The 20/20 Offense and Southern Belles and Boys

WB

Tension filled my living room. How could we (I use the term loosely to include myself as part of the team) march down the field time and again only to be turned away because of our own lackluster efforts? Ole Miss certainly can’t claim to be a red zone giant (or blue zone if you are Bronco, I choose not to follow) after having the worst red zone defense in all of major college football in 2010. Most fans felt as though we were dominating the game. And we did in every category but one, so what if it is the one that matters (points). We had more rushing yards, passing yards, and even held them to two first downs until three minutes remained in the first half. The score should have reflected this but we just couldn’t get out of our own way. All of us fans couldn’t feel secure, we couldn’t feel safe until BYU started to score. And how were we sent to half time? Trailing. That hurt.

Remember the Oklahoma game from a couple years ago. We had all those same feelings. We even saw a mid game qb change (Brunetti-Stoudt, Bradford-Jones), injured one of their key players (Bolden, Bradford) dominated the game(my unbiased opinion should suffice in place of stats), and still needed a late come back to take the lead. What frustrated me the most was choosing to run our 20/20 offense. You know the one where we start at the 20 yard line, then cruise all the way to the other 20 yard line, stall our offense like a 16 year old driving a stick shift, and then miss a field goal or turn the ball over. But at least the game ended in the same score 14-13 and with the same feeling, jubilation.

Sure, the game was more stressful than it needed to be, but in the end it was all worth it. Imagine if we had scored when we should have. We would have sailed comfortably to victory. But instead we were able to watch the SEC arrogance in plain view with dressed up, high heel wearing female fans (I am, in fact, not opposed to this segment of SEC fans) and those silly looking Southern boys with Justin Bieber or Greg McEllroy hair cuts, button down shirts tucked in to their Vineyard Vines pants and boat shoes on. (Full Disclosure: I love boat shoes) They laughed, they celebrated, they cheered their team on to victory against little old BYU from the West. I loved this, I absolutely did, because without it, we never would have been able to see the gasps of horror as Ole Miss snatched defeat out from the jaws of victory.(see the 26 second mark of this video) We were all witnesses. We saw the surprise and dismay in their faces. And that made it all worth it. And don’t forget it next time little ole BYU rolls into the SEC.