Loser of the Week (Week 12)
IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL, DOES A BACK-UP QUARTERBACK PLAYING FOR A FAVORITE QUALIFY AS AN UNDERDOG?
The mailbox here at the Loser of the Week (LoW) offices were stuffed last week with letters of confusion, anger and, occasionally, compassion. A Pitt Panther fan wrote in, ‘This is supposed to be sports — not a vocab lesson!’ While a former New Mexico State Aggie walk-on said, ‘This is a beration!,’ perhaps thinking the word means something. The reason? Our lesson of college football lexicon last week, where the phrase ‘he’ll be playing on Sundays’ (to refer to pro potential) got tossed into our LoW doghouse: the penalty box.
LoW stands by the penalty. Considering how unpredictable this season’s been, we're even upping the ante. Many fans, jockeying for their teams’ ranking by impossibly comparing one team with another based on teams-who-played-teams-their-teams-played, are throwing out the illogical phrases such as ‘West Virginia lost to at-the-time #2 South Florida, while LSU lost to unranked Kentucky.’ Please re-read carefully.
Supposedly the best two teams at the end of the season make the BCS championship. So bravado in the chat rooms should follow suit, but only comparing ‘good losses’ or strength of schedule by end-of-the-season rankings. In the case of the somewhat fictional West Virginia Mountaineer fan above — and I’ve seen this reasoning used already — it conveniently uses the SoFla ranking back when the ‘Eers lost, then Kentucky’s likely ranking after this-week’s loss to Georgia. To quote the immortal words of belligerently moustached John Oates: 'no can do.'
Meanwhile, LoW offices are also busy tracking down the overuse of ‘pick/six’ and ‘trickeration.’
LOSER OF THE WEEK: BRADY LEAF & JOEY HALZLE
People like to say they love an underdog, but it’s not true: people only like underdogs who win. This week, yet another two teams holding their fate in their hands fell to unranked opponents: Oregon and Oklahoma. But both had their starting quarterbacks — Heisman frontrunner Denny Dixon, and the nation’s most-efficient passer Sam Bradford — fall to injury in the first quarter, on the road, at night. Does a back-up quarterback playing for a favorite qualify as an underdog?
Many people, if they were honest about it, wanted Oregon to win out and play for the national championship — simply because they looked more the part of the champion-caliber team than nearly all of the Top 10. Against a six-loss Arizona, they surely would have won with Dixon playing the full game. Leaf, the brother of the infamous Ryan, started games in 2005 and 2006, but had trouble getting more than a FG against the Arizona defense until a fourth-quarter TD drive nearly changed the momentum. Arizona held on.
OU's Halzle, a juco transfer, has only played mop-up time for the Sooners on occasion, and after three horrible quarters, stepped up in a wild fourth quarter where he threw most of his 291 yards plus two TDs. Two more times OU was within the Tech 15, but fourth-down throws were incomplete (one in he hands of OU receiver Manuel Johnson who had it briefly before it a defender knocked it loose, apparently before Johnson had possession). In all, a great loss! To add salt in the wound, OU’s star running back DeMarco Murray was hurt on an onsides kick with 0:31 remaining. Hopefully it's not serious.
Both Leaf and Halzle played well in an unenviable position.
Oregon lost 24-34; Oklahoma lost 27-34.
LoW CHAMPIONSHIP PREDICTOR
Every week’s ‘bowl forecast’ by folks like ESPN or Sports Illustrated seems to assume the top teams win out. This week will be interesting with #2 Kansas and #3 Missouri playing each other, but folks will probably say #1 LSU will play that game’s winner in New Orleans. Haven’t we learned anything?
LoW will tempt the future and sees a couple more key losses – LSU in the SEC championship, Missouri to Kansas, then Kansas to Oklahoma/Texas in the Big 12 championship, all putting West Virginia and, yes, Ohio State in the national championship.
Because no team has raised the ugly BCS crystal football twice, we at LoW won't buck the trend: West Virginia 20, Ohio State 17.
LoW ARCHIVE
Week 11 College football, where buzzards fly
Week 10 The entire state of Florida is put on trial.
Week 9 The official Loser of the Week two-point conversion chart.
Week 8 The Curse of beating the Loser of the Week.
Week 7 Risks of men not wearing a ponytail.
Week 6 Sweet moustache and TV.
Week 5 Picking Buckeyes, thanking god.
Week 4 Things to do in Tulsa.
Week 3 The world's greatest piece of art (in Canada).
