The team had just won one of the greatest games in SEC history. The team was #2 in the nation and clearly the best team in the SEC. This team only had to win the SEC championship game against a team that had gone 5-3 in conference to go to the mythical national championship game. The championship game was just supposed to be a speed bump on the way. The #2 team had also ALREADY BEAT the 5-3 team during the regular season. It was all going exactly as planned till the 5-3 team upset them in the SEC championship game. The year was 2001, the team on the way to the mythical national championship was Tennessee and the team that upset them in the SEC championship game was LSU.
Clearly the scenario is very similar to the one facing the Auburn Tigers. Beware Auburn, your greatest trap might lay where you least expect it. Like LSU in 2001, South Carolina has a great coach at the helm. No coach has won more SEC championship games (no coach is even close). It would be a huge mistake to underestimate South Carolina and Steve Spurrier. Most Auburn fans will say that won't happen to this team, but beware, Tennessee fans were saying the same thing in 2001.
Auburn fans have certainly been on a roller coaster ride since my last post. The Cam Apocalypse started Thursday November 4 and continues to roll on, the team won the SEC West beating Georgia in the home finale and now we are staring straight at one of the biggest Iron Bowl games in the series.
Personally I was delayed by end of season soccer tournaments, Call of Duty: Black Ops, my attendance at the Auburn vs. Georgia game and my complete disgust for the national and regional media for their coverage of the Cam Newton allegations. Sarah Palin has not been attacked in one month as bad as the Newton family (well she might be the only one who has).
I would rather spend my free time playing Black Ops or doing just about anything rather than talking about Cam Newton. However since there hasn’t been a new “story” in the last few days (there is something to be thankful for) maybe I can finally comment without my comment being completely invalid right after posting it because of some new story or allegation.
After sifting through this story for the last 3 weeks here is what I see: Cecil Newton MAYBE tried to solicit money from Mississippi State boosters through this Kenny Rogers guy. That is it. After all the stories and allegations that is about the only thing that might be true at this point. However there is still no credible proof that this occurred. Again, I can believe that it did but I do not believe it went down how these three stooges in Mississippi say it went down. I mean the stories these guys are telling are laughable pathetic attempts to somehow cover themselves and maybe Mississippi State and blame everything on Cecil Newton.
What does all that mean? Right now it means nothing without any proof. That is simply where we are at. I am not saying what did or did not occur. I am simply pointing out the obvious facts of the case. It also appears that a lot of this stuff is being used as a coordinated attack by someone against Auburn. How else can you explain the timing of each new piece of information or allegation?
I do not know what else to say about the whole thing. I do know it has further lowered my regard for the media (I did not think it could get any lower) and shown that there is a national and regional bias against Auburn for whatever reason. It is just incredible the hypocrisy and bias of the national and regional sports media against Auburn when we are good. Cam Newton’s dad MIGHT have tried to solicit money and it is literally the biggest story in sports while when last year’s Heisman Trophy winner takes an illegal benefit from a booster it is swept under the rug faster than you can say “Roll Tide”. Mark Ingram and Julio Jones were given an all expenses paid fishing trip from a Bama booster who later also gave a laptop to Jerrell Harris (which got him suspended for half the season) . These acts are undisputed fact however nothing was hardly ever said about it nationally or even regionally. Why?
Just look at the past. Auburn played the toughest schedule in the nation (fact) in 1983 and maybe one of the toughest schedules ever and was #3 in the nation. The #1 and #2 teams lose (the #2 team was the only one to beat Auburn and was beaten in a bowl by a team Auburn beat) and Auburn wins and they do not even move out of THIRD PLACE in the polls. Then of course the 2004 team is the only undefeated BCS conference team to not get a chance to play for the mythical national championship. It was also arguably the strongest team the SEC fielded this decade if the NFL draft is any indicator.
Since 2006 the SEC has won the mythical national championship ever year with only Bama last year going undefeated. Auburn will most certainly get bumped with a loss to Bama (a top 10 or 11 team in all polls) as the national media’s crusade for poor Boise State has reached its absolute peak. However Florida won both its mythical national championships with one loss and LSU won its title with TWO LOSSES. Throw in the fact that in 2004 if Nick $aban’s LSU Tigers could have stopped a Hail Mary pass at the end of its bowl game, the SEC would have had four 10 win teams for the first time ever and the fact that this year the SEC could have TEN bowl eligible teams and you have to be blind to see the bias against Auburn. Regardless of that the SEC is always considered “down” when Auburn is good when in fact it is not and was much more down in years like say 1992 and 2008. Again, not opinion, fact. Check the records.
