Now for Wrath, Now for Ruin, and the Red Dawn

I attended the football match this afternoon between the Oregon Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Things went well.

This is the fifth Oregon game that I’ve attended since moving to Kentucky. We won at Tennessee and at Virginia, lost at Michigan State and Nebraska, and of course won today in Columbus. I found the fans in Knoxville, Charlottesville, and Lincoln to be on balance warm and welcoming, those in East Lansing to be reserved and standoffish, and those in Columbus to be… well, a bit dickish. To be sure, there are some confounding variables. We walked straight through the middle of the Ohio State campus, and students are often the worst. Also, of all the games only today’s home team was a clear favorite; you probably tend to be more polite to visitors when you think they’re going to win. In any case, I saw no taunting on either side on the walk back from the stadium.

In the aftermath of the Fresno State game, there was essentially no optimism about the Ducks winning this game. Indeed, there wasn’t much optimism before; most analysts of Oregon football had this one penciled in as an L. The decision to attend was tough, because watching a game on the road that you’re very likely to lose isn’t very fun. But I reasoned that it’s only three hours from Lexington and that I couldn’t pass up a rare opportunity to see the Ducks without needing a very long drive or a plane trip. I also figured that even if there was only a small chance of victory, I’d kick myself if the Ducks beat Ohio State in Columbus and I wasn’t in attendance.

I’ve never watched a game in a place like the Horseshoe before, and it truly was remarkable. Even from C deck the view of the field was consistently good, and the weather was fine. In true 9/11 fashion, a B-2 overflew the stadium in the opening ceremony. As for the game itself… the Ducks never trailed. I didn’t start believing that the Ducks had a serious chance to win until they went up 21-7; two of their best defensive players, including the projected #1 pick in next year’s draft, missed the game because of injuries. Because of that the Ducks never managed a pass rush until the last few minutes, but the offense played well enough to keep them ahead and Ohio State had a hit and miss offense that missed on a few critical plays. With the interception halfway through the fourth quarter I finally became optimistic, and the accumulated Buckeye fandom started heading for the exits (prematurely, I thought). The Ducks made a first down, burned some clock, punted on a short field, Ohio State couldn’t convert… and that was it. Ducks win.

Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.