Much has been made over the past few days regarding the call made by the officials at the end of the BYU/UW game this past weekend. The following article is posted on the Cougarblue.com website: http://www.cougarblue.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4572&sid=5b7eba76db315c986c224074dc5f4103. It's attributed to being posted on the UW message board.
BYU fans - lets make sure we don't ever come under this sort of scalding criticism.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This game epitomizes what has become a halmark of Husky Football -- UW fans, coaches, and players rationalizing performance and complaining -- its a culture of excuses.
From players to fans to Softy Dave Mahler to "expert" Hugh Millen -- there is no accountability, just excuses. And the Culture of Excuses peaks against BYU.
1984: One-loss UW gripes and complains to this day about a national championship that just plain wasn't earned ON THE FIELD. UW lost a game -- don't make excuses and rely on voters, take care of business on the field. UW lost, BYU didn't. The trophy is in Provo, and forever will remain there no matter how much spittle Husky fans expell making excuses and complaining.
2008: Leading up to this game -- all I heard was MWC disrespect, and that UW deserved a national championship. No talk about the actual game -- just more excuses and complaining. It's a culture at UW and it's systemic through the fanbase and team. When UW can stop worrying about referees, voters, the Mormon religion, and whatever other excuse strikes their fancy -- maybe they can exert enough attention on the field, and at an administrative level to take their program back to the winning tradition UW once had.
BYU played 11 on 17. Huskies have ABSOLUTELY NO JUSTIFICATION complaining about officiating on an admittedly stupid call that was still technically by the book, when the PAC 10 officials took every opportunity to ignore pass interference calls and blatant holding calls in favor of the Huskies. UW CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!
BYU out-rushed UW. BYU out-passed UW. BYU out-physicalled UW. BYU completely manhandled the UW defensive line, who didn't lay a finger on Max Hall. The only team that kept the game close was BYU with self-inflicted mistakes, a fumble on the goal line, and a dropped pick-six that went the other way for Christmas-gift bobbled reception eventually leading to a UW touchdown. Then on UW's final drive, UW gets a blatant holding no call on a 4th down conversion down the sideline -- which everyone saw. How come no complaining on that?
Now as the excuses mature and develop -- Even idiots corso, holtz and an herbie-douche-street are trying to explain that the ball didn't really get "thrown" up in the air, it defied gravity and accidently slipped out of Locker's hands 30 feet in the air in a magically tight spiral.
BYU simply outplayed the Huskies and beat the Pac-10 officials at the same time. While the rest of college football has begun to consolidate officiating crews to achieve more objectivity and consistency, the pompous Pac-10 continues to mandate a biased Pac-10 only officiating policy -- and Karma came back to bite the Huskies in the ass as their own homer officials called a by-the-book penalty, which DID NOT LOSE THEM THE GAME.
That's right -- BYU won the game on the field. UW had a straight shot PAT, to tie (not win), and BYU's Jorgenson blew by his husky blocker and blocked the kick ON THE FIELD! It's a method of winning that UW needs to learn. EARN IT ON THE FIELD!
And what is almost most upsetting of all was the the complete lack of class by Husky coaches and players, who with the exception of Willingham and 10-15 other players, entirely refused to shake hands with BYU players after the game and just retreated to the locker room? Is that what UW is about? Disgusting. But I'm sure UW will have an excuse for that as well.
BYU may not be a "BCS" program, but they seem to have a coach, a team, and a program that accepts responsibility, doesn't rely on excuses, and demands accountability. No ammount of BCS talent or credibility can compensate for class. And UW showed neither class nor responsibility -- just a culture of excuses.
September 9, 2008
Exciting News
Check out Melanie’s blog for our exciting news. In fact, continue to check back as we add updates.
September 7, 2008
I wanna watch football
Pretty busy weekend of football. Without getting into too many specifics, let me just cover what sticks out most to me.
1. BYU at Washington
We can call it whatever you want, but lets just use "The call heard round the world" to get going in the right direction. Anyone you talk to will tell you PAC-10 refs are notoriously awful. The conference itself is ludicrous for requiring that its officials officiate all PAC-10 home games when the rest of the nation brings in non-conference officials for inter-league games. That being said, this one a poorly officiated game, punctuated by a necessary yet improper call. It is insane to "enforce" a celebration call against a quarterback who just lead a young team back to a last second score to potentially tie the game against a ranked opponent at home. The crowd was going nuts, the team was going nuts, what was wrong with him getting a little excited. The officials missed calls and made other bad calls all game long; why did they suddenly feel the need to make that one?
Don't get me wrong, I'll take the bittersweetness (I made that up I think) of the victory. I just am surprised that a crew of PAC-10 officials would make that call at a home game against an "inferior" opponent (as the FSN commentators repeatedly alluded to) when we've seen more egregious miscarriages of officiating from them in the past (for evidence, see the Oklahoma/Oregon game from two seasons ago.)
All in all, the game was entertaining (much more so than the semi-snoozer last week against NIU), it was well fought, and despite the obvious choices for my MVP of Max Hall, Dennis Pitta, or Harvey Unga, I'll go with a less obvious one in Scott Johnson, left CB. That dude was on point with every tackle and defended well against the passes in his area all game long. A few things that worried me would include the lack of containment on Jake Locker (Brian Johnson of Utah will have a field day with us if we don't fix that), the multiple dropped passes by Collie (I'm sure he'll be back next week at home againtst UCLA), and the several long yardage first downs we game up after some good stints of steller defense.
