I keep thinking about the play calling at the end of the Iowa - OSU game.  I can't help it.

Now that I think about it , I have no idea.

(From Sports night, Season 1)

I have a nine year old.  She's already made it abundantly clear that I'm a moron (yeah, I'll be fighting this for a while).  Despite the fact that I'm a reasonably well educated guy, good job, decent knowledge of trivia, I'm wrong.  I either don't know the answer and she does, which leads to gloating, or I know it and she doesn't, which is then conveniently ignored.

My point is, I've spent a lot of this year questioning the play calling on a 9-2 team, a team that is doing easily as well as I had hoped for.  I'm an idiot.  And if there is anything that I don't know what to do, it's design and call plays for a bunch of college kids.  I don't know how to analyze offenses and defenses.  I'm the least qualified person on the planet to question the plays, possibly only ahead of my daughter.

Even though I know this, I can't help it.  I'm frustrated.  We played a great game, better than I thought would happen, but I can't understand the last possessions.  I can't understand not even trying to win in regulation.  On the other side, if I were an Ohio State fan, I would be just as frustrated by the conservative play calling, making no effort to move the ball on the last possession in regulation, and running into the pile 3 times to kick the winning field goal with a kicker he doesn't trust.  And taking a time-out to ensure that he could properly run into the pile.  It worked, but it wasn't pretty. 

Maybe it's the impact of ESPN and the top 10 plays.  Maybe the Big 12 video game offense from last year is still carrying over and impacting my ability to appreciate good defense.  Maybe it was wondering what Belichick was thinking when he didn't punt at the end of the Pats/Colts game.  Maybe it's just that it's easy to remember the last plays of a game, it's hard to remember all of the earlier ones that were just as, if not more, important.  I don't know.  But in a situation like that, I want to see some chances being taken on offense.  Unless, of course, they don't work.  In that case, I wanted to see some different chances being taken.

That's why they're paid the big bucks.  I couldn't do it, I can barely handle the stress of watching the game.  All I can be is be that jerk who quarterbacks from the armchair.  I'm not happy about it.