Check out this play. If you listen closely, you'll hear the announcer predict the play before it happens. Shades of when I called the Statue of Liberty play right before Boise State ran it to beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl last year. Benj is my witness.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
Covering the Spread in Las Vegas
This past weekend I went on a little road trip to Las Vegas with my brother Benj and another friend Jake, to watch the BYU UNLV football game. Las Vegas is about a 5 hour drive from Phoenix.
BYU pretty much dominated the entire game, only punting once, but they had so many turnovers that they were only up 7-6 at the half. During halftime the coaches must have made a conscious decision to run the ball nonstop until UNLV showed that they could stop the run. They couldn't. Harvey Unga was good for 4-10 yards on every play, so the passing game wasn't really even necessary. With a couple minutes left in the game we were up 24-6. Take away our 4 silly turnovers and it would have been more like 44-6.
On the last UNLV series, our defense got lazy and UNLV scored to make it 24-12. But that's where the game got a little bit interesting. UNLV went for 2, to pull the game within 10, presumably so they could try an onside kick and get a quick touchdown or field goal and then do it again and tie the game. BYU lined up all their "good hands people" to thwart the expected onside kick attempt. But inexplicably, UNLV kicked it away, they didn't even go for the onside kick. Basically, they gave up and didn't try to win the game. I was wracking my brain to figure out why on earth they would do that, when I remembered what Benj had mentioned earlier -- THE SPREAD WAS 11 POINTS! (Meaning that BYU was favored to win by 11 points.) So instead of trying to win the game, they were making sure they covered the spread! If they had gone for the onside kick and failed, BYU might have scored again, causing them not to cover! So instead they just gave up!
I couldn't believe it at first, but then I realized were we were... in the gambling capital of the world. Why wouldn't the coaches have a little side agreement going, when they play in a stadium named for a blackjack dealer? I'm really having trouble coming up with an alternate explanation, so I'd like to hear if anyone can offer a logical reason for why you would kick away down 10 points with 1:11 to play.
BYU pretty much dominated the entire game, only punting once, but they had so many turnovers that they were only up 7-6 at the half. During halftime the coaches must have made a conscious decision to run the ball nonstop until UNLV showed that they could stop the run. They couldn't. Harvey Unga was good for 4-10 yards on every play, so the passing game wasn't really even necessary. With a couple minutes left in the game we were up 24-6. Take away our 4 silly turnovers and it would have been more like 44-6.
On the last UNLV series, our defense got lazy and UNLV scored to make it 24-12. But that's where the game got a little bit interesting. UNLV went for 2, to pull the game within 10, presumably so they could try an onside kick and get a quick touchdown or field goal and then do it again and tie the game. BYU lined up all their "good hands people" to thwart the expected onside kick attempt. But inexplicably, UNLV kicked it away, they didn't even go for the onside kick. Basically, they gave up and didn't try to win the game. I was wracking my brain to figure out why on earth they would do that, when I remembered what Benj had mentioned earlier -- THE SPREAD WAS 11 POINTS! (Meaning that BYU was favored to win by 11 points.) So instead of trying to win the game, they were making sure they covered the spread! If they had gone for the onside kick and failed, BYU might have scored again, causing them not to cover! So instead they just gave up!
I couldn't believe it at first, but then I realized were we were... in the gambling capital of the world. Why wouldn't the coaches have a little side agreement going, when they play in a stadium named for a blackjack dealer? I'm really having trouble coming up with an alternate explanation, so I'd like to hear if anyone can offer a logical reason for why you would kick away down 10 points with 1:11 to play.
(More pics here.)
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