Agreed. It was like a funeral procession walking out that day. You could hear a pin drop.
What were your most heart-breaking Penn State Losses?
- Thread starter Jerademan74
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I agree with Iowa 2008, title hunt in Paterno's waning years cut down.
not to sound too much like a d*ck, but Virginia 2012 was one of the worst losses in the history of the program. and we didn't lose it on the field, we lost it in the stands. the fan reaction to Ficken was sickening to me. maybe is was the hangover from the sanctions, but that poor kid took way too much flak for that loss. we almost cannibalized one of our own, and my heart broke for him and the team.
not to sound too much like a d*ck, but Virginia 2012 was one of the worst losses in the history of the program. and we didn't lose it on the field, we lost it in the stands. the fan reaction to Ficken was sickening to me. maybe is was the hangover from the sanctions, but that poor kid took way too much flak for that loss. we almost cannibalized one of our own, and my heart broke for him and the team.
Yeah. And the play where Blair Thomas came up short was soooo close. Remember he bounced in to the end zone. It looked like a touchdown, but the refs got it right.
With the benefit of hindsight, I think we should have handed off 1 more time to Blair and skipped the FG attempt.
For the millionth time, we did not run the ball four times up the middle against Alabama in 1979. We did it twice. The previous play was a pass the Fitzkee in the flat.
The ugly, UVA loss to a team that PSU was definitely superior to was a low point in the history of the program in terms of overall fan morale for sure.
those young men were heroes for staying, the NCAA and BoT tried to destroy them and failed. the fan reaction to Ficken was despicable, glad he toughed it out.
how about the Tony Sacca pick 6 against Miami circa '93 - that was a huge buzz kill. And considering the all-day tailgate that was a huge buzz to kill.
92 Miami -- they had a super talented team, undefeated, a good shot at playing for another championship, but John Sacca threw a dumb pick six to the Miami DL and the whole season just fell apart. It was so crushing. They finished with 5 losses. Sometimes a whole season turns on one play.
Iowa 2008!!!!I know this is not a pleasant subject, but all my posts don't have to be questions about the top, or best or greatest, etc
For me, the ones that stand out the most were the I believe 14-7 loss to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl when we were stopped up the middle from the 1 yard line 4 straight times? Our loss to Oklahoma in the 1982 Orange Bowl,and that last second loss to UM on the Maningham TD reception in the back of the end-zone when a few seconds were given back to the clock to allow that last play!
That 6-4 loss was the most embarrassing loss! That is when we were supposedly at full strength w/o any excuses.
Actually it was 1992 and sent that team into a funk.
I have to go with Alabama 1989. PSU was bouncing back from their first losing season under Paterno and that game was a chance to get back towards the top 10. Watching Thomas run down the field a win looked like a certainity.
How about the 1997 game. If the refs hadn't missed those 18 holding calls, UM wouldn't have kicked our butts 34-8. PSU never lost to Michigan.
The refs always stole them from us.
Funny how so many PSU fans remember it that way. To be honest, I had forgotten what the first two plays of that series were until reading through this thread.
Just going back 25-30 years or so:
1978 Sugar Bowl to Alabama....frustrating
1989 Alabama....tremendous, gutsy drive to end the game - Beaver stadium in pandemonium - "Thud-Thud" blocked FG - quietest I have ever heard Beaver stadium
1982 at Alabama......seemed to be "turning the Tide" in that game - then punt the ball into the back of the personal protector (would have been even MORE disheartening - except for the fact that the team then went on a roll and won their first MNC)
2005 at Michigan.....1 second
2008 at Iowa....cold-concussion-pass interference.
1981 at Miami.....dominated the upstart Hurricanes - and lost
1999 Minnesota/Michigan/Michigan State....all three of these games blend together as one - "Hail-Mary, Hail-Mary" against Minnesota, Phantom calls and gut-wrenching finish to Michigan, team fails to show up for first half in East Lansing.
1983 Cincinnati....coming off of a MNC, and after getting demolished by UNL in the Meadowlands, this was supposed to be a "get back on track victory" over an overmatched opponent. Instead, maybe the most lethargic game ever played by a Paterno team.
2002 at Michigan....the ultimate "F U Penn State" game by Witvoet and crew. They just didn't even care how blatantly they screwed PSU (pre-replay era)
1997 at Michigan State.....has there ever been a PSU team so thoroughly and utterly "ass-kicked" for 30 minutes?
2004 Iowa, 6-4.....no further comment needed
2000 Toledo....the beginning of the end (for a while)
1978 Sugar Bowl to Alabama....frustrating
1989 Alabama....tremendous, gutsy drive to end the game - Beaver stadium in pandemonium - "Thud-Thud" blocked FG - quietest I have ever heard Beaver stadium
1982 at Alabama......seemed to be "turning the Tide" in that game - then punt the ball into the back of the personal protector (would have been even MORE disheartening - except for the fact that the team then went on a roll and won their first MNC)
2005 at Michigan.....1 second
2008 at Iowa....cold-concussion-pass interference.
1981 at Miami.....dominated the upstart Hurricanes - and lost
1999 Minnesota/Michigan/Michigan State....all three of these games blend together as one - "Hail-Mary, Hail-Mary" against Minnesota, Phantom calls and gut-wrenching finish to Michigan, team fails to show up for first half in East Lansing.
