Going for two

"On the banks of the Red Cedar..."

I attended my first New Year's Day bowl to ring in 2009. My alma mater Michigan State played the Georgia Bulldogs in the Capital One Bowl at Orlando's old Citrus Bowl Stadium. There is nothing better to me than the kickstep entrance of the Spartan Marching band and singing the fight song in person. It had been way too long since I had seen a game in person (the previous game was when this senior class were true freshmen in their very first game) and even though we were consensus underdogs (rightfully so) the program is on an upswing and I wanted to support the team. The Spartans had some early chances, but only came away with field goals from deep in the red zone, and the bottom line is an inferior team must score touchdowns to pull off an upset.

I love Mark Dantonio who has now been the coach for two years. He has restored class, stability, and about as much discipline as any college coach can to the program. However he provded me a a bloggable moment when he decided to go for a two point conversion with over 8 minutes to go in the game. MSU trailed 17-6, when senior Javon Ringer scored a touchdown making it 17-12. The Spartan team had completed an excellent drive and had momentum the fans were into it, the band, was into it, the team was into it and upset was within reach...and then...I saw the quaterback stay on the field and I stood up and yelled "No, it's way too early!" State went for two, and threw an incomplete pass that wasn't even close. A football version of a buzz kill. I say with that much time left you kick the extra point, you keep the momentum going and energy level up, an extra point is a positive play but a missed two point try leaves an unnecessary cloud of doubt. I wish coaches would burn those cards tehy have that tell them when to go for two. The situation and the feel of the game must be taken into account. Now if Georgia had come down and scored a field goal, MSU would have trailed by eight instead of seven. It was way to early to go for two, and I hope coaches will learn that an extra pont is a good play. Go for two only when absolutely necessary.

Monday Night Football...the experience

I had the good fortune to attend three sporting events in person in the past month plus. The first happened on the Monday night after Thanskgiving when my friend Steve invited me to join him for the Carolina Panthers/Tampa Bay Buccaneers game (I benefitted from an 8:30 start time because it was too late for his elementary aged son to stay up!). Both teams were 9 and 3 at the time and the atmosphere was electric. I enjoy the NFL a lot, but the fan experience is usually a bit lacking compared to the pomp and circumstance of college games. Not on that night. Knowing that the divsion title and playoffs would be a lot easier to achieve with a victory the energy in the stadium was at a high level all night. Quaterback Jake Delhomme has a silly local cell phone commercial in which he muses about seats should be called seats they should be called "sit occassionalies". Well the whatever-you-choose-to call-thems must have been the coldest things in the stadium because the entire crowd stood for at least 90 percent of the game. Running backs Deangelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart ran up and down and all around and it led to a big Panthers win...a few weeks later a division title and first round bye were secured and Tampa did not win another game. The fans had a sense of the moment. To finish it off their aren't too many people I know who can say they live in walking distance of an NFL stadium, so I walked home intoxicated by the experience (and the Coke I drank during the game).