Oklahoma
50 West Virginia 49
When
Landry Jones connected with Kenny Stills on 4th down to give the
Sooners a one-point lead with 24 seconds to play last Saturday night in
Morgantown, my only thought was...I sure hope we didn’t leave too much time on
the clock…
I
wasn’t expecting to be late to the airport, nor did I expect that arriving 45
minutes before departure instead of the requested hour would be considered an
act of terrorism, but it felt like it. I didn’t expect that the $9 in flight
meal would be any good…nor was I surprised that I ate the mystery meat and
cheese breakfast blob anyway. I never dreamed
that I would be on an American Airlines flight that arrived on time, or that
our luggage would make it if I was. I
certainly couldn’t have imagined that the Pittsburg, PA weather would be in the
mid-fifties in late November…but all of that was indeed the case upon arrival
at Pittsburg International Airport last Friday morning.
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania is the 27th largest city in the United States. Located in the southwest part of the state,
Pittsburg is home to some 300,000 residents with a seven county metropolitan
population of just over 2.5 million people.
The city is of triangular shape, stamped by the confluence of the
Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio Rivers.
From
the airport, Pittsburgh is roughly 15 miles or so. Just before you get to
downtown, you enter the Fort Pitt Tunnel. Upon exiting the tunnel, downtown Pittsburgh
practically explodes into view. The New
York Times cited it as “the best way to enter an American city” and I won’t
argue. I was very surprise and impressed
with how beautiful Pittsburgh is…an impression that no doubt was influenced by
the unseasonably warm weather.
Pittsburgh only averages 60 days of sunshine a year…to think we got
three of them in late November was evidently a minor miracle according to the
locals.
The
first stop was for lunch at the legendary Primanti Brothers sandwich shop (www.primantibros.com). Open 24 hours a day, Primanti Brothers is one
step above a dump…think dingy yet comfortable.
Pictures of local legends adorn the walls while waitresses dressed head
to toe in Steelers garb work the counters. The waitress who I was evidently
bothering…was horribly unattractive, but made up for it with a really shitty
attitude. Any attempt to engage in small
talk or God forbid ask a question was grounds for ridicule or even banishment…in
other words…the place was awesome!
I
got the pastrami and cheese, which comes with slaw, tomatoes and of course French fries. When I say slaw and fries, I don’t mean with it, I mean ON it…whether you like it, want it or not. The picture below is
half my sandwich. I am either proud or
embarrassed to say that I finished the whole thing…like I said, I was
hungry. I was also afraid that the
waitress might punch me if I didn’t finish it after having had the nerve to ask
her if the pastrami was any good or not.
I’m convinced that if they had known I was a Cowboys fan, I might have
been taken out back and beaten. I smiled
when I left because I had already decided I would be back the next day to order
the roast beef and tell her that I heard Franco Harris was a cross-dresser. Good
times.
The
drive from Pittsburgh to Morgantown, West Virginia is 75 miles. Other than
having to dodge a recliner that fell out of the back of a pick-up truck…and the
fact that gas stations don’t sell beer, the drive was as pleasant as it was
uneventful.
Morgantown,
with a population of just fewer than 30,000, is about10 miles inside the W. Va.
border, stationed on the bank of the Monongahela River. It is 208 miles west of D.C, 204 miles east
of Columbus, Ohio, just south of the Mason-Dixon Line and home to West Virginia
University.
I
wasn’t expecting 7-2 Oklahoma vs. 5-4 West Virginia when I booked this trip
back in July. I didn’t envision that OU
would have lost two home games, nor would I have expected the Mountaineers to
be riding a five game losing streak. I
didn’t believe that I would be traveling 1,050 miles to watch 1,440 yards of
combined total offense, nor did I think that I would be using 50,000 airline
miles to fly three hours so I could drive a rented Kia across two states in
order to watch a converted slot receiver rush for 344 yards on only 21 carries…but
that is what I would be doing at Milan Puskar Stadium last Saturday night.
(Yes, that is the stadium name!)