The last few years has also shown that the SEC is not a conference of friendly or just fair rivals. It is a conference of schools who will do anything to bring each other down. I will not cheer for another SEC school anytime soon. What has the SEC being strong ever done for Auburn? Nobody came to our defense in 2004 and apparently none of the coaches in the conference are putting us #1 right now. Again, it also appears that these allegations against Cecil Newton are being used as a coordinated attack against us. Who would do that? I will just let that question hang out there.
All of this has certainly taken some of the joy out of this season and playing in the SEC and college football all together. However it was still very sweet to be sitting with my son in Jordan Hare as Auburn broke a four year losing streak to Georgia and won the SEC West. It was awesome being a part of the pregame at the stadium. It was special watching Cam Newton play what will probably be his last game at Jordan Hare Stadium. It was exhilarating watching Auburn roar back from a 21-7 deficit to blow past Georgia. It was incredible to walk around Toomer’s Corner after it was all over.
It is now down to the Iron Bowl, the SEC Championship Game and whatever happens after. It will probably be the three toughest games Auburn plays all season. The Iron Bowl may be the toughest one of them. Bama still has a ton of good football players and they have been playing a little bit below their capabilities in my opinion. $aban is still a great defensive coach and Auburn has not played a defense with as much speed as Bama’s defense. Finally, Auburn and Cam Newton have not played a true road game. Auburn’s only road games have been in Mississippi and Kentucky. Nothing will prepare them for the noise and venom they will face on Friday. I will be even more impressed with this Auburn team if they can go in to that environment against a very good team and bring out a win.
I will still be proud of them either way and will look forward to playing for a championship in the only real postseason game in college football next week as well. War Eagle.
I refused to worry about this game. Yes Houston Nutt has ruined many previous Auburn seasons but he has always come in with a big strong offensive line and some good or great running backs. Not this year. No team that had lost to Jacksonville State and Vanderbilt at home had the heart to take down this Auburn team. Not this year Houston Nutt and Ole Miss, not this year. Auburn succesfully defended their #1 ranking and blew out Ole Miss in Oxford guaranteeing Auburn will come into the Georgia game 10-0 and 6-0 in the SEC. In the wake of my blogging performance last week, let's get right to it...
THE GOOD
Cam Newton, of course. The legend grew with an unbelievable touchdown catch in the end zone. I am starting to think we need to get Cam Newton in on defense (which he actually did as well after an uncharacteristic fumble). He also did a great job throwing the ball. Of course he was standing behind a solid wall with no pressure on him. He is still going to have to speed up his reads against Georgia and Bama. His release is getting better. He showed off a quick release on several of those passes.
Cam Newton has a lot of company this week though. As mentioned, the guys up front got it done again leading another 300 yard rushing effort and the other Auburn running backs stepped up big time. Mike Dyer is finally looking like the running back prospect he was supposed to be. He broke tackles and showed big time acceleration in rushing for 180 yards. Ontario McCalebb showed off his speed and elusiveness for the second straight week going for 100 yards. The man behind it all called a brilliant game as well (except for trying the Neil Caudle trick-pass play, not going to happen in the SEC).
THE BAD
Our defense got it done in spots but is just going to have to play much better to get through our last two games. Yes Georgia had a lot of turnovers against Florida but Florida has been doing that to everyone the whole year. They have a good defense, Auburn does not. We are still asking a lot of our offense to have to score 40+ points every game. With our current defense, Georgia and Bama are going to score A LOT of points. We have a let down or a bad quarter or two on offense, it could spell doom against these two teams. Again I think we have to put more pressure on the quarterback. We cannot let Aaron Murray and Greg McElroy stand back there all day. It does not matter how many men we drop back in coverage.
We also HAVE TO TACKLE BETTER. There were a ton more missed tackles last night. Our guys have got to wrap up and bring the guy down. The offense is working at about maximum capacity, we need to use these next two weeks working on the defense. Our last two games will be the biggest and toughest of the season. If we are going to be a championship team I am convinced we have to play better defense.