Next up:
versus 
2. Fantasy Football
In all the years I've been playing fantasy football, I've never seen my team under perform and underwhelm as much as they did this weekend. I know that putting stock into Yahoo's predictions shouldn't hold much water, but its a generally close gestimate of what to expect. So when your team under performs by nearly 100 points in a week predicted to score twice that many points, you get a little frustrated. It will be tough this week to not hold a fire sale and bail on my team. I still stand by the fact that I have a good team; they just need to get week one out of the way.
That being said, I'm glad I'm in two other leagues on ESPN; both of which my teams performed as expected or better and I should prevail. Bring on week 2.
3. "Daddy, I wanna watch football."
Bless her heart and the patience she allows me to veg in front of any football game I can, but Melanie's tolerance for football watching will never rival Leah. Tonight we got home after 10 from dessert at the McGee's and I sat down here to evaluate the fantasy football weekend and I hear Leah mumble something after I've just turned the TV off (Leah had turned it on without consent from either of her parents and it was bed time.) Next thing I hear is Melanie asking, "Did you hear what Leah just said?"
"What Leah?" I reply.
"Daddy, I wanna watch football," comes the sweetest little voice.
Can I tell you how many times she jumped up and down celebrating with me during BYU's game yesterday? She's a great little football companion.
1. BYU at Washington
We can call it whatever you want, but lets just use "The call heard round the world" to get going in the right direction. Anyone you talk to will tell you PAC-10 refs are notoriously awful. The conference itself is ludicrous for requiring that its officials officiate all PAC-10 home games when the rest of the nation brings in non-conference officials for inter-league games. That being said, this one a poorly officiated game, punctuated by a necessary yet improper call. It is insane to "enforce" a celebration call against a quarterback who just lead a young team back to a last second score to potentially tie the game against a ranked opponent at home. The crowd was going nuts, the team was going nuts, what was wrong with him getting a little excited. The officials missed calls and made other bad calls all game long; why did they suddenly feel the need to make that one?
Don't get me wrong, I'll take the bittersweetness (I made that up I think) of the victory. I just am surprised that a crew of PAC-10 officials would make that call at a home game against an "inferior" opponent (as the FSN commentators repeatedly alluded to) when we've seen more egregious miscarriages of officiating from them in the past (for evidence, see the Oklahoma/Oregon game from two seasons ago.)
All in all, the game was entertaining (much more so than the semi-snoozer last week against NIU), it was well fought, and despite the obvious choices for my MVP of Max Hall, Dennis Pitta, or Harvey Unga, I'll go with a less obvious one in Scott Johnson, left CB. That dude was on point with every tackle and defended well against the passes in his area all game long. A few things that worried me would include the lack of containment on Jake Locker (Brian Johnson of Utah will have a field day with us if we don't fix that), the multiple dropped passes by Collie (I'm sure he'll be back next week at home againtst UCLA), and the several long yardage first downs we game up after some good stints of steller defense.
Next up:
versus 
Kickoff is at 1:30 pm at LES. Game will be televised on Versus
In all the years I've been playing fantasy football, I've never seen my team under perform and underwhelm as much as they did this weekend. I know that putting stock into Yahoo's predictions shouldn't hold much water, but its a generally close gestimate of what to expect. So when your team under performs by nearly 100 points in a week predicted to score twice that many points, you get a little frustrated. It will be tough this week to not hold a fire sale and bail on my team. I still stand by the fact that I have a good team; they just need to get week one out of the way.
That being said, I'm glad I'm in two other leagues on ESPN; both of which my teams performed as expected or better and I should prevail. Bring on week 2.
3. "Daddy, I wanna watch football."
Bless her heart and the patience she allows me to veg in front of any football game I can, but Melanie's tolerance for football watching will never rival Leah. Tonight we got home after 10 from dessert at the McGee's and I sat down here to evaluate the fantasy football weekend and I hear Leah mumble something after I've just turned the TV off (Leah had turned it on without consent from either of her parents and it was bed time.) Next thing I hear is Melanie asking, "Did you hear what Leah just said?"
"What Leah?" I reply.
"Daddy, I wanna watch football," comes the sweetest little voice.
Can I tell you how many times she jumped up and down celebrating with me during BYU's game yesterday? She's a great little football companion.
September 2, 2008
Moving on up
BYU moved up in both polls from the preseason, despite a dull third quarter that saw multiple fumbles by the offense (attribute two to "new" players in the system and a third to a blind side QB sack in the end zone landed in part because a "new" left tackle didn't make a block. The Cougars moved up to 15 in both polls after starting the preseason in the AP at 16 and the USA Today/Coaches Poll at 17.
Some bright spots for the Cougars . . . .
Dennis Pitta 11 receptions for 213 yards
Max Hall 34 of 41 for 486 yards
Up next . . . Washington Huskies in Seattle Washington
VERSUS 
The Huskies lost to Oregon on opening weekend 44-10, despite watching the Ducks play with their third sting QB. The Huskies start 10 freshmen and sophomores, including the speedy and athletic QB Jake Locker. BYU has been notorious the previous three seasons for starting slowly early in the season on the road and this game will be a test of the meddle that Coach Mendenhall has instilled in his team this season.
The Quest continues on Saturday at 1:00 pm on FSN.
Some bright spots for the Cougars . . . .
Dennis Pitta 11 receptions for 213 yards
Max Hall 34 of 41 for 486 yards
Up next . . . Washington Huskies in Seattle Washington
VERSUS 
The Huskies lost to Oregon on opening weekend 44-10, despite watching the Ducks play with their third sting QB. The Huskies start 10 freshmen and sophomores, including the speedy and athletic QB Jake Locker. BYU has been notorious the previous three seasons for starting slowly early in the season on the road and this game will be a test of the meddle that Coach Mendenhall has instilled in his team this season.
The Quest continues on Saturday at 1:00 pm on FSN.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)