I'm glad we stuck a knife in the heart of aggy. Most aggy friends I know and those clowns over at $ECaggy (once called Texags) didn't give us a chance. They loved to make fun of Case and his birth defect and talked all kinds of crap, just to have to eat it at the end. That Tucker FG went right through the center of the goalpost and their hearts and I loved it!
Goose - good point... and Tannehill was drafted higher than Stephen McGee, Bucky Richardson, Corey Pulling, Jerrod Johnson and Craig Stump and none of them ran a good 2 min. drill either.