THE UGLY
There was really nothing ugly about this game other than Ole Miss' grey uniforms (and I dogged the BCS last week) so I will use this space to point out again how ugly the current television format makes football. The pros have reduced the pain slightly by speeding up the games and getting them to fit in neat three hour time slots. However they did that by reducing the amount of football you get to see. College football has not YET done that but the networks still get in their commercials which make watching a live football game a completely exhausting experience. I do not know how anybody but big time fans of the teams playing could sit down and watch a college football game. It dampens everyone's experience watching games. I know the television people have to pay the bills but when there is more commercial time than the actual product carrying the commercials, something is wrong.
AROUND THE SEC
The SEC East has finally cleared up. Florida took down Georgia and now the Florida vs. South Carolina game in two weeks will decide the SEC East champion. Again, as bad as Florida has been this year I think they will get it done and ruin Spurrier's best chance to win the East at South Carolina.
Meanwhile everyone including me is starting to talk about the Iron Bowl deciding the West. However that is not true yet. Bama has two tough games remaining with LSU and Mississippi State who only have three losses between them. Auburn has to stop Georgia from getting "the thumb" on them as Auburn has not beaten the Dawgs since 2005. Auburn and Bama will have to get past these road blocks before the Iron Bowl.
Last and least, you have the BCS. Ah the BCS, where the #1 team in the SEC can whip another SEC team on the road and drop. I would wager a rather large sum that neither Bama and Florida with the exact same team as Auburn would have dropped after a 30 point beat down of Ole Miss in Oxford. I do not think they would have dropped even if Oregon had beat an undefeated actually legitimate USC team. You also would not have had ESPN's current group of cretins that masquerade as college football analysts dogging Auburn out. I love the schedule questions. Google Oregon's football schedule. Other than Stanford and I guess USC Oregon has played NOBODY. When you are propping up Stanford as your best win, doesn't that really say it all?
Things were tense up in section 101 of Jordan Hare Stadium with the game tied against LSU 17-17. Auburn had dominated the game but the Mad Hatter's luck seemed to be continuing with Auburn's terrible field position throughout the game, a fumble, a missed field goal, etc... A feeling of dread started to settle over me. Were we going to lose a game that we had clearly dominated? Then... Ontario McCalebb broke into the clear and joy fell from the sky. The Mad Hatter's luck had run out, Auburn had beaten LSU. In the aftermath the stats started jumping out. Auburn had just run for over 400 yards against the best defense in SEC. Cam Newton had over 200 of those yards. Auburn was 8-0 and 5-0 in the SEC. I was sick as a dog but happy as can be.
I am mailing this one in late for the record. Auburn is #1 in the BCS (more on that below) and I don't get a blog post up, good grief. It has been some kind of week here for our family with the drive back from Auburn, soccer tournaments, soccer team post season parties, fantasy baseball league post game parties, etc... Well let's get to it so I can head to another soccer game and then get back and settle in for Auburn and the Mrs...
THE GOOD
You can pretty much put the whole team in here with the exception of Mario Fannin and the special teams. Ah Mario Fannin, I have defended him and pushed him for years. However I think he has sealed his fate as a guy that cannot hold on to the ball. We still need him though, we still need him. I was reminding friends that once upon a time that James Bostic (the MVP running back of our 1993 undefeated team) also had fumblitis and was benched for the Georgia game. He responded by putting up 183 yards rushing off the bench with three touchdowns and SEC player of the week honors. He then helped bury Bama the next week with no fumbles if I remember correctly.
The special teams were back to normal this week with horrible punts, worse punt returns and a missed field goal. They terrible short low punt to Peterson could have cost Auburn the game. I just do not know what else to say about the special teams. They are consistently bad and a few good games here and there do not change that. This is the good section though and there was a lot more good than bad this game. Let me start with Nick Fairley. Wow. The guy put up a dominating performance against a team that is probably bigger and stronger than Auburn. By the end of the game there were literally tackling him at the line of scrimmage and he was still getting through.
Rushing for 400 yards though is the most impressive stat for me. I just kept repeating it over and over after the game. When you rush for 400 yards on somebody you take their manhood. Auburn knows. Arkansas did to us and Chizik in 2002. It is still one of my worst Auburn memories. Doing it against a top rated LSU defense is even more impressive. It starts with the offensive line and then goes to Cam Newton as he put himself at the top of the Heisman race and helped lift his team to #1 in the nation. Newton put up another astonishing highlight package. He is truly a sight to behold and I was glad to finally see him live and in person. I will never forget him slicing and dicing through the LSU defense for over 200 yards.
