http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/5973980A closer look at Saturday's biggest games:
Oregon 34, Oklahoma 33
Memo to the people of the fine state of Oklahoma: don't riot or do anything destructive tonight ... even though you'd be justified to feel like doing something violent. After all, this game was violently taken away from a deserving bunch of Sooners by inept officiating and even more inept replay evaluators.
Week 3 SCOREBOARD 1. Ohio St. 37, Cincinnati 7 - Win
2. Notre Dame 21, Michigan 47 - Loss
3. Auburn 7, LSU 3 - Win
4. USC 28, Nebraska 10 - Win
5. West Virginia 45, Maryland 24 - Win
6. LSU 3, Auburn 7 - Loss
7. Florida 21, Tennessee 20 - Win
8. Texas 52, Rice 7 - Win
9. Florida St. 20, Clemson 27 - Loss
10. Georgia 34, UAB 0 - Win
11. Michigan 47, Notre Dame 21 - Win
12. Louisville 31, Miami 7 - Win
13. Tennessee 20, Florida 21 - Loss
14. Virginia Tech 36, Duke 0 - Win
15. Oklahoma 33, Oregon 34 - Loss
16. Iowa 27, Iowa State 17 - Win
17. Miami 7, Louisville 31 - Loss
18. Oregon 34, Oklahoma 33 - Win
19. Nebraska 10, USC 28 - Loss
20. TCU 12, Texas Tech 3 - Win
21. Cal 42, Portland St. 16 - Win
22. Arizona St. 21, Colorado 3 - Win
23. Boston College 30, BYU 23 OT - Win
24. Texas Tech 3, TCU 12 - Loss
25. Penn St. 37, Youngstown St. 3 - Win
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Yes, it's very rare for analysis of a football game to so frontally, emotionally and nakedly talk about the officiating; this is a very rare practice, precisely because it seems like bad form on the part of the writer. An article about lousy officiating is almost never written because fans can easily interpret such an article as a sign of bias — entrenched and unprofessional — on the part of the author.
But in the wake of Saturday's game in Eugene — won by Oklahoma in every true sense, but not on the official scoreboard — normal practices have to give way to a rare approach. After all, what happened in the final minutes of this game was anything but normal.
There's no way to sugar-coat it or talk around it, and there's no need to be indirect in speaking about it: plainly put, the Pac-10 officiating crew made an incorrect ruling on Oregon's recovery of an onsides kick in the final 75 seconds. However, that is supposed to be acceptable in this day and age because if the zebras mess up, the replay review system is supposed to set things right. And when all of America saw the replay of that onsides kick, the country's football fans saw that an Oregon player touched the ball after it had traveled 9.5 yards. Not 10, but nine and a half. That much was obvious.
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| Players of the Oregon Ducks celebrate a gift from the officiating gods. (Jonathan Ferrey / FOXSports.com) |
Not to the replay official, though, for reasons that boggle the human mind. Oregon — a dead team — was given the football equivalent of several organ transplants ... unethically. Oklahoma — who had earned a tough road victory with a surprisingly mature effort from Paul Thompson and an overwhelmingly physical second half — was given the football equivalent of hidden poison delivered by a friend, lover, or anyone else you'd expect to treat you with kindness and decency.
When this kind of an outrage occurs, the rest of the proceedings are rendered irrelevant. It's sad because a lot of players spilled their guts in Eugene. Adrian Peterson was a man among boys. OU's defense picked itself off the deck after being stunned in the game's opening minutes. Dennis Dixon overcame flop sweat to gather himself for the game's frantic finish, but it's a finish he — and Oregon — didn't deserve to have.
Oklahoma made a big statement with its performance Saturday; with this level of football, the Sooners can compete with Texas and the rest of the Big XII. But sadly, Bob Stoops and his players were robbed of a celebration they deserved to have. Such is the awful reality of this game, and its astonishing, ugly ... and tainted ... outcome.
Labels: life
