Yeah, OK. If you believe all those commercials that want you to GET PUMPED and then buy Gatorade or Under Armour or whatever, and if you do you too can NEVER QUIT and protect this house and never under any circumstances accept losing, then this post isn't for you.
Sure, if we were Virginia Tech this week, that'd be the right attitude. When you're ranked and you looked like ass in losing to James Madison (and I will not tire of this for a while given that William & Mary was still a favorite topic of conversation in Hokie circles up til Saturday afternoon) there's no point in pretending to look for positives. Everybody is running gassers for an hour, and it's only a question of who gets yelled at more in the meetings. But reality bites with this hard notion: we have a crappy football team on our hands that needs a major-league rebuilding in nearly all facets of the game, and losses come in all different shapes and sizes, and this one yesterday night is the best kind there is. Because that crappy football team is a giant leap along the path to non-crappiness.
I said before the game it would take a mistake-free game to pull off the win, and damn if that didn't bear itself out in painful fashion. If there was a mistake to be made, the Hoos did it. A laundry list, and this just off the top of my head:
- Red-zone interception.
- Missed field goals.
- Stupid late-hit penalty facilitating a USC touchdown.**
- Running into the punter.
- Dropped passes. (When your quarterback is that inaccurate, you have got to catch the ball on the rare occasions it hits you between the numbers.)
- Triple-digit penalty yardage.
**By a fifth-year senior! Trey Womack's numbnuts play was a carbon copy of one committed by a freshman Michigan cornerback that put them at real risk of blowing the feel-good win over Notre Dame. But that guy was a freshman. Womack has no excuse whatsoever for not knowing better.
And I didn't even get to the apparent mistake by the refs, with the bogus penalty on the fake punt. They apologized at halftime. Whoops, sorry for screwing you with our incomplete knowledge of the rulebook. This calls for a suspension. Bogus pass interference calls and holding penalties and such are one thing. Happen all the time. Cuss at the refs, move on. Even something like missing a ballcarrier stepping out of bounds are at some small level understandable because the fast pace of the game doesn't let you see everything. That's why they have instant replay and the saying that holding occurs on every play, it's just the really blatant ones that get called. But failure of an entire crew to have a correct knowledge of the rule book? Suspension-worthy. They should spend the next Saturday or two in an unpaid rules review seminar. It's unfortunate because the crew was otherwise mostly on top of things, but there's no excuse for a crew of officials not knowing the rule book. I sure didn't take that kind of mistake into account in the game preview.
At any rate, the 2008 game was a 52-7 loss of the ugliest kind, and if you'd told me in advance about all those screw-ups listed above, I'd've expected the same kind of score. Heck, a lot of Hoos were expecting that kind of score anyway, and I'd be lying if I said I'd've been surprised to see it. That we were so close anyway says at least as much about USC as it does about UVA, frankly: for example, if I were them, I wouldn't be too excited about that front seven.
Still, USC is a talented bunch. And even if the passing game was totally dysfunctional until the last drive, you have to love how the running game is shaking out. Two games in and the running back question has been very definitively answered, and the O-line looks like they know what they're doing. That's my favorite part of these first two games: the 1-2 punch of Perry Jones and Keith Payne looking like a really legit threat.
Second-favorite part: that UVA just walked into the Los Angeles Coliseum not even remotely intimidated and stayed that way all night. If there's any USC mystique left, Mike London didn't let it get to his team. If they can show that kind of poise in the Coliseum, could it be that the Jekyll-and-Hyde act of flopping miserably in road games is also a thing of the past?
The ACC took a major, major beating on Saturday, but what Hoo fan really cares? We never were looking at a BCS berth and still aren't, really, but between almost winning at USC and watching VT (they lost to James Madison) and the rest of the conference shit the bed (particularly VT, who lost to James Madison), that ACC schedule looks a lot easier to negotiate than it did on Friday. At this point there's nary a game on the docket that looks unwinnable anymore, not even VT, which just lost to James Madison. Lose this battle against USC and still the war looks a lot easier? I'll take it.