Finally, I also have to give props to the Jordan Hare gameday planners. The whole intro (with the exception of the band video?) was awesome and the new thing where the whole team runs toward the student section with the music going at the end of the third quarter is awesome. It has been awhile since I have seen the students so fired up. You get the students fired up and everyone else will follow.
THE BAD
Everyone likes being #1 however the Bowl Championship Series is still the most ridiculous and stupid method to determine a championship ever invented. It is still a joke and always will be. One night of watching the ESPN talking heads was enough for me. Being #1 is great if for no other reason than to annoy the Bama fans but I for one will not be drawn into this weekly drama. Frankly all involved can take the BCS and... well use your imagination. If you have to play in a bowl you might as well play in the best one but nothing will make the whole system legitimate in my mind.
I cannot want to beat Georgia and Bama any more than I already do. I want to win the SEC West and win an SEC championship. Those things are not subjective and you cannot be cheated out of them. You earn them and you play in the only real postseason game in college football, the conference championship game. It is played a week after the season ends by division winners instead of being played a month after the last game by the winners of a complicated popularity contest.
THE UGLY
Obviously you want to enjoy this season. Auburn as a whole deserves to. However there has been a lot of talk about how Gene Chizik has now completely proved himself. I disagree. He has definitely proved a lot but he still has a long way to go. Terry Bowden also proved himself in this situation but fell apart later. This season will not be the end of Auburn football. However it might be the end of Auburn playing at this level for awhile and Chizik's work is cut out for him.
Take a look at the Auburn depth chart and make some easy deductions and you come to the conclusion that we really better enjoy this year. On offense, Auburn will lose four outstanding offensive linemen, two starting wide receivers and will most likely lose Superman himself. I also stand by my preseason prediction that Gus Malzahn will leave for a head coaching job as well. On defense, we lose two starting linebackers, two defensive ends, two defensive tackles and will almost certainly lose Nick Fairley leaving us with only two true defensive tackles in Carter and Whitaker on the entire roster.
Chizik and Co. got a lot of good talent in the pipeline this year but Tuberville's last two years are still going to take a mighty toll on the program. Especially two years of recruiting no offensive linemen or defensive tackles. It is scary. Gene Chizik will completely prove himself if he can get us out of this ugly situation and win the SEC West a few years from now.
AROUND THE SEC
The SEC East is a complete mess but things will be much more clear after the Georgia vs. Florida game today. People are saying this game is not as big this year. I disagree, I think it is a huge game. Mark Richt has got to beat Florida in this situation. It would be a huge blow to Georgia to lose to Florida this year. Meanwhile Florida could put it self in position to win the East with a victory. After all Florida has been through if they can beat Georgia and South Carolina, they will play for an SEC Championship and in one game anything can happen.
The SEC West race is down to Auburn and Bama with LSU still in the race if they can beat Bama a week from today. Auburn still has a tough game with Georgia. I am very worried about that game but more on that in the weeks to come. I refuse to wring my hands and worry about the Mrs. I maybe crying tomorrow but Auburn should take care of business.
Kudos to Rob Pate at Eyes On Auburn for using my favorite format of reviewing games.
On top of that it was a great review of the game. It is awesome to get a current player's take on the game each week.
Well it looks like this Auburn grad and part-time blogger will be heading to the plains this weekend for the latest biggest game of the season. As I have said before I went to just about every Auburn home game for eighteen years but had to give it up when my children got older and start playing sports (and costing more). Now I make it to one or two games a season and usually not till November. However things opened up and the opportunity arose so I am taking it. I am more excited than usual getting to see Cam Newton in person for the first time and against the best defense he might face all season.
I feel pretty good about the game. You have to think that Auburn can score more points than LSU. Everyone also points to LSU's lucky escapes this year. However you also can go the other way as well. LSU hammered us last season and "The Hat" has owned us. The only time we beat the "The Hat" was in 2006 and that was a close one. I know we did not have Cam Newton last year (in fact we had the total opposite of Cam Newton) but the LSU offense had their best game in the last two years. Their defense holds Cam and the offense to 30 points and they win if they score the 31 points they scored last year. Our defense has the capability of making any offense look good, even LSU.
