Attention national audience on ESPN:We’re a better team than that… usually.
I really don't know who put up a more disappointing performance tonight: Rudy Carpenter or the team at FSN.
Rudy was obviously not hearing my coaching and quarterbacking tips, even though I could've sworn that I was yelling loud enough to be heard in Eugene. But aside from the part of the blame that I shoulder for not yelling louder, our QB made some really questionable moves tonight. What's more, the whole team played a really sluggish second half, with the exception of the nice 40-something-second scoring drive in the fourth.
But I think that at some points during the game, I was angrier at the crew at FSN for putting on such a crappy telecast. Why, you ask? Well, let's see...
In the first quarter, after Oregon's TD and ASU's subsequent field goal, the score on screen was an overly optimistic 7-7 for a good three to five minutes. And about that time is when the graphics people just gave up on having a game clock on the screen, so for most of the first quarter all we knew was that it was the first quarter. No indication of how much of the first was left... because that's just a vitally important part of football.
Then there was the fact that the close-up shots were hardly ever in focus (which you could really tell if you were watching the game at Sam's house in HD) and the camera operators often didn't even have a play in frame until it was over. And that's not to mention some of the dumb VO commentary.
Making it all worse, of course, was knowing that ESPN was probably doing a bang-up job on the game but blocked from broadcasting it in areas out West where FSN had already planned to air the game.
Anyway, it's a disappointing night for Sun Devil fans, but hey, all is not lost. And as I just pointed out to a certain Sooners fan who felt the need to gloat, at least we lost to a top-ranked team that could go on to the national championship bowl game... and not good ol' unranked CU.