Showing posts with label ref you suck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ref you suck. Show all posts
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
that one's gonna leave a mark
Ah, Bill Simmons. The only sportswriter with whom a love-hate relationship can truly blossom. Simmons is at times the most entertaining guy in the business and highly useful, and at others obnoxiously unreadable. Falling (mostly) into the former category is the Levels of Losing that he made popular.
Incredibly, UVA found a way to lose in such a way as to bring like two-thirds of these levels into the equation. I wonder if that's ever been done before. There are fifteen levels. (Simmons claims there are sixteen but that's because he allows the insufferable whiny Red Sox girly-girl that exists within every Red Sox fan to write the end of the column, and places Bill Buckner at Level I. I acknowledge no such extra level.) Take a gander at how many of these applied to last night's lacrosse game:
- Level 15: Princeton Principle. No - we are not a Cinderella team.
- Level 14: Achilles' Heel. Yes. Faceoffs faceoffs a thousand times faceoffs. I told you we would not win if we couldn't win faceoffs. Final result: 26% - and we still almost won.
- Level 13: Alpha Dog. Duke's 14th goal was Max Quinzani's 68th goal of the season on Ned Crotty's 62nd assist. We have an excellent, well-rounded offense, but nobody that statistically dominant. Mark it a yes.
- Level 12: Rabbit's Foot. No.
- Level 11: Sudden Death. Not technically, but, yes, with 12 seconds left, it might as well have been. Don't tell me you weren't thinking "they can't score here or we lose."
- Level 10: Dead Man Walking. No, not really. The Stony Brook game caused a palpable sense of dread but that's not quite how this is meant.
- Level 9: Monkey Wrench. Not only yes but fuck yes. Picture the scene, in case you didn't watch. It's 8-5. Duke has the ball but our defense has been doing a good job of keeping them at bay, and it culminates in a shot that goalie Adam Ghitelman saves - with his damn face. Announcers make joke about courage. The ball, incredibly, is lodged in his facemask, but the refs don't blow the whistle, so the closest Duke attacker tries to dislodge it with his stick. Repeat: ball stuck in facemask, Duke attacker poking at it. HE IS HITTING OUR FUCKING GOALIE IN THE GODDAM HEAD WITH HIS FUCKING STICK. Defenseman Matt Lovejoy sees this and does the only thing a defender is honorably allowed to do in that situation: levels the Dookie with a vicious shoulder check. Penalty is called, but not for the faceshots; on Lovejoy for unnecessary roughness. Because there's no reason to hit a guy who's clocking your teammate in the head, right?
Duke doesn't score on the ensuing man-up chance - in fact, Ghitelman makes yet another nice save and UVA clears, but Duke naturally doubles the ball as our middie (Pomper, I think, but I can't remember and I'm not going back to look) tries to burn time. With the penalty expired, or nearly so, Duke regains the ball and races downfield for a transition goal to make it 8-6. They would score six more after that before we finally got the ball in the net again.
No doubt Ghitelman would have been penalized if he'd grabbed the ball out of his mask during play - you can't use your hand to play the ball - which is obviously why, other than the fact that there was a crosse up in his face, he didn't do that. So why is the presence of the ball an excuse to take illegal headshots? And if the ball was live (which I guess it was til the refs blew the whistle) then why the penalty for a shoulder check to the front of a guy who's playing the ball? Because it's Duke. You play Duke, Duke gets the calls. Duh.
Level 8: Butt-Kicking. No - and in fact, this shouldn't even be that high. A full-fledged butt-kicking wouldn't have been half so painful to watch.
Level 7: This Can't Be Happening. No. Reserved for losing to a clearly way inferior team. Stony Brook would have fallen under this category.
Level 6: Drive-By Shooting. No. Reserved for teams even worse than clearly way inferior.
Level 5: Broken Axle. Yes, on account of not scoring at all while Duke rattled off seven straight.
