When opportunity comes knocking, you answer the door, so to speak.
Some of us, though, either are outside and don’t hear the doorbell, are in the bathroom and can’t get to the knob in time, or figure it’s not worth it to get off the couch and answer. They’ll go away.
College football’s first night opened with a surprising barn burner in Appalachian State and Tennessee, who came in highly ranked in various polls. The most disappointing thing for ASU is that they tossed away several chances to pull a shocking early season upset, and all forced by themselves.
But it wasn’t the normal things that happen in games like this … the missed extra point, missed field goal, odd fumble bounces that don’t go your way. The real loss came at the end of regulation when ASU went ultra conservative and costed themselves all the momentum and possibly the game.
To avoid a lengthy, point by point synopsis of something you probably already watched, the Cliff Notes version goes as such:
ASU got the ball with a few minutes left, began marching down the field, got within reasonable field goal range with under a minute left, called an abhorrent play set to go behind the line of scrimmage, lost too many yards on the play, didn’t take the final timeout, and accidentally ran out of time before even attempting the field goal.
You only get so many chances to win, so you’d best take them.
The logic of setting up for the field goal wasn’t terrible. Kicker Michael Rubino had missed an extra point and a field goal, but giving him a shot at redemption in lieu of trying to force something downfield for a touchdown when you have no downfield passing game all night was a safe bet.
The rubbish part of it was the complete lack of awareness on the clock, as if the worst-case-scenario of giving Tennessee the ball backed up in their own territory when they’ve had one touchdown drive all night (on a long pass play, no less) was the Bubonic Plague.
As quarterback Taylor Lamb scurried out of bounds to try to save even a second for a Hail Mary kick, you had to cringe, because it didn’t need to be that way.
The Mountaineers asserted themselves well enough to be considered the odds-on favorite to take the Sun Belt. In spite of the size difference, they spent the better part of the game whipping Tennessee along both lines, particularly on defense, and made would-be All-SEC quarterback Josh Dobbs look like a house cat trying to cross a four-lane highway.
This is a huge shot in the arm for the Mountaineers as their season progresses, independent of what Tennessee does. The saltiness of letting one get away only enhances the motivation going forward. There will be no press clippings or pats on the back, only anger at what could have been.
The lesson, though, is that when you have a shot at doing something special, don’t call plays as though you’re scared of it. Go ahead and do every darn thing possible to win, even if it sometimes ends up in a loss.
Coaches and players will lament the hell out of the way the thing ended, evidenced by Tennessee coach Butch Jones going over to the ASU players who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else other than getting a “good job, good effort” speech. You just simply cannot leave timeouts on the board in that situation. You simply can’t call plays as if you’re inside the 10 when you’re trying to get a shaky kicking game into field goal range for the win.
When you fail to do all of the above, you give a shot to the other team, and as absurd as sports are, there are oddities waiting for those who don’t charge at the win full throttle.
ASU will recover, but a bitter bounce that didn’t have to be, was, and onto the next week, one celebration too few.