I think the special teams could go a long way in deciding this one. Auburn comes in after having it's best day from special teams in years while LSU comes in with superstar Patrick Peterson. As Will Collier points out,
LSU has continually burned us with great punt returners. Well I cannot wait to get down to Auburn for a big time 7-0 vs. 7-0 Saturday afternoon battle between Tigers. I will be back to review on Sunday and hope to have more good than bad to say. War Eagle.
Every week, I find myself at a loss for words to adequately describe this team. I have watched or listened to just about every Auburn football game for over 30 years. I have coached in youth sports for almost a decade. With that said, I have never seen anything like this. The game yesterday was a roller coaster ride of emotions to say the least. This team just does not fit in the standard football axioms. It is hard to make common sense judgements on this team because at Auburn, except for maybe a short time under Pat Sullivan, defense has always been the foundation for championships. For the record, we did not win a championship under Pat Sullivan even though he only lost five regular season games.
The football axioms also say that one-man teams will eventually be stopped and you cannot win a championship as one. Cam Newton continues to defy the odds on that one as well. 65-43??? Are you kidding me??? I never thought I would see that score in a regular season Auburn game ever. Again, I have never seen anything like yesterday, good and bad. I am not sure I have ever been through a game that just wrung me out like this game. I went from cheering like crazy to cursing the refs to cursing our defense to catatonic in my chair. Well I am not sure anyone can adequately "break down" the game yesterday but I can give some strong opinions on several parts of the game...
THE GOOD (this spot reserved for Cam Newton)
Yes, I think this is Mr. Newton's permanent parking place. He put on another dominating performance yesterday rushing for almost 200 yards and passing for almost 150 including a touchdown pass to Emory Blake. He had three touchdowns on the ground highlighted by his last one where he went flying over the defense into the end zone. Ontario McCalebb's touchdown was a result of Arkansas over compensating to try and stop Newton. As always, the guys in the trenches made it possible. Lee Ziemba, Mike Berry, Ryan Pugh, Byron Isom and Brandon Mosley have continued to excel since the South Carolina game. Mario Fannin put in his best day of the season although that was a fumble at the goalline. The wide receivers also made some big plays at crucial times with only one ugly drop that I remember.
For the most part though it was Newton making play after play. The guy is one of the best running backs in the country but he is also a good passer. He is accurate and throws a great ball. He does not make many mistakes and has a knack for doing the right thing at the right time. I know some of that is Malzahn guiding things in the background but a lot of it is Newton. Kudos to Malzahn and Chizik for not just stubbornly running "the system" as many other coaches would do but realizing Newton is a once-in-a-lifetime player and we must adapt to him. He is the best player in the nation. I do not think it is even close and I do not say things like that lightly. He should be the frontrunner for the Heisman right now.
Also moving into "The Good" section this week is the special teams. It is great to have them in after so many horrible moments over the last two years. In fact the special teams were also not just good but helped change the game for Auburn. The blocked punt and 99 yard kickoff return were some of the biggest moments of the game. I cannot remember the last time that Auburn blocked a punt against a good opponent. The kickoff was even bigger as Arkansas had seized the momentum at that point. On top of these great plays were Wes Byrum converting all of his field goals and great kickoff coverage.
THE BAD THE UGLY PART #1
That was maybe the worst called game I have ever seen. The refs could get nothing right. The obvious... yes it appeared Fannin fumbled on the goalline and the Arkansas guy did not however since the refs called it wrong on the field there was not enough evidence to overturn. HOWEVER, I still think things came out more than EVEN. It started out with a phantom holding call on Lee Ziemba that killed a big play and one of our drives. First it was not holding and second with all the holding that goes on in SEC games, that is the play you call a hold? Also, Arkansas passed all day long and yet they did not get one holding penalty called on them that I remember. Second the pass interference call on the play Mallett got hurt was obviously wrong and it gave Arkansas an easy touchdown. Third, Arkansas went for it on fourth down on their touchdown drive before halftime or maybe it was in the third quarter. The guy caught it but was down WELL SHORT of the marker and they got one of the most ridiculous spots I have ever seen. Somehow that one survived replay and spots are usually easy call. That bad call also led to an Arkansas touchdown. Finally, on one of Arkansas` other touchdown throws the wide receiver threw the Auburn defender on the ground. I am usually not one to complain about the refs but yesterday was about the worst I have ever seen.
