Wednesday, October 15, 2008

BLOWOUTS.....GET OVER IT! by Steve T

Lot of talk locally & nationally in recent weeks about teams ahead by a bunch rolling up the score and pouring it on if you will. With about 2 minutes remaining, USC called a timeout. On the next play, back-up QB Mitch Mustain checked off and hit a bomb to David Ausberry for a 59 yard score that pushed the final from 37-10 to 44-10. In last weeks wipeout of Washington State, Oregon State had a relatively cozy 59-13 edge halfway through the 4th quarter. Back-up Sean Canfield, seeing his first action of the season, hit Damola Adiniji from 39-yards out bumping the number on the board to 66. Some have expressed outrage over the lack of sportsmanship displayed by Pete Carroll or Mike Riley. Here's my question. Who asked you? It's no one elses business outside those in uniform or the coaching staff. Rubbing it in the opponents face comes with pitfalls. Reputations can suffer, or more importantly, when the cyclical nature of the sport rears it's head, that team you destroyed might show no mercy when they have you down. Here's another thought. That head coach you're humiliating might some day be in a position of power and have a job opening you might be interested in. Think that resume finds it's way to the call-back pile or the recycling bin? Here's a novel concept for the team on the short end of the score. Make a stop. Prevent them from scoring at will all day long. I think it shows questionable character to kick college aged kids when their down like that, but the winning team has to do what it deems best to get better and prepare for the rest of the games. It doesn't have to answer for it's actions immediately, but possibly down the road. Your thoughts??

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Right on Steve! I am so sick of hearing all these cry babies whinning about score. Thats why they play the games! If you don't like it, don't play or don't watch. Thats whats wrong with this country today, to many cry babies. I remember back in the day when Oregon would get creamed by teams like Nebraska 63-0, you took your lumps and moved on to next week. Toughen up America!!

Anonymous said...

"Here's a novel concept for the team on the short end of the score. Make a stop."

Seriously - How about teaching your defence to cover recievers and make tackles. The point of football is to get the ball into the end zone. Guess what - you get points for doing that. Was there a clause in there I missed that says you stop doing that if it might hurt the other teams fealings?

Not to mention - In what other sport would you hear this type of whining?

"Man - they need to start missing baskets and leave the other team a little more open..."

"What a unsportsman-like jerk - he actually swung at those pitches"

Obviously, nobody likes getting whooped - but then without failure, how are you going to motivate couching staff changes if you only loose a little becasue the other team gives up playing midway through the game.

Like Mike said - this is football, not competitive unicorn prancing.