Diary of a Ute fan

First this week has been killing me. Between the Red Sox playing in Anaheim and the Utes playing on Versus Thursday night I have been somewhat sleep deprived. Of course there was no way I was going to miss the Ute game on Thursday against Oregon State. I generally don't get to watch many Ute games, but so far this year I was able to watch the Michigan game (in HD-which was awesome), Utah State, Air Force, and now Oregon State. Not bad for an East coast dweller.

There was a lot of buzz for this game after Oregon State knocked off the then #1 USC last week. The Utes have been sloppy with the ball lately and Brian Johnson hasn't looked all that great which had me concerned. The first quarter was played to a draw and I was liking what I was seeing from the defense. The second quarter the Utes were clicking and pulled out to a 20-9 lead. The only TD for Oregon State coming on an interception returned for a TD. However, the defense showed some signs of weakness when they gave up 80 yards in 4 plays to end the half and Oregon State made it 20-15 after failing on the 2 point conversion.

As the third quarter commenced things started going downhill. The defense was playing decently, but the offense looked horrible. Brian Johnson fumbled and that led to another Beaver TD and going into the fourth quarter they led 21-20. For the first 13 minutes of the fourth quarter it was more of the same. The Ute offense struggled and went 3-and-out almost every posession. When Oregon State scored with 2:18 left to make it 28-20 I'd have given up hope. Jared texted me saying he hoped that I wasn't up watching the game. I quickly called him to commesurate the loss when low and behold Johnson woke up and decided to prove Jared and me wrong. The Utes scored in less than 30 seconds and converted the 2 point try to tie the game. The defense held and then some luck and bad clock play on Oregon State's part led to the Utes trying the field goal as time expired.

A great game to watch, but I was sure tired. It was 12:30 AM and now I was all wound up from the depths of despair to losing the game to the high of a great comeback. I watched a little post-game and then turned on Scrubs to wind down. By the time it was all said and down it was nearly 2 AM before I fell asleep.

Sure I was tired, but it was completely worth it. I still bummed that I can't watch the Utah-BYU game, but let's hope the Utes can win out and bust the BCS once again.