Gut-Check Boulevard
Can we just end the year 2020 already? There is a reason I titled the pregame post 'Eerie Indiana' and lo and behold, here we are. Eerie doesn’t even begin to explain it. I had and uneasy feeling and judging by some of the posts I saw on social media prior to kick-off, it is safe to say, I was not alone. Indiana has given us fits lately, there is no doubt about it. The past two decided by a touchdown or less, and now this, the two-pointer that never was will go down in infamy.
Don’t get me wrong, I fully expected to be here today handing out a Game Ball and Helmet Stickers after another round of hard fought 60 minutes, but no thanks to the guys in the zebra stripes, it just wasn’t meant to be. It’s amazing how thin the line is between being on the wrong end of one of the worst calls that’s ever gone against us to being the hero that safety Jaquon Brisker would have been had the replay officials overturned the phantom conversion. The new #1 did everything right on the final play and had he just been a little closer, we would all be singing a different tune today.
There’s not a lot to like when you account for the three first-half turnovers, missed field goals, over 100 yards in penalties (even if some of those were questionable) and an offense that gave its best impression of JoePa's ‘three yards and a cloud of dust’ instead of the shiny new pinball machine Kirk Ciarrocca supposedly brought with him from Minnesota. Sean Clifford seemed unsure of himself, the Lawn Boyz came crashing back down to earth, and an O-Line that was expected to dominate got pushed around all afternoon. By Indiana, may I remind you; all the respect to them for taking advantage of our mistakes.
The good news is we’ve been down this same road before. Gut-check boulevard I like to call it. Nobody wants to hear it, but we fought back and had another nail biter locked down as a win until eerie Indiana struck again. As gloomy as the aftermath was that ensued, sure enough the sun rose on Sunday morning just like clockwork. With you-know-who on deck acting high and mighty, now is not the time to cry over what could have been. Au contraire, we’ve played “the spoiler” before and there is no time like the present to dust ourselves off and embrace being the underdog once again!
Don’t get me wrong, I fully expected to be here today handing out a Game Ball and Helmet Stickers after another round of hard fought 60 minutes, but no thanks to the guys in the zebra stripes, it just wasn’t meant to be. It’s amazing how thin the line is between being on the wrong end of one of the worst calls that’s ever gone against us to being the hero that safety Jaquon Brisker would have been had the replay officials overturned the phantom conversion. The new #1 did everything right on the final play and had he just been a little closer, we would all be singing a different tune today.
There’s not a lot to like when you account for the three first-half turnovers, missed field goals, over 100 yards in penalties (even if some of those were questionable) and an offense that gave its best impression of JoePa's ‘three yards and a cloud of dust’ instead of the shiny new pinball machine Kirk Ciarrocca supposedly brought with him from Minnesota. Sean Clifford seemed unsure of himself, the Lawn Boyz came crashing back down to earth, and an O-Line that was expected to dominate got pushed around all afternoon. By Indiana, may I remind you; all the respect to them for taking advantage of our mistakes.
The good news is we’ve been down this same road before. Gut-check boulevard I like to call it. Nobody wants to hear it, but we fought back and had another nail biter locked down as a win until eerie Indiana struck again. As gloomy as the aftermath was that ensued, sure enough the sun rose on Sunday morning just like clockwork. With you-know-who on deck acting high and mighty, now is not the time to cry over what could have been. Au contraire, we’ve played “the spoiler” before and there is no time like the present to dust ourselves off and embrace being the underdog once again!
