The game begins and I notice something, my starting running back, who is a 1st All-American, Doak Walker Award winner, the nations leader in rushing, and one of my star/impact players all year had his star removed. This while coming off of a big game in the Quarterfinal. The star was given to my 2nd string running back. Now my 2nd stringer is good, but not as good as my starter. I didn’t really think anything of it until the game got started and my starter was playing very average for his standards. I mean he couldn’t beat anyone to the outside, his agility wasn’t there. He wasn’t the same player for whatever reason. It just seemed random.
The next thing I noticed was that my QB couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. I mean the most basic of throws he was sailing, overthrowing and underthrowing. This lasted for like 2 and a half quarters. I was like what is going on. I mean dudes wide open on the plays we’ve run all season. I’m like is the moment too big? We were in the Natty last year. Don’t get no bigger than that.
Next thing I noticed was that on offense after we snapped the ball my team would move slow. Like all of my wide receivers and tight ends were moving slow off the ball and breaking their routes slow. This was also contributing to passes not being completed. I’ve never experienced that. It was very frustrating.
Now Oregon had several impact players on their team, but again nothing more than we have faced while playing Michigan, Ohio State, or Penn State, and none of these things happened like this in those games.
My team managed to fight through all of the “adversity”, after being down by 3 scores going into the 4th quarter to tie the game up with a minute left. Oregon got the last possession, drove the ball down, and kicked a walk off FG to win 51-48. I wasn’t really mad at the end because I knew that was my last game at Maryland. I’ve taken them as far as I can. So this isn’t a cry over spilled milk and I’m proud we kept fighting in spite of what seemed like the odds being stacked against us. Believe you me they felt stacked lol!
Anybody else gone through anything like this?
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