Tough games

Two of my teams had a rough, rough day on the field last football weekend. Both these teams just gave away their game to the opponent and luck was not on their side as well. First it was ASU on Saturday going into Madison and outplaying the 11-Th ranked Wisconsin badgers. I was at a sports bar with some friendly, mid-western alums from Wisconsin and the grip was on for them once they saw how fast and effective the ASU running game was in the first quarter. But after both teams missed a field goal, the ASU receivers dropped a couple of catchable passes in the end-zone. Mistakes like that on the road are always costly. The badgers special teams had no answers to the Devils kick-off and punt returns and the Devils scored a TD through their special teams. But then they almost returned one more at the halftime buzzer. It was so hard to see them get tacked at the 1 yard line with no time on the clock. That was just bad luck. They could have scored if the guy got one more yard or if we had one more second on the clock for a field-goal kick or a play. They came back in the second half and the game went back and forth. The Devils fell behind, but came back to score a TD to make it 20-19. They then missed an extra point kick to lose the game. I couldn't believe my eyes. Tough way to lose the game.

Then on Monday night, the niners lose a great game in a similar way. I am not a passionate fan of any particular NFL team except my fantasy team, but I do have a soft-corer for the niners. They will probably be in my top 3 list in the NFL along with the Arizona Cardinals and the Oakland Raiders. They played very well and defended Drew Breezy and the Saints effectively. But 4 turnovers did not help their cause. Alex Smith had 2 interceptions, both of which didn't seem like his mistake exclusively. The first one was intended for Gore and was a little wide and inaccurate, but both INTs were tipped balls. Some of these turnovers were also in the red-zone and those are the worst. Despite all these mistakes, the niners had a chance to tie the game with a TD and a 2 point conversion. Alex Smith got them both in what was the best drive of his career up to this point. The 2-point conversion was denied by the refs initially, but a booth review overturned it and tied the game up.

The only problem was, Alex Smith left too much time on the clock for the Saints. Breezy did what Breezy do and basically won the game for the Saints 25-22. The game winning kick was actually tipped by the niner defender, but went in anyways. This was really unlucky for the niners. It's not often you see a tipped kick make it through the goalpost. That hurt. If not for the 4 turnovers, the niners could have beaten the champs 30-15 or something. The niners have now lost 2 games where they looked like the better team for 6 out of 8 quarters. May be Mike Singletary does have to take some responsibility for this. I like him a lot and I think he is a great professional and a great motivator, but I am not sure if he is a great Xs and Os coach. Also, his fire and brimstone approach can wear thin easily. The niners better start winning before the players start tuning out Mike. I like Alex Smith too. I hear good things about him as a person and this game might be the first time where fans and the media are also saying good things about Alex Smith, the football player.

Anyways, 2 days, 2 teams, 2 great games, but 2 heart-breaking losses.