THE UGLY PART #2
I find it comical that the post game reaction is that the defense "rose up" in the fourth quarter. I mean come on. The Arkansas guy was down on that fumble even though we deserved the call as I stated above. I do not think our defense can take a whole lot of credit for that. The Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson had all day to throw (as was the case the whole game) on both those interceptions. He just finally made some bad decisions. I do not think our defense can take much credit for that. If they pressure him and he makes a mistake I would give credit. The Auburn defensive performance was about the worst I have ever seen from an Auburn defense. It took much of my joy from the win. I can't think of the adjective to describe how bad they were. Bad, awful, terrible, disgusting, revolting, etc... do not seem to cover it. Yes we are 7-0 and seem to keep winning but ask Bama and Ohio State how fast things can turn around and they most likely will for Auburn. I do not see how any team can play defense this bad and win a championship even with a Cam Newton.
The basics of football are blocking and tackling. We are doing the blocking but I have never seen worse tackling in my 30 years of watching Auburn football. Case in point was our senior linebacker Craig Stevens who is a four year starter simply putting an arm out as an Arkansas running back or wide receiver ran straight past him. Arkansas receivers just ran wild after they caught the ball as Auburn defenders slipped off them or simply fell down as they ran past them. Auburn would not commit to pressuring the quarterback or jamming wide receivers so Bobby Petrino could empty his playbook and call whatever he wanted. WHAT IS THE POINT of playing conservative defense when the other team is scoring at will on big plays??? That is the only point of playing that kind of defense! Ted Roof is the worst defensive coordinator I have ever seen and he is being enabled by Chizik. Roof is also not even coaching his own position well as our linebackers miss more tackles than anyone.
Chizik was able to run this type of defense in 2004 when he had great pass rushers at both ends in Stanley McClover and Quentin Groves. All "Cover 2" defenses that have been hugely successful have a Dwight Freeney or a Charles Haley at defensive end and they can get pressure on the quarterback. WE DO NOT HAVE THAT. We do not have anyone even close. If you are an offensive team and you do not have great pass rushers YOU HAVE TO GAMBLE. Case in point would be the New Orleans Saints last year. They did not have great pass rushers so they gambled and blitzed a lot and were able to be good enough to win a Super Bowl. If tackling is the first fundamental of defense, pressuring the quarterback against a passing team has to be #2. You simply have to pressure the quarterback. You have to shorten the window the quarterback has to make a decision and in doing so he is more likely to miss the pass or make a mistake. The coach across the state has created his legend doing this. I understand picking the "Cover 2" as your defense but I do not understand adjusting your strategy when you are getting lit up like a Christmas tree by the other team's backup quarterback.
I do not see how these coaches justify what they are doing. The stats back it up. Last year's Auburn defense was one of the worst in Auburn history statistically. This year's version is right there with it as they gave up over 400 yards passing and almost 600 yards total (against mainly the back up quarterback). It is a complete embarrassment to play defense that bad. If we blitzed every play we would have gotten burned plenty but I firmly believe it would not have been near as bad. It also fires your defense up playing aggressive and not reacting all the time. It also shortens the other team's playbook. It was disgusting to me how many plays Arkansas called that had just about everyone going long because he knew the quarterback would have time.
AROUND THE SEC
The SEC East is playing really bad right now. South Carolina, a week removed from knocking off #1 Bama, loses to Kentucky and Florida goes down to Mississippi State at home. Georgia meanwhile is starting to come around and goes to Kentucky this next week. The SEC East race is wide open as South Carolina still has to play Arkansas and go to Florida. Florida maybe a weak team compared to the last few years but make them a big underdog and they are still going to beat some people. It should be very interesting to see how things end up shaking out in the East.
Auburn takes center stage again next week against undefeated LSU. It will be one of most anticipated games in the conference, country and in the series overall. The positive for Auburn is LSU's offense has been one of the worst in the country. The negative is their defense has been one of the best. It will be Cam Newton's biggest challenge so far at Auburn. Will LSU be the team to finally slow him down or will he add another chapter to his growing legend? It could be another "one for the ages" just a week after this unbelievable game...
