The Dust Starts to Settle

Random thoughts as the dust starts to settle.

Here's Irony for ya. On Sunday night, after the Colts had run past the Patriots, I stopped my channel surfing on one of my favorite channels, History International. If you've been reading this space for a while, you'll know I love history, and I love to compare sports to historic events. So what was the focus on Sunday night? The Cuban Missile Crisis.

Last week, the Husker nation found itself on the brink of extinction. A loss to Missouri would have caused a wave of chaos and anarchy across the barren Nebraska plain like nothing we've ever seen before. The unthinkable was just 60 minutes away. They showed old footage of bomb drills and public service announcements. They showed footage of Russian citizens stockpiling food and water for the months of nuclear winter that was sure to come. They showed the Cuban army, digging in for what was sure to be an all out bloody rampage. But, just as Khrushchev proved in 1962, Gary Pinkel decided that the football world should live in peace...for at least a little while longer, as he stood his troops down.

The cold war still continues however.

Although they may tell you otherwise, I'm not really sure if complete "order" has been restored just yet. The Huskers are staring at a tough road game at A&M this week. Considering Clownahan has doubled his road wins over the last 3 years in the past 4 weeks...there is hope. However, his troops wilted in the face of a small and vocal group of OSU fans a couple weeks ago. What are we to expect when they take on a better A&M team in a stadium that literally rocks back and fourth from the crowd noise? A probable win over CU will take them to Kansas City, where they'll get their precious rematch with Texas.

You may be shocked to hear this, but I would actually give the hicks a shot against the Horns in that game. Don't get me wrong...Mack Brown's team won in Lincoln despite missing 3 field goals and facing snow, wind and freezing temps. But Arrowhead on a December night isn't exactly tropical. The Hick nation will sure to show up in force, considering it's the first time they've actually won their own crappy division in quite some time. Don't get me wrong...you'll find a way to choke it away again...but I do actually give you a shot to win that. Again. I'm not sure what bowl games are in the picture, although a Holiday Bowl matchup with Oregon would be intriguing.

Then again, if everything falls into place, you're looking at 8-6 after a bowl loss. And is that what Steve Pederson had in mind when he scrapped his entire program to go with a guy who destroyed an NFL power? Probably not. But hey...he won a shitty division by beating a perennial losing program at home...by 14. Props to him.

* Maybe it's the fact that Nebraska hasn't accomplished much in the past few years, but I was disappointed to see nearly every angry member of the Hick nation to come at me with the "Chase ate his booger" angle. Apparently, some of you thought that even though I was not surprised by the outcome, I would be despondent enough to let you drag me down with you. It wouldn't even have been so bad, had not 8 people in a row made the same comments, somehow expecting me to fly off the handle in defense of my team's QB. Here's my official reply: Who fucking cares? It's embarrassing for him. Sucks for him. But quite frankly, I don't pay 45 bucks a ticket to watch him use a Kleenex. I pay 45 bucks a ticket...spend 3 hours a week watching him throw passes and win football games.

And old Husker loving friend of mine used to drive me nuts, when I used to bash him about Lawrence Phillips, Josh Brown and Christian Peter (all of whom did things a bit worse than picking their nose). He would reply to my taunts by saying, "I don't give a shit. I don't pay them to baby-sit my kids." He's exactly right. You people are so deeply emotionally involved with your team, that you ACTUALLY have some sort of bond and connection to your players. Somehow, you thought that I would be the same way, but going to 3rd grade tactics to taunt him. The point is...I don't care. Again..sucks for him. But why should I care? I'm WAY more pissed that the guy couldn't throw a slant pass less than 20 feet off the ground against the shittiest defensive secondary in major college football.

But alas, you got your chuckles. I guess that's fine and dandy when there really isn't that much more to add about two mediocre teams in a horrible division playing for the right to go to a mid-level bowl. You may not see the forest for the trees...but I don't think it's that hard to do so. Once again..they're just college kids playing a game. They're not your family. They're not your buddy from down the street. Stop thinking you have some sort of emotional attachment. In all fairness, even if they were your age, they probably wouldn't hang out with you anyway.

* Here's some cool news. Props to me and Husker Mike for being named one of the top college sports blogs in the country by CNNSI.com.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/sioncampus/09/16/blog.index/index.html

It's quite an honor actually, considering many blog authors on that list are professional writers working for actual newspapers. I guess that goes to prove that you CAN live in your parents basement, have no life, be a horrible father and a hate-filled lunatic and still have enough sense to run a half-way popular blog to entertain the masses.