Minus one miracle.

So football.

ASU isn't doing so hot. We played USC tonight, and if the guy who sat next to me is to be believed, we've lost to them for eight years running. Tonight did nothing to change that. Alas.

You can't really blame our quarterback. Whatever his skill level, I don't think the crowd booing him every time he goes on the field is doing anything to improve his game. Of course, the crowd stepped the displeasure up a notch by demanding the coach put the freshman quarterback in, even though Sullivan (the starter) was actually making more complete passes than usual.

Naturally, the crowd was ecstatic when Sullivan came back from halftime wearing a white baseball cap. Buggets if I know what was up with the hat, but it was wildly apparent that he wasn't going to be playing the second half. Osweiler's not bad, but he's still kind of green when it comes to college football. He played really well at the beginning of the third quarter and right at the end of the fourth. I think the pressure might have messed with his game some.

Backing up a bit, we scored a field goal in the first quarter. I guess they didn't want to risk Sullivan trying to get the ball a grand total of six yards.

Unless I'm mistaken (it was a long night), USC either scored two touchdowns in the second quarter or one in the second and one in the third. Somehow they got to 14 points before the fourth quarter.

However it happened, Osweiler threw a beautiful pass to get us a touchdown in the third. The extra point was no good, which brought us up to nine points. With our awesome defense, who I think are a little shaken from all the recent losses, all we needed was a single touchdown, extra point or no, and to keep USC from scoring again.

But no. We almost had it, too. After USC having the ball for most of the quarter, we got it again, but then they got it again, until finally we had it with two minutes left. We drove it to about the 30-yard line (I'm probably off), and the clock was ticking down. I think Osweiler was really feeling the pressure. We had a lot of downs that quarter when we didn't get anywhere. But then, on what was obviously the last play of the game, he threw a beautiful pass, all the way into the endzone. If any of our guys had been anywhere near it, it would have been a magnificent win. Now wait a minute, I said "if." Our nearest guy was ten yards away on the wrong side of the endzone. As it was, the ball flew right into two USC guys. As the game ended, they were saying it was an interception, but while I can see how that's technically true, the pragmatic part of me doesn't really see how they can justify call it that since there was no one standing behind them waiting to catch it and therefore they didn't really "intercept" anything. Good golly, it practically smacked them in the faces! How could they not catch it?

Well, okay. That actually happened to one of our guys earlier on in the quarter. The ball literally bounced of his helmet and he failed to catch it. As the guy behind me put it (making an obvious jab at the quality of Sullivan's throwing), "He's just not used to the ball being thrown right to him."

And so we lost. I was really surprised at how fast everyone left. Usually I can just scurry out of there right when it's over and be on my merry way. Win or lose, people usually take their time getting out. Not today. Whoaho, buddy, not today. The only thing I can compare it to is when cows are being driven through those fenced-in channels and they're all crammed together flank-to-flank and they're stepping on the hooves of the bovine in front of them. It was like that, but with a bunch of people in ASU shirts. I was really not enjoying it. In fact, I was starting to feel the beginnings of panic. I am really not okay with crowds. I had to distract myself by thinking about the cow analogy.

And so it was that I came home and had Haagen Dazs mango sorbet for dinner. And two of my roommate's otter pops.

Listening to: smooth jazz
Reading: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie