My favorite three-word phrase this week. Late-game heroics. If you’re on the right side of them, they can uplift, excite, amaze, and even comfort. If you’re on the wrong side of them, it can feel like you just shotgunned a can of gasoline.
Two quarterbacks and two kickers were in the spotlight on two consecutive days, and all four went on to win their games and keep their teams’ streaks alive, but only three of them deserve much adulation for that.
From what I saw Saturday night (after going to the SEC Championship – Bama looked scary good – and then my firm’s holiday party), Texas looked sorely overmatched by a hungry Nebraska defense, and golden boy Colt McCoy, the man who put on Vince Young’s enormous shoes three years ago and started setting records immediately, looked instead like a kid who was pulled out of the stands to play the fourth quarter. He set the record for touchdown passes by a freshman despite being injured for two games, then two years later he set the NCAA record for pass completion percentage in a season at an astonishing 77.6% while also leading his team in rushing. This season has been somewhat lackluster for him, but none of the top Heisman contenders really separated themselves (until Ingram’s monster game against Florida on Saturday afternoon).
Saturday night, he had a chance to change that, but didn’t. Couldn’t, I guess. But he did manage to engineer a late game drive after Nebraska took a 12-10 lead with under two minutes remaining, leading Texas down the field and getting us into field goal range with 0:08 left on the clock. Time for one play, maybe one shot at the end zone, or at least a shorter kick for Hunter Lawrence. Colt took the snap on third down, and with an unused timeout in his pocket, scrambled, saw nothing, and launched the ball out of bounds to stop the clock. The clock stopped. At 0:00. Luckily for the good guys, replay officials put one second back on the clock, because the ball landed out of bounds with one second still on the clock. Fourth down. 0:01 remaining. Down by two. Hunter Lawrence trots onto the field to attempt a 46-yarder, which would be a tie for his career long. His stomach must have been in about 1,000 knots. Mine was. As I was gripping my Shiner Bock bottle so tightly I thought it might shatter in my hands, Hunter nailed the 46-yarder, which barely missed both a block by Nebraska as well as the left upright, sending Texas to Pasadena to play Bama for the National Championship, and sending a wave of relief over me. All I could do was sit down and rest for a minute.
Thanks, Hunter Lawrence, for your late-game heroics. Colt McCoy owes you a Rolex after he gets drafted.
Sunday afternoon, the 11-0 New Orleans Saints hit Washington to play the terrible Redskins. The Skins are bad, make no mistake about it. But somehow, they showed up against New Orleans, and led most of the game. The Apostle Drew Brees (I just joined the “Jews for Breesus” page on Facebook) showed his everpresent and remarkable poise once again, leading the Saints to a late touchdown to tie the game with 1:19 left on a 53-yard touchdown pass to send it into overtime. Once again, he drove the Saints down the field and put them within range of Garrett Hartley, who wasn’t even the Saints’ kicker when the season started. Hartley drilled an 18-yarder to win it, keeping the Saints perfect at 12-0.
Thank you, Drew Brees and Garrett Hartley, for your late-game heroics. Colt McCoy should also buy you both a Rolex, just for the hell of it.
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