I've waited to post this to wait for the relative excitement to die down. I was back home for the Thanksgiving holiday and my parents' home was filled with relatives. Two in particular are complete and utter BYU football fanatics. Having attended BYU, I understand. I do think it's a little ironic considering the fact that neither went to BYU, and neither did any of their children. In fact, one graduated from the hated rivals - the University of Utah. I digress. Anyway, so Thanksgiving was nice. And then came the Saturday after. The TV had to be dibbed days in advance for this game and the DVR was set to record "The Mountain" - the crappy station that broadcasts nothing but Mountain West athletics. BYU was playing the University of Utah.
There is a long tradition of heated games between the two. For example, last year the game came down to the final play. BYU trailed by 4 with time enough for one final play. You can see the rest below.
So after taking it to them in their own house, the Utes were particularly set on taking the W this year. That and the winner of the game actually stood to take the conference title for the year. It was a big game this year. Like Kansas v. Mizzou big. And I was interested in the outcome so I had to watch, despite my better judgement.
It was a very defensive game with both teams struggling. The 4th quarter started at a score of 9-3 BYU. And in fits of passion, I can still hear one person yelling "Get 'im! GET 'IM" as we watched the Utah quaterback scramble away from poorly excecuted tackles. The other of this dynamic duo spent most of the time talking about how much BYU was going to miss their missed field goals and TD opportunities. All I could think was, "Duh". It was kind of like when John Madden says things like, "You know, the team that gets into the endzone the most is going to win." Real men of genius.
And then Utah scores a touchdown. 10-9. Less than 2 minutes to go. In comes another family member who starts trying to lead high-school-esque chearleader cheers. I'm practically boiling over to tell them all, "You know that they can't hear you, right?" or "You know I passed first grade math a long time ago, right?"
BYU has the ball and then after a bit of poor playing it's fourth and long. Like 20 something yards long. And the pull out a 40 yard pass to keep themselves in the game. And then it happens. What annoys me the most about the BYU uber-fan dynamic duo is the way they talk about the officiating. If their team loses, it was always the officials fault for making calls that weren't really there or missing crucial penalties that would have saved BYU. During this particular game, there were a few questionable no-calls for pass interference and personal fouls that went both ways actually. But on this particular drive all the flags came out. After completing the impossible on fourth and twenty, BYU went on to have a both a pass interference and personal foul call go their way. The thing is, on replay they both looked pretty identical to stuff BYU had gotten away with earlier. In fact the BYU no-calls in some ways looked worse. And after getting over 30 yards extra from questionable calls, BYU was able to ram home a rushing touchdown followed by a two point conversion to win the game. Despite their poor clock management. I digress again.
Anyway, it's pretty clear to me that Utah should've won the game, but didn't. And I'm a BYU fan. But if you bring up the questionable calls to the dynamic duo, they argue tooth and nail that the calls were fair throughout the game. Of course - the Lord's team won. (For those of you not immersed in Utah culture, some on the more extreme side of the religious scale feel that BYU is "the Lord's University" therefore making BYU football, "the Lord's team." See picture at top of page. And who's that kid tackling Jesus?)
So I guess the point of this post is two-fold. 1 - I hate watching football with certain family members because the endless stream of inane commentary. 2 - BYU should've lost the game but managed to win with lop-sided penalties in their favor. Sorry Emma G*.
2 comments:
I'd have to agree. There were so many times I thought BYU had lost the game. I was listening over the internet, so I didn't see what happened, only what the commentators said. I'm fairly certain there were questionable calls. So maybe Utah played a better game, but a win is a win!
All I can say is, I'm glad you've never watched football at my place. When my husband and I watch Aggie games, we both yell at the TV, cheer, occasionally curse, etc. I'm perfectly aware that they can't hear me, just like they couldn't hear me over the 86,000 other fans in the stadium at an actual game. I guess I'm just overly vocal when it comes to football*.
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