Saturday, January 15 was a rough day.
Part I: Purdue vs. Indiana, NCAA men's basketball, Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, IN, 12:00 p.m.
A boring
game became nuts at the end of regulation when Brandon McKnight missed a jump shot from the top of the key, and time expired during the scrum for the rebound (where no foul was called -- remember that, folks), sending the game to overtime. Then it got crazy.
At the end of the first overtime, and the score tied 61-61, Bracey Wright missed a jump shot. In the fight for the loose ball, Andrew Ford was called for a foul. Replays showed that the call was very questionable. Either way, Marshall Strickland was given two free throw attempts with 0.9 seconds remaining. He made them both. Purdue called timeout to try and draw up some kind of miracle play. Ford, who must've been a quarterback in high school, threw a perfect court-length strike to Carl Landry under the basket. Landry quickly drew a foul while putting up a layup, which somehow went in. The referee behind the play immediately ruled the basket good -- still, they went to the monitor to review the play. When they came out, they ruled the basket good still, and Landry had one shot to win the game.
Supposedly, when the referees huddled around the monitor, they ruled that even though Landry released the ball after time expired, he should get continuation -- and therefore the basket was good. Mike Davis was irate when the ruling was explained, and (apparently) rightfully so, because the Big Ten
admitted that it was the wrong call a couple of days later.
It all was a moot point, however, because Landry missed his free throw. And Purdue lost in overtime -- McKnight's leaning 3 for the win banked off the front rim. The Boilers dropped to 0-4 in the Big Ten, and quickly fell to 0-5 (4-11 overall) after another close
loss in East Lansing on Tuesday night.
Part II: St. Louis Rams vs. Atlanta Falcons, NFL divisional playoffs, seen at Jake's in West Lafayette, IN, 8:15 p.m.
After a rough afternoon at Mackey, I headed over to
Jake's Roadhouse, a popular bar with lots of TVs, to watch the Rams' playoff game. The game started rather quickly, as both teams traded touchdowns within the first five minutes. But the Rams' defensive shortcomings shone through, and by halftime, they were trailing 28-17. The Fox network commentators reported on several Falcons postseason rushing and
punt return single-game records being set
during the first half, so it certainly didn't look good. Still, the Rams weren't out of the game by any stretch, down only 11 with the ball to start the second half.
Unfortunately, fter halftime, it got ugly. The Rams went three-and-out, punted, and the Falcons scored a touchdown thanks to a big punt return (again) and the resulting short field. The Rams failed to score during the second half.
47-17 was the final score. The Rams allowed 327 yards rushing, which was one of the aforementioned records.
The worst part about the Rams' effort was the little things. I can come up with a whole bunch of instances, mostly during the first half, where a tiny break going the Rams' way could've changed a lot. There was the punt that Kevin Garrett could've easily downed on the 1; instead, he misjudged where he was, and stepped on the endline, forcing a touchback. There were the two dropped interceptions (by Antuan Edwards and Tommy Polley) by the Rams defense during the Falcons' second drive of the game, which resulted in a touchdown. There were missed tackles on Allen Rossum's punt return TD. There were several drops by the receivers -- most notably one in the first half by Steven Jackson on third down. The defense failed time and again on third and long And last, but not least, while the game was still in reach at 28-17 on the first drive after halftime, when Steven Jackson danced his way to being stuffed on third and 1, forcing a punt. Little mistakes add up over the course of a football game. I'm not saying the Rams would've won if they'd played the second half the same way, but if a few of these aforementioned little breaks had gone their way, they might've been the ones up 28-17 at the half -- and thus dictated the tempo for the rest of the game. Who's to know?
It was an ugly day. To add to the frustration (although I didn't even think to look at this until the next day), Mizzou
got killed at Kansas State that afternoon 74-54. Merely icing on the cake to one of my worst sports days in memory.
But hey... I have to remind myself that the Cards did
win 105 games and a pennant, so maybe the law of averages has to kick in a little bit.
: 1:42 AM