See it? We were THERE!!!

The most spoken phrase in the state of Oregon on Sunday? "Did you see the Duck game yesterday?" To that, we answer, "See it? We were THERE!!" Yep yep - we were there, along with a record 59,260-some other fans (not bad for a stadium with a capacity of 54,00) (and I should make it clear that my OSU hubby is not so much a Duck fan, but a fan of great college football, played in great college stadiums, on warm fall afternoons, no matter who the teams are on the field...) to witness what will most-assuredly go down in the books (if it hasn't already) as one of the most amazing, and most controversial, comebacks in college football history.

I'm a huge Duck fan, so there is just no way for me to address the tipped ball and the onside kick calls there at the end of the game without sounding biased, so I won't even attempt. What I do know is that the officials took a LOT of time to review those calls, which was something they didn't even attempt to do with what I consider to be the two most controversial calls that went in the Sooners' favor - the play where time on the play clock had expired (I was watching the play clock and saw it tick off to zero, then turned my head back to the players, had time to yell, "PlAY CLOCK" and watch them STILL get the ball snapped. Blown call.), and the pass interference no call made (or rather, not made) down by my end zone (ball thrown by Sooner QB. Sooner receiver and Duck defender are neck and neck. Sooner receiver pushes off Duck defender. Duck goes to the ground. Sooner makes catch. Autzen techno crew replays on the big screen. Duck fans go wild. Referee is voted off the island 56,000 to 3,000). So all that to say, there were controversial calls, and no calls, all during the game, on both sides of the ball. If one of those goes the other way, its a whole different ball game and there you go. If you weren't there (my obligatory "rubbing it in"), and / or you didn't watch it on tv, then you all you've seen is clip after clip after clip of the onside kick recovery. Don't get me wrong, the last minute and a half of that game was CRAZY great....but the other 47+ minutes were pretty swell too.

My favorite non-game moment of the afternoon had to be when the stadium announcer came over the loudspeaker about 20 minutes after the game had ended to thank all of the Duck fans that went home early. That was pretty darn funny, until I found out that my oldest son was one of the ones who left. In his defense, he NEVER leaves early - none of my kids do because I taught them better than that - but, that day, he did, and he probably never will again. Anyway, it was just ironic.

My second favorite moment was when my friend (who is also my boss) leaned over to my husband and said, "You know, its not over 'till its over," which just so happened to be what I had been saying to him about every ten or fifteen seconds for the previous ten or so minutes (someone told me yesterday that the final 1:54 of the game took about 30 minutes to play. What's the old saying?? "If you have two minutes to live, you want to be at a football game."). He told me that he'd do anything I wanted for the rest of my life if I just would NOT utter those words again. Then Chris leaned over and said them. It was just pretty funny.

My least favorite moment, well, moments actually? Each and every friggen' time I had to hear that STUPID OU fight song (do do do doooo, do do do doooo, do do do dooooo, shoot me noh-ow). I lived in Nebraska before Oregon. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, it was a great day, a great game, a great venue, and we were with great friends. Is this heaven? No, its Autzen.