I don't think anybody has said this team is incredibly good or incredibly bad throughout this whole year, because they were neither.
Like every other Griz fan I came into this year hoping that JJ coming back and the controversy going away was going to be a stepping stone for a deep playoff run, we had a lot of pieces in place. And early on it seemed to be going that way, a couple blowouts over Appy and UND who we thought were better than they were seemed to be a good omen. But as the year went on it became apparent that this team was not a team that was going to roll to a BSC Championship because, frankly, we weren't good enough. The defense was very up-and-down, disappearing for long stretches in games and forcing the offense to be put into a score-every-time-you-have-the-ball mentality. The offense, in my opinion, was hampered by inconsistent play calling and not adjusting well to the other teams defensive strategy. How many games did we fall in love with plays that didn't work and continually try to force the issue without success? Remember the endless sweeps to the left against Poly, or the game (I forget who against) where we kept throwing the bomb over and over and over (not unlike the CC game) without success? It seems the move-the-chains mentality went away more often than it should have. And obviously all faith was lost in the kicking game, although I'm not sure Worst was as bad as some viewed him.
Look at the games, which game can we point at and say "here is where we proved our dominance"? Poly and USD flat had us beat and we pulled the games out of our ass, if Sac State could have made even one defensive play late they could have beat us too because their offense was going through us like shit through a goose. This team was so close to being 7-5 it wasn't even funny. But they weren't, because this team has a lot of talent and a lot of heart, and found ways to overcome adversity and win games, that's what good teams do.
Fast forward to the end of the year, we blow out Weber and play solid against a banged-up MSU, our defense only gives up 1 TD in 10 quarters. I again, like every other Griz fan, think "maybe we've turned the corner and are primed for a playoff run, the defense seems to be clicking".
Enter CC. We start the game well with two ball-control chain-moving drives for scores on offense and a lot of intensity on defense, soured a bit by the secondary getting burned by the long TD on third and very long. Still, it seems like the game is flowing well, they can't seem to stop us and our defense has them on their heels except for that one play. And then the problems started showing up again. No pressure or containment on their QB, our lineman constantly end up behind the play and the only question is will Ross wait until someone comes open or will he get bored and just run it himself for 12 yards because there is nobody there watching him. That scenario went on for a quarter and a half and 4 TD's.
Our offense is moving the ball well between the 25's, looks good on the stats sheet, but then we get to the 25 and all logic goes out the window. Run for 2 yards and an incompletion and it's 3rd and 8. At this point being down multiple scores and knowing that you're going to go for it on 4th down, partly because this is looking like a shootout and partly because we have absolutely no confidence in the kicking game, the thinking should be 2 plays to get 8 yards. But instead, we throw the ball to the endzone time after time after time even though it hasn't worked once and it is being well defended, and now we're put into a 4th and long situation which any football fan knows has a slim chance of success. That was f'ing terrible...every time. And while on the subject of long passes, it's kind of important for the QB to have enough time for the play to develop, that would mean picking up the blitz which they ran from multiple sets and directions...we didn't do that either. Johnson never had enough time in the pocket, and he took a tremendous beating because of it. He is the toughest guy on this team, I'm amazed he lasted the year.
For the bad ref crowd, yes they were terrible, I can't remember worse. Yes, I think we would have scored from the 2 had the phantom booth replay not occurred. That would have pulled us to within 14, does it mean we would have tied it up later being we lost by 7? Not necessarily. When a team like CC who has had their way offensively all day gets to a certain point of the game their thinking shifts to score and clock. When they stopped us and retained the 21 point lead, their thinking remained "we're up 21 with a little over a quarter remaining, we are working towards getting to that point." Scoring more wasn't their first priority. If we would have scored there, their thinking would have been a little different, they would have been more inclined to open up the playbook more and try to reestablish a 3 score lead. It was the same scenario as SHSU two years ago and EWU earlier this year, open a big lead and start playing the clock later in the game. In all those games the Griz showed a lot of heart and made a big comeback to make it interesting, but we never had the ball at the end of any of them.
I don't want to be labeled a bad fan or come off as negative, but it is what it is, I was pacing in front of my TV Saturday hoping for a stop on the last CC possession as much as any other Griz fan, but them running off the last 5+ minutes of the clock just emphasized what I already knew deep down.
Sorry this went so long, didn't mean to write a novel.
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