Think your upset? Think things can’t get any worse? Think you care too much? Forget about it.
I know you’re all depressed about Penn State’s “season ending” loss to Iowa on Saturday night. I was too. But you now have had two days to get over it, which is two days longer than any of the Penn State student-athletes had – and they were the ones really affected by that last second field goal.
Sunday morning, while we were too upset to roll out of bed or turn on ESPN, the Penn State Nittany Lion football team was awake, dressed and in the Lasch Building on campus reviewing game tape. You see, there is no “time off” to help “get over” this loss. There are two games regular season games left and those kids need to be ready for them.
I felt the same way you did after that loss. My heart was broken. But I watched THIS VIDEO this morning of quarterback Daryll Clark and it made me realize something – I had no right being heartbroken. Those kids – those Nittany Lions we cherish and follow so closely, worked their asses off on Saturday and gave everything they had. It just so happened they had an off day.
Passes weren’t crisp as they can be? So what. You’ve never slipped up on an exam you thought you were prepared for?
A couple of bad decisions were made? So what. You probably can’t count the number of bad decisions you’ve made. I know I can’t.
Defense couldn’t hold Iowa during the last minute and a half of the game? So what. When was the last time you couldn’t stand up to your nagging boss?
Every single Nittany Lion was accountable for that loss, this is true. But that is something that we all are going to have to get past. This team has already exceeded everyone’s expectations (except for maybe their own) and they now have the opportunity to win their last two football games and be crowned the Big Ten Champions, which comes with an invitation to the Rose Bowl. 
Even the most optimistic Penn State fan would have told you that a Rose Bowl berth and a Big Ten Championship was a far from easy task coming into this season. Nine wins later – that dream is close to becoming a reality. They've come together as a team and we need to come together as fans and stand behind them during these two last games.
The Nittany Lions don’t have time to sit back and stew about the loss against Iowa. They’ve worked too hard and come too far. They owe it to themselves to win these last two games. And we owe it to them to still care - with as much enthusiasm as if they were 10-0.
Even the most optimistic Penn State fan would have told you that a Rose Bowl berth and a Big Ten Championship was a far from easy task coming into this season. Nine wins later – that dream is close to becoming a reality. They've come together as a team and we need to come together as fans and stand behind them during these two last games.
The Nittany Lions don’t have time to sit back and stew about the loss against Iowa. They’ve worked too hard and come too far. They owe it to themselves to win these last two games. And we owe it to them to still care - with as much enthusiasm as if they were 10-0.
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3 comments:
I agree 100%. There aren't words for how badly it sucked watching those Iowa fans celebrating at the expense of our team, but this kind of thing happens just about every year to every team at least once. It's so hard to go undefeated, there hasn't been an undefeated national champion since Ohio State in 2002 and they had about four or five really close wins. It's awful that the repercussions from this loss will be greater than a September loss, but that's the way this sport is set up.
So well put, Dan. You wouldn't be true fans if you didn't back your team in their hardest of times. And a possible rose bowl and big ten championship sounds plenty fine to me.
I am really not all that mad about the game. Even undefeated,it still would have been tough I think to get to the national championship. The media and analysts wanted us as far away from the game as possible, so every necessary measure would have been taken for us to get shut out of the game. As someone posted on another blog wall, its better to go to the Rose Bowl at 11-1 than 12-0 (with getting screwed out of the national title). I still though would rather be undefeated and have a shot at the national championship, then have the feeling of getting kicked in my pants like Ive had since saturday.
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