Online Ranked Match. He chooses Oregon and I'm the Gators. He's 11-2 online, and I hate playing Oregon, but I said what the hell, it's 1am and I felt like playing someone good.
We're playing at Autzen, so I get to call the toss... I call heads, it's tails. Great. Already going to be an uphill battle, as he kicks off to start. Whatever, **** it, I'm gonna come out and jump on him early. Nope. 5th play of the game QB Jeff Driskel throws a pick on an out route, he houses it. 7-0 Oregon. ****. My second drive takes up the remainder of the 1st quarter, grinding it out on the ground, and Driskel ends up redeeming himself and taking it in on the ground off a triple option out of Pistol Full House. Knotted up at 7s. Back on track... Nope. 3 plays later and Deanthony Thomas is prancing into the endzone. 14-7 Ducks.
Back at it, I make my way down to his 20 and Driskel throws his 2nd pick of the game, this time in the endzone. He ends up winding the clock down to 11 seconds left in the half before kicking a FG on 4th and inches inside my 10. 17-7 Ducks at half.
He gets the ball to start the second half, and I'm in desperate need of a stop of some kind. He's got conservative clock on, so he takes up the entire 3rd quarter in one drive but is forced to kick another FG on 4th and 18 after another redzone stop. 20-7 Ducks. It's gametime now, gotta put up some points to stay in it. I lead the offense all the way down to his 12 before throwing ANOTHER pick in the endzone. This game is all but over at this point with just over 3 minutes remaining, but I force a 3 and out while only using one TO and he punts the ball from the shadow of his own goalpost.
1:38 remaining in the game, down 13, 2 TOs left, and in desperate need of a miracle. 3 plays later Driskel finds a receiver wide open in the endzone to draw within one score. I went for 2 to make it a 5 point game in case he was in FG range and I stopped him, leaving it at a one possession game.... But the pass is batted down and it stays a 7 point Duck lead, 20-13.
I'm awful at onside kicks, so he recovers it around midfield with 1:18 left in the game. He goes 3 and out and punts the ball out of the back of the endzone with 22 seconds left.
80 yards in 22 seconds with no TOs? Eaaaasy......... Back to back 18 yard completions and now we're in business. Thankfully on the second one the receiver was able to make his way out of bounds and stop the clock. 14 seconds left and 44 yards to go. Somehow a receiver breaks open and Driskel hits him for a gain of 27, but he doesn't get out of bounds. Clock stops to set the chains on a first down in college football, so I hurry up to the line and hot route the weakside receiver Dunbar to a fade against the press man, what transpired was the greatest catch I've ever seen in an NCAA Football game. He reaches up with one hand at the goalline and hauls in a 17 yard TD catch with 3 seconds left to tie the game.............except I wasn't playing for overtime.
I line up to go for two in an unbalanced I-Form, he calls a TO. I come back out in a goalline set, PA Power is the call. Hot route the RB to a swing to take away the play action and risk getting sacked. Driskel finds the TE in the corner of the endzone to take a 1 point, last second lead. I send the kickoff out of bounds to keep it out of the Black Mamba's hands, and Mariota throws a pick on the first play to end the game.
Holy ****in **** was I excited.
Here's the TD catch:
http://youtu.be/khRGxKxNNN8
08-02-2013, 05:01 AM
