My Civil War Game Experience

Oregon should have not called their last timeout with that much time left. It cost them the game.

In fact, I leaned over to my dad and said that very thing when they called their last timeout. And it turned out to be very troublesome for the Ducks as they were trying to kick the last-second game-winning field goal. A timeout would have come in really handy in the last 30 seconds of the game.

So if y'all didn't catch the score, Oregon State beat Oregon in double overtime, 38-31. It was the best college football game I've ever seen in person. It was also the best Civil War game that I've seen, out of 4 total. Now ask me if I enjoyed the game as much if Oregon wins and you would probably get a different response. But it was just one of those game that was action packed up until the end. That always makes is a little more exciting, no matter who ends up winning.

All in all, it was a great day to watch a football game. Here are some of the things that happened and some of the random thoughts that I have about the game.

1. This was my second or third time ever watching a game at Autzen Stadium. The place is just awesome. It's just beautiful. Besides the Rose Bowl, it has to be the coolest stadium in the Pac 10. And by far the loudest in the conference. Crap, that place is LOUD. I had forgotten, since it's been over 2 years since I was last there. Our seats were pretty close to field level, and I kept thinking that if I was the QB trying to call plays, I wouldn't be able to hear a single thing with all that noise.

2. As you can see from the pics, my dad and I had relatively good seats. Which was surprising, because they were general admission seats. We just lucked out and were able to squeeze our way to the front part of the section about two minutes before the game started. We also lucked out because we were sitting in, what I later named, "cheerleader corner." As if watching the Civil War game and being in the first ten rows wasn't cool enough. Adding cheerleading squads for both teams within eyesight at all times, well that's practically heaven folks.

3. Oregon's starting QB, since Dennis Dixon was out, was a dude named Cody Kempt. It's very apparent, after this game, that Cody isn't what we call a "runner." Actually, he is barely what we call a "quarterback", from what I've seen. Mobility isn't one of his strengths. He was taken out of the game early care of a nice hit from the Oregon State defense. Then Oregon brought in redshirt freshman Justin Roper. His very first pass play of the game was a 31-yard TD pass. Pretty nice start for the kid.

But after the TD, Duck fans in our section and nearby starting chanting "He's-a-fresh-man, clap-clap-clap-clap-clap, He's-a-fresh-man!" They did this for almost two minutes straight. And I didn't really get why exactly they were chanting this.

Were they trying to rub in the fact that Roper was a freshman? Were there some fans in the crowd that were confused, thought that Roper might have been a sophomore, and the Duck fans were kind enough to correct them, so that they were all on the same page? It just didn't make sense and they all sounded pretty foolish.

In related news, I totally forgot to start my chant of "He's-a-sopho-more!" when Lyle Movao scored on a TD run in the 4th quarter. I am such a horrible fan, I guess.

4. It never ceases to amaze me how some fans turn into complete idiots when they are watching their team play. Fans will lose all sense of reason when their team takes the field. I have had my moments of being this guy, as I am sure most of you have too. But it's just amazing to witness thousands of people being unreasonable at the same exact time.

A good example of this was, like, the entire 4th quarter of the game. Duck fans were crying foul at everything, seemed like. Specifically, there were two plays where Oregon State players looked like they grabbed the facemask of Jonathon Stewart while he was being tackled. I can understand the initial reaction of the crowd, thinking it could have been a facemask penalty. But the replays clearly showed that although the hands were wrapped around Stewart's helmet, they never grabbed his facemask.

The TV people saw it, reasonable people in the stadium saw it, even the Duck post game host admitted that it wasn't a facemask. Regardless, I watched 14,000 people instantly become completely unreasonable while watching the replays of these plays on the jumbotron.

5. Game time temperature had to be about 38 degrees. It couldn't have been much more than that. And during the game, it got colder. A lot colder. It was the coldest I have been in recent memory. It was probably the coldest I've been in the past two years. It was freezing people. Now I had dressed appropriately enough, so it's not like I was getting hypothermia. But my feet would beg to differ with that last statement, I think. Damn it was cold.

It took my feet about 45 minutes in the car with the heat blasting to regain all their feeling. It was just nuts. But I was lucky to discover on a quick bathroom break midway through the 3rd quarter, that the bathroom was the warmest place in the whole stadium. Probably warmer than the luxury boxes.

I actually was very tempted to return to the bathrooms once I left and returned to my state of freezing, but I held out. But bathrooms are always interesting, aren't they? While I was taking care of business, the dude in the stall next to me would not stop talking. After a few seconds, I figured out that he was talking to his buddy, who apparently was taking a dump in the stall next to him. Even with their task at hand, these guys weren't missing a beat. The one guy next to me even said, at one point, "Man, this is great. I could sit here for another hour." The funny thing of it is, being how cold it was outside and how warm it was in there, I couldn't have agreed more with that guy.

6. Not sure if this made the news (it probably didn't) but there was a brawl in our section in the 2nd quarter. And it wasn't a little tussle. People were falling downs rows of benches, and falling onto innocent bystanders. It was pretty crazy actually. I thought the entire section was going to join in, and do our best Pistons-Pacers impression. Luckily it didn't get that far. But it took way too long for the police to respond, and when they did, they came in force.

I don't even know how it started, just that it did. The police were throwing some elbows just to get some of the guys under control. There were, like, 4 dudes that got tossed out of the game, but everyone was on edge for 20 minutes after the brawl. I am glad that me and my dad were dressed in neutral colors, because some of those fans looked like they were just waiting for an invite to punch someone.

7. And finally, as expected, when Oregon lost and their fans were leaving, the first thing I heard was this: "Well, if we would have had Dixon, we would have beat them by 40 points." But they didn't have Dixon. It wasn't like Oregon State was keeping him from playing by holding him hostage. The dude was injured. Deal with it. And making excuses after a loss is for wussies. If we're counting injured players affecting the outcome of the game, Oregon State was playing without Sean Canfield (starting quarterback) and Yvenson Bernard (stud running back). The Beavers actually had to go with a WR for their RB, Matt Sieverson. (Sieverson had 142 yds rushing, which is pretty damn good for a WR.) So who knows, with Canfield and Bernard playing, Oregon State might have won by even more.

The fact of the matter is that we'll never know, so it's not worth it to waste time talking about 'what might have been', as they say.

Anyway, it was a GREAT time had by all. I'm glad the Beavers won. I'm glad the Ducks lost. And I'm really glad that I didn't get suckerpunched by some crazy drunk Duck fan.