By: Nate Murphy
ABC’s Wide World of Sports, IYKYK, opened with a series of clips from, well, around the world of sports. But the most iconic part of the intro was the classic line “It’s the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”.
Here in the CFSL, especially since the end of the Steroid Era, we have been treated to many more close games. In week one we talked about 9 of the 12 games being one-score games. Well, guess what? In Week 5 we did one better. 10 of the 12 games finished as one-score games. When looking at weeks like this and some of the specific games that aren’t decided until the final seconds or perhaps the final play we often talk about the heroes. The team that comes out on top and the plays and players that come up clutch down the stretch. But what about the other side of the coin? We have all been there. If you haven’t, stick around awhile and you will. It is sports after all. And in sports, you will never have the thrill of victory without the agony of defeat, and there will never be a hero without heartbreak on the other side.
We can’t look at all ten games from this past week, and take a complete deep dive through the collective heroes and heartbreaks we have seen lately. But let’s look into some of them. We will start with the most recent, most obvious example of things…and the game that I voted for as the Week 5 Game of the Week even though my team’s game was in the voting as well…USC’s thrilling last-second win over Michigan. It is easy to pick out the hero in that game. The final drive belonged to Jameysn Golde. Michigan got the ball trailing by 3 with 1:31 to play in the game. They converted two 3rd and 10 plays and scored with: 56 seconds on the clock. Then onto the field steps our hero. He leads the Trojan offense downfield and with: 03 seconds left he scrambles into the endzone for the game-winning touchdown.
Let’s look at some other examples, and I’m going to dip into the personal bag for these. WVU has lost three games this season by 6, 2, and 3 points respectively. Most recently Keith Lenord from Texas blew up two consecutive plays in the backfield as WVU was driving for a potential game-winning touchdown. The plays on third and fourth down made Leonard a hero for the Texas defense and got them the ball back with just over a minute to go to hold off the Mountaineers. In Baton Rouge the week prior LSU quarterback leads his team downfield, down one to WVU. The drive is capped off by what becomes the game-winning field goal by a walk-on kicker. WVU had a chance but the clock ran out before they could get their senior kicker on to attempt to win the game.
Take a look at Georgia. They started the season in a, pardon the pun, dawg fight against Michigan State. Then in Week 5 they took Auburn down to the wire and lost by just three. But maybe the biggest tough-luck losers of the season are the Kentucky Wildcats. Kentucky is 0-5 with a net point differential of -25. That means the ‘Cats have lost by an average of just five points per game. Every game is a one-score game (at least by the average). Now, the law of averages says that eventually this will turn around for them and they will win some of these games. But that doesn’t stop the hurt.
So what is the point of all of this? Well, we talked about the heroes already. But what is the feeling on the other side? What happened on the Michigan sideline as Golde found the endzone? What was the feeling for the Mountaineers as they saw the clock run out with their kicker on the sideline? How about in Kentucky as they see themselves as right on the brink of breaking through?
Well, I can speak from my experience…deflation. It is like blowing up a balloon and right before you get the knot tied in it, it slips from your hand. All you can do is stand there and watch the air escape from the balloon and watch the balloon fly away, like the win that just slipped from your grasp and now makes its way to the other side. The feeling of being so close and not being able to finish the job might be the worst in sports. Watching the other side celebrate while you walk off the field thinking you had victory only to see the score represent something else. ABC’s Wide World of Sports had it right, it truly is the agony of defeat.
