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Play Clock? Don't You Mean Shot Clock?

For the first time in a long time, six years to be precise, I went to a football game yesterday. Wasn't much of a game, really. Harvard squeaked one out over Columbia by 69-0. I assume they covered.

And like every rout in football I've ever seen, this was a murder-suicide pact. Harvard scored four touchdowns in five minutes of the second quarter when the Columbia offense was on the field for two plays. Both were interceptions. One was run back for a touchdown, the other to the Columbia one-yard line.

We fast forward to last night. I'm watching football on TV. And Oregon and USC, two nationally ranked powerhouses who play at a level of the sport that is allegedly light years above the Ivy League, had a game where the winner scored 62 points -- and the losers had 51. That's 113 points in 60 minutes. That's more than a touchdown in every four minutes of elapsed time. That's a score that if somebody says they got it in Madden 2013 you're pretty sure they're lying.

I am older, and fuddy-duddier than I used to be, I guess. But to me, that Oregon-USCgame was many things, and I'll be honest enough to admit entertaining was one of them. But it wasn't football, not as I understand the sport anyway. Irresistible Force vs. Immovable Object is always a great story. Irresistible Force vs. Even More Irresistible Force somehow isn't quite as appealing.

posted by Michael Gee @ 7:09 AM