In the past week, I’ve started about five blog entries without finishing one of them.  Whether I’m trying to be too precise in my postings, they’re just not that interesting, or I’m not alloting enough time to finish, they haven’t gotten the call-up to the majors to be posted on here. 

The last of those five entries was started during the IU-Northwestern game on Saturday afternoon.  I went to Qdoba around 11:40 to pick up the mandatory pregame meal.   This time it was a chicken queso burrito and chips & queso.  I didn’t get back into my car until right before kickoff, so I was set on listening to the first possession on the radio.  Don Fischer called the kickoff, a return to the 30 yard line.    One play later, it was 7-0 Hoosiers, after Darius Willis took the opening play 70 yards to the endzone.  I yelled out enough ”Wooooo’s” to make a cow say Moo.  Not only did I get to hear a great play by play man call a long touchdown, I also would make it home to catch the rest on television without missing another play. 

Before I even had enough time to finish my chips & queso, it was 21-3.  I called my mom to see if she was tuning into the game.  She wasn’t, which gave me great glee in telling her to turn it on.  IU was rolling and I wanted everyone to see it.  It was making for a great game.  Before I hung up the phone with her, Ray Fisher returned a kickoff to the house:  28-3 Hoosiers.  I’m pretty sure I woke up the neighbors that got in too late  the night before with a couple of loud “Woooo’s”.  The Hoosiers answered the challenge I had placed in front of them (not that they actually read what I wrote) and came together to whip Illinois.  They were well on there way to a 5-3 record and bowl eligibility with just one win in their final four.  My buddy Sears and I were texting back and forth, and had talked ourselves into beating Iowa on the road.  Here are some examples of texts sent during the great start ( I won’t say who wrote what to save a little bit of face for both myself and Sears):

“We are gonna be bowling baby”

“We are beating Iowa next week!”

“If we didn’t have flu, we would have gotten Virginia”

“Wooo.  Let’s beat these effers by 100″

“I like where your heads at.  We own Iowa”

“We gotta finish this game out”

“We will be bowling and ready to start building something.  they should just go ahead and extend Lynch.”

To be clear, I wrote “We gotta finish this out.”  I was then easily persuaded that we had the ballgame.  It just felt like it was over. 

Then Northwestern scored 2 touchdowns right before the half to only trail 28-17 at the half.

Here were some texts:

“Why can’t we ever slam the door shut?”

“The defense HAS to get a stop this first possession”

“If NU scores a TD, I won’t be feeling good.  Let’s go D!”

“Let’s go Hoosiers”

“I may just vomit all over myself”

“We are still okay.  Big third down here”  (For the record the Hoosiers stopped them on that big 3rd down.  They did not stop them, however, on the big 4th down that came after). 

The only moment of clarity I had in the entire 3 and a half hours was right after it ended (Northwestern won 29-28), when I texted:

“We got too pumped I think.  dog gone it.  that was going to be a great start to my saturdee.”

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What did I learn out of all of this?  Stop texting during ballgames.  I think we single handedly jinxed the Hoosiers after their great start.

Realistically, they got their great start due to big plays.  Once Northwestern neutralized those plays, the Wildcats were better.  I liked the aggresiveness of the Hoosiers to go for it on 4th and 1 at the goaline.  They get 6 there, and it’s ballgame.  A field goal there meant nothing as Northwestern would have just driven in for a game winning touchdown, instead of what ended up being a game winning field goal.

To me though, it looked like Mitchell Evans just tripped over his own lineman.  It would have been a great play had he scored, but made it all the more painful that he tripped over his own guy.  The playcall was shaky at best, giving your QB the short side of the field to throw in an already crowded endzone.  Love going for it, though! 

I think IU is back to where I thought they were after Virginia.  They’ve got Iowa, Penn State, and Wisconsin as the next three.  Do they come out and fight in these ballgames, or do they lay down?  In the past, IU has laid down every single time.  This team shows signs of being different, but not on a consistent enough basis to prove that they can win one of three. 

I still like their chances at Iowa. 

 I was also the same guy that texted:  “We will be bowling and ready to start building something.  They should just go ahead and extend Lynch now” and “I may just vomit all over myself” within a 2 hour window.