When games play out like Montana State’s unexpectedly close contest against Central Connecticut State, I always get a chuckle from listening to analysts and fans trying to explain how and what is happening or has just happened.
I suddenly realize how comedian Steve Martin felt when during his stand-up routine a fan would yell out something about what joke he should tell next and Martin would flatly reply, “Yeah, I remember when I had my first beer.”
MSU head coach Brent Vigen gave a good analogy in his Monday press conference in simply recognizing how random the game of football can be and never knowing when that’s going to rise up.
“Now, are you going to have your fastball every game?” Vigen asked rhetorically. “Is it going to be the same every game? It’s not necessarily, so how do you manage to get away with not having that fastball and be able to mix it up?
“The other team’s trying too, and some things happen in their favor. The ball bounces the way it does sometimes, and our two turnovers were a product of the ball bouncing in their favor and that’s the way it works. One’s a touchdown for them and one takes a touchdown away from us.”
And I do remember my first “what the heck just happened” beer concerning a football game. It wasn’t one I was at or was even alive during. I read about it in a book my mom bought for me when I was seven years old called “The Greatest Football Games Ever Played”. The game that jumped out was the 1940 NFL Championship Game. The Chicago Bears beat the Washington, then Redskins, 73-0. Yes, 73-0. It just didn’t make any sense to me that a title game could be that lop-sided. That wasn’t the only weird thing about that game though. The Bears missed four extra point attempts and lost to Washington just three weeks earlier 7-3.
Since then, it became abundantly clear that games with bizarre outcomes occur regularly, especially in football, and actually multiple times each week. I don’t even think about how whatever happened happened anymore. There really isn’t a good explanation, so I just try to kick back and enjoy. But I always find myself on the edge of my seat.
The MSU vs CCSU game was embraced way too much on my end as what was transpiring was potentially one of these moments of a rare spectacle that would be talked about for decades to come. In my excitement, I burned through my post limit on Twitter and was shut out from the Adam Jones’ fumble on. I knew that could happen but there were so many big moments swinging CCSU’s way I couldn’t contain myself. The Blue Devils scored on successive plays: one on offense and then on defense with the Jones’ fumble. Say hello to a 21-7 lead in the second half on the road against the defending champions and No. 1 ranked Bobcats.
You know all the details from there, but I have a whole pile of favorites that I think everyone should absorb for their own sake. It’s not worth driving yourself nuts trying to figure it out. Just let it happen and try to enjoy it.
Golden State basketball star Steph Curry is considered the best shooter in basketball history. However, he once had a game where he went 0-for-11 shooting three-pointers. He would laugh it off by blaming the weather saying that he didn’t realize a low-pressure system was moving in and therefore he didn’t adjust his shot. His teammates, which included another great shooter in Klay Thompson, were just 5-for-20 combined from behind the arc that night.
The University of Virginia basketball team was a juggernaut during 7-foot-4 center Ralph Sampson’s time there. Sampson was a three-time Naismith Award winner given to the best men’s college basketball player each year. His team was playing in an early season tournament in Hawaii, and the host state would annually get to have some of its small schools play against the top teams in the nation. In this case, tiny NAIA school Chaminade was tossed to the Cavaliers as a supposed tuneup game for the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. Final score: Chaminade 77, Virginia 72. Sampson was outscored by the Silverswords’ center Tony Randolph 17-12. Randolph, who stood just 6-8, was giving up eight inches to Sampson.
Late in the 1984 baseball season, the Minnesota Twins were battling for the AL West pennant and led Cleveland 10-0 in the top of the third inning and they were still up 10-2 entering the bottom of the sixth inning. They would proceed to blow the lead, which would eliminate them from the playoffs. Third baseman Gary Gaetti made a costly error in a seven-run sixth inning and after the game said, “It’s hard to throw the ball with both hands around your neck.”
The randomness of sport showed up in a big way in MSU’s previous game as well where the Nevada Wolfpack appeared on the verge of coming back from a 17-0 deficit in the fourth quarter. This time, you didn’t realize just how unlikely arguably the biggest play of the game was. We had to rely on the honesty of MSU safety JJ Dolan for that.
As it turned out, the Bobcats – namely Dolan and fellow safety Colter Petre – were completely lost and out of position as the ball was about to be snapped. As they scrambled to get to their spots, Nevada had completed a pass for eight yards, but as the receiver was going down Petre punched the ball out. The ball was logrolling toward the sideline, however, and appeared to be headed out of bounds. The replay showed the ball with a crazy spin on it and it started heading away from the sideline and downfield as Dolan accidentally found himself in the position to scoop it up. Not only did he recover it, but he went 20 yards to get the Bobcats into field goal position. During his explanation, he was mistakenly apologetic about only getting a couple yards on the return due his legs being so tired late in the game. So, he was not only out of position, but he was so out of position the ball found him and he barely remembers what he did with it.
Football is unique in that there aren’t a lot of games in a season, so each result is magnified. One NFL football game is the equivalent of ten baseball games. Baseball has its share of crazy games, but fans don’t go into a funk after just one of them. It usually takes a 5-6 game losing streak to evoke as much angst as a football fan will suffer through after just one near loss.
Sure, maybe the Bobcats just aren’t as good as everyone thought they were. Perhaps they were exposed by the Blue Devils and now since everyone has the secret potion the losses will pile up against MSU. That’s possible, because just about everything is possible on the football field.
The Bobcats will get tested this week as Big Sky Conference play amps up in earnest when Northern Arizona (3-1) comes to Bobcat Stadium for a late-night game on ESPN this Saturday. Kick off is set for 8:30.