Level 4: Role Reversal. No. Sadly, this is what happened to Duke in the ACCs. But not here.
Level 3: Guillotine. Gotta go with yes. The whole time, the lead felt tenuous. We weren't winning faceoffs, we were looking sloppy, and at the same time so were they and you just knew that if Duke ever stopped being sloppy, the result wouldn't be pretty. All it took was an executioner to set it off, and this one came dressed in black and white.
Level 2: Stomach Punch. Tie game, momentum on our side, faceoff, ball right there on a UVA crosse for a last possession - and then it wasn't. Yes, and for a couple other reasons besides.
Level 1: The Tailspin. No, I suppose not. This one seems anticlimatic.
In one game, UVA found a way to lose in seven of the fifteen ways on Simmons's Levels of Losing, which has got to be some kind of record. And where's the category for Missing Your Best Chance when you know you haven't had this good a team in years, you won't next year, and there's no doubt in anyone's mind that yours was the best team all season? What about Didn't Win For The Gipper? What about The Next Game Would Have Been Way Easier? Notre Dame's had a good run of it so far but Duke is going to crush them, and yes I know they already lost to the Irish once but they won't again. What about Great Now There's Nothing Left But A Meteor Game? Yes, I actually hope Duke wins because I like Notre Dame way less than Duke and if someone's going to win their first-ever lacrosse championship it better be a team that's paid a few dues, but still: ewwww.
Great way to kick off the decade.
Incredibly, UVA found a way to lose in such a way as to bring like two-thirds of these levels into the equation. I wonder if that's ever been done before. There are fifteen levels. (Simmons claims there are sixteen but that's because he allows the insufferable whiny Red Sox girly-girl that exists within every Red Sox fan to write the end of the column, and places Bill Buckner at Level I. I acknowledge no such extra level.) Take a gander at how many of these applied to last night's lacrosse game:
- Level 15: Princeton Principle. No - we are not a Cinderella team.
- Level 14: Achilles' Heel. Yes. Faceoffs faceoffs a thousand times faceoffs. I told you we would not win if we couldn't win faceoffs. Final result: 26% - and we still almost won.
- Level 13: Alpha Dog. Duke's 14th goal was Max Quinzani's 68th goal of the season on Ned Crotty's 62nd assist. We have an excellent, well-rounded offense, but nobody that statistically dominant. Mark it a yes.
- Level 12: Rabbit's Foot. No.
- Level 11: Sudden Death. Not technically, but, yes, with 12 seconds left, it might as well have been. Don't tell me you weren't thinking "they can't score here or we lose."
- Level 10: Dead Man Walking. No, not really. The Stony Brook game caused a palpable sense of dread but that's not quite how this is meant.
- Level 9: Monkey Wrench. Not only yes but fuck yes. Picture the scene, in case you didn't watch. It's 8-5. Duke has the ball but our defense has been doing a good job of keeping them at bay, and it culminates in a shot that goalie Adam Ghitelman saves - with his damn face. Announcers make joke about courage. The ball, incredibly, is lodged in his facemask, but the refs don't blow the whistle, so the closest Duke attacker tries to dislodge it with his stick. Repeat: ball stuck in facemask, Duke attacker poking at it. HE IS HITTING OUR FUCKING GOALIE IN THE GODDAM HEAD WITH HIS FUCKING STICK. Defenseman Matt Lovejoy sees this and does the only thing a defender is honorably allowed to do in that situation: levels the Dookie with a vicious shoulder check. Penalty is called, but not for the faceshots; on Lovejoy for unnecessary roughness. Because there's no reason to hit a guy who's clocking your teammate in the head, right?
Duke doesn't score on the ensuing man-up chance - in fact, Ghitelman makes yet another nice save and UVA clears, but Duke naturally doubles the ball as our middie (Pomper, I think, but I can't remember and I'm not going back to look) tries to burn time. With the penalty expired, or nearly so, Duke regains the ball and races downfield for a transition goal to make it 8-6. They would score six more after that before we finally got the ball in the net again.