THE GAME…OR SHOULD I SAY…THE
TRACK MEET
First,
let me just say that the West Virginia fans were possibly the nicest, most
hospitable and welcoming fans I have ever been around save Nebraska. You couldn’t go 10 yards without a
Mountaineer fan stopping you to shake your hand, welcome to you Morgantown or
thank you for coming. It was almost
frustrating! All the niceness exhibited
last week was such a stark contrast to the way they acted at the 2007/08 Fiesta
Bowl. Either these people have made a
conscious effort to change or they belong in the bipolar Hall of Fame with all
the girls I dated in the ‘90’s.
Well….we
won. But while I wrote that last sentence Tavon Austin just gained another 38 yards)
*EFENCE WAS OFFENSIVE
Simply
put, it was the worst *efensive performance in Oklahoma Sooners football
history. That is not an opinion that is
a statistical fact. The Mountaineers
accumulate* 771 total yar*s of offense. The OU *efense gave up three ‘*rives’
of over 90 yar*s. Opinion wise, it is mine that it was the worst *efensive
scheme and *efensive effort I have witnesse* in some time. Was there ever a thought of an *efensive a*justment
or was Mike Stoops just going to keep a**ing more *efensive backs until all 11
players ha* jersey numbers under 40? (No, I
didn’t misspell all the words that have *.
No those aren’t typo’s either…I just figured if the Sooners weren’t
going to play any D, then why should I type with any?)
Mike
Stoops isn’t doing Tony Jefferson or Aaron Colvin any favors with the scheme he
tried to employ Saturday night. Stoops
had Jefferson lined up in more positions than Tommie Lee did Pamela Anderson on
their honeymoon. I saw TJ at middle
linebacker, safety, left defensive tackle, second chair trumpet and assistant
trainer…and unless his assignment is to chase the tailback until the
Mountaineer band plays Country Road’s, then I would have to say that he was
just as exposed as Pamela was as well…either way, it about screwed us all. (Tavon Austin on the carry, gain of 27 yards)
The
closest the Sooners defensive front seven ever gets to a QB is when they bump
into Sooner back up QB Drew Allen on their way back to the bench. In an effort to try and compensate, the Sooners
are blitzing with their nickel or dime d-back…or one of the other 7 defensive
backs Stoops seems hell-bent on having in the game at the same time…which
leaves Colvin on an island with the other team’s best wide receiver. I don’t care how good a cornerback you are…if
a major college QB has all day to throw, he will expose you. (Tavon Austin on the carry, gain of 41 yards)
OFFENSE
-Congrats
to my ex-QB Landry Jones. I have been
hard on the kid, but I will give him his due…he was composed and rock solid
down the stretch. He had his usual one
horrific throw, and a couple others that could have been crippling…but he was
awesome down the stretch…
-Our
offensive line is so devastated by injuries that I am a biscuit away from being
a right guard….while they were unable to do much as far as a running game is
concerned…Landry threw the ball 51 times without being sacked.
-Kenny
Stills…wow…best game as a Sooner.
-BellDozer
almost cost us the game, not him personally, but the scheme. It seemed more a drive and momentum killer
than an effective way to extend a drive…I think it is a valuable weapon, but
think that the coaches tend to over-think it and get too cute at times with the
package.
-Sooners
were out-coached….again.
-The
Sooners came back to win a game they trailed in the fourth quarter for the
first time since 2007. The last fifteen
times OU had trailed in the fourth they had lost.
SPECIAL TEAMS AND OTHER THINGS
-Brendan
Clay didn’t do much at RB, but it was his 46 yard return that
set up the game winning drive for the Sooners. He finished with 3 returns for
86 yards. Roy Finch also got into the act as he had 3 returns for 76 yards
helping set up a Sooner score…speaking of Finch…what the hell did that boy do
to end up so deep in the dog house?
-The
sell beer at Milan Puskar Stadium…but other than that, the stadium is a 5 on a
scale of 1-10. I always seem to take for
granted what we have facility wise until I go to road games. Our stadium is really sweet comparatively.
-High
marks for the pepperoni roll at the Puskar concession stand. (Tavon Austin on the carry, gain of 71 yards)
…As
it turns out, Landry’s sixth TD pass of the night would be the game
winner. 24 seconds wasn’t enough….but I
wouldn’t have wanted to give them 34 seconds, I can tell you that!
“50-49…almost
heaven, West Virginia, take me home, down country roads” (Tavon Austin on the carry, gain of 67 yards)
Just
the Opinion of One Mildly Interested Guy
The
Overweight Armchair Sooner
Buddy
Putty
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