No doubt Ghitelman would have been penalized if he'd grabbed the ball out of his mask during play - you can't use your hand to play the ball - which is obviously why, other than the fact that there was a crosse up in his face, he didn't do that. So why is the presence of the ball an excuse to take illegal headshots? And if the ball was live (which I guess it was til the refs blew the whistle) then why the penalty for a shoulder check to the front of a guy who's playing the ball? Because it's Duke. You play Duke, Duke gets the calls. Duh.
Level 8: Butt-Kicking. No - and in fact, this shouldn't even be that high. A full-fledged butt-kicking wouldn't have been half so painful to watch.
Level 7: This Can't Be Happening. No. Reserved for losing to a clearly way inferior team. Stony Brook would have fallen under this category.
Level 6: Drive-By Shooting. No. Reserved for teams even worse than clearly way inferior.
Level 5: Broken Axle. Yes, on account of not scoring at all while Duke rattled off seven straight.
Level 4: Role Reversal. No. Sadly, this is what happened to Duke in the ACCs. But not here.
Level 3: Guillotine. Gotta go with yes. The whole time, the lead felt tenuous. We weren't winning faceoffs, we were looking sloppy, and at the same time so were they and you just knew that if Duke ever stopped being sloppy, the result wouldn't be pretty. All it took was an executioner to set it off, and this one came dressed in black and white.
Level 2: Stomach Punch. Tie game, momentum on our side, faceoff, ball right there on a UVA crosse for a last possession - and then it wasn't. Yes, and for a couple other reasons besides.
Level 1: The Tailspin. No, I suppose not. This one seems anticlimatic.
In one game, UVA found a way to lose in seven of the fifteen ways on Simmons's Levels of Losing, which has got to be some kind of record. And where's the category for Missing Your Best Chance when you know you haven't had this good a team in years, you won't next year, and there's no doubt in anyone's mind that yours was the best team all season? What about Didn't Win For The Gipper? What about The Next Game Would Have Been Way Easier? Notre Dame's had a good run of it so far but Duke is going to crush them, and yes I know they already lost to the Irish once but they won't again. What about Great Now There's Nothing Left But A Meteor Game? Yes, I actually hope Duke wins because I like Notre Dame way less than Duke and if someone's going to win their first-ever lacrosse championship it better be a team that's paid a few dues, but still: ewwww.
Great way to kick off the decade.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Stony Brook video up
Just cause I was done with today's post doesn't mean I was done working for you. The video library now features yesterday's heart-racer against Stony Brook. Lacrosse videos are always the most popular videos in the set, so be one of the cool kids and go check it out.
And for an encore, I will piss and moan at you about the refereeing for just a couple seconds here. I said it was bad; part of the reason was because you could plainly see, live, the crease violation(s!) that should have wiped out Stony Brook's fourth goal. You could, I could; the ref didn't, even though he was in prime position to. The proof is clear:
That's Stony Brook's Robbie Campbell, stepping into the crease not just once, but twice, a split second before scoring the first goal of the second half to cut UVA's lead to 5-4. Did it affect the play? No, but rules is rules, and if you're going to call this one back....
...then you have to call them all back. Consistently. The refs did not do a good job; this is the most blatant one that they blew.
And for an encore, I will piss and moan at you about the refereeing for just a couple seconds here. I said it was bad; part of the reason was because you could plainly see, live, the crease violation(s!) that should have wiped out Stony Brook's fourth goal. You could, I could; the ref didn't, even though he was in prime position to. The proof is clear:
That's Stony Brook's Robbie Campbell, stepping into the crease not just once, but twice, a split second before scoring the first goal of the second half to cut UVA's lead to 5-4. Did it affect the play? No, but rules is rules, and if you're going to call this one back....
...then you have to call them all back. Consistently. The refs did not do a good job; this is the most blatant one that they blew.
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