1983 Cincinnati....coming off of a MNC, and after getting demolished by UNL in the Meadowlands, this was supposed to be a "get back on track victory" over an overmatched opponent. Instead, maybe the most lethargic game ever played by a Paterno team.
2002 at Michigan....the ultimate "F U Penn State" game by Witvoet and crew. They just didn't even care how blatantly they screwed PSU (pre-replay era)
1997 at Michigan State.....has there ever been a PSU team so thoroughly and utterly "ass-kicked" for 30 minutes?
2004 Iowa, 6-4.....no further comment needed
2000 Toledo....the beginning of the end (for a while)
The biggest gut punch for me was at the 'shoe in 2000. We were bad, and it was hard to take (and would only get worse). It was a miserable day sitting in the driving rain and then Adam T. went down with that spinal injury in the 4th quarter. It was a long drive home.
Re: '92 Miami: I also was at that game. Buzz kill describes it perfectly. I was working in the former Soviet Union at the time and was home for "R&R". This amounted to working twelve hour days trying to solve problems back in the USSR and then going drinking with home boys telling about my exploits behind the iron curtain. It was a big call to drive up to University Park for the Miami game, but I was sure we would knock them off! Wrong! That Sunday, I was sentenced to Siberia for 5 more months!
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I know this is not a pleasant subject, but all my posts don't have to be questions about the top, or best or greatest, etc
For me, the ones that stand out the most were the I believe 14-7 loss to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl when we were stopped up the middle from the 1 yard line 4 straight times? Our loss to Oklahoma in the 1982 Orange Bowl,and that last second loss to UM on the Maningham TD reception in the back of the end-zone when a few seconds were given back to the clock to allow that last play!
+1
I was there and it was disappointing then, and got no better as I recognized the talent on that PSU team as many of our players excelled in the NFL...
That game caused Joe to overhaul his goal line offense.
I was at the No. 1 Miami at No. 4 Penn State game in 1992 at Beaver Stadium, a 17 - 14 loss. At the time, the biggest crowd in PSU history. PSU was down 10 - 7 and had the ball in the 3rd quarter and the crowd was going crazy. Then John Sacca got hit as he was throwing the ball, it was picked off by a Miami lineman, who ran about 25 yards for a TD. The crowd then went dead silent. It was kind of eerie.I know this is not a pleasant subject, but all my posts don't have to be questions about the top, or best or greatest, etc
For me, the ones that stand out the most were the I believe 14-7 loss to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl when we were stopped up the middle from the 1 yard line 4 straight times? Our loss to Oklahoma in the 1982 Orange Bowl,and that last second loss to UM on the Maningham TD reception in the back of the end-zone when a few seconds were given back to the clock to allow that last play!
I know this is not a pleasant subject, but all my posts don't have to be questions about the top, or best or greatest, etc
For me, the ones that stand out the most were the I believe 14-7 loss to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl when we were stopped up the middle from the 1 yard line 4 straight times? Our loss to Oklahoma in the 1982 Orange Bowl,and that last second loss to UM on the Maningham TD reception in the back of the end-zone when a few seconds were given back to the clock to allow that last play!
I have 35 of them
I was never more angry with Joe than at that game. Blair was destroying Alabama at the clip of six ypc with our line mangling their line and their line with hands on hips exhausted. Blair appeared to score but the ref spotted it inside the 1 and then there was an officials time out to measure for a first down I believe but in any event the clock was stopped and we had the time and two plays from inside the 1. Then, for who knows what reason, Joe calls his LAST time out on top of refs time out. Now we have no way to stop the clock if Alabama somehow stops Blair. So we are put in the position that we have to kick with no time out remaining. Then the block. I don't think I said a word to the wife the entire trip back home. The scenario was so obvious and by over conservatism we blow our two play opportunity and the win.
2005 Michigan. My daughter was 12 at the time. She was decked out in her Michael Robinson jersey at a viewing party at our house. She was jumping up and down for joy when Robinson snuck it in for the go ahead score. After the pass from Henne to Manningham she screamed and ran up to her bedroom. I went up to check on her and she was lying on her bed sobbing.
A memory of the 79 Sugar Bowl for the MNC.
Channel 4, ABC TV Pittsburgh showed the first Alabama touchdown, a pass deep in the endzone (and they complain about a regular season game play in a similar area). This is the only angle not shown on the TV in game telecast. It showed the ball in the Alabama receivers hands, then falling out, hitting the ground and bouncing back up into the receivers hands, called a TD. I have never seen this camera angle ever again and it was probably destroyed when enough people saw what had happened. For a few moments I thought we were playing OSU who get first and second bounce completions, receptions, interceptions, etc. Even with replay the tiny 10 are able to keep OSU winning for the bowl payout. It so far out of hand now that in our home stadium we can see the obvious drop of an interception but as Jerry DiNardo noted, the problem isn't replay, its the refs blowing the call on the field in the first place. Not tough bang, bang calls but easy calls with two or three refs having great angles to see the ball hit the turf, twice.....................It doesn't rival the non field goal snapped and kicked three or four seconds after the play clock stopped at 00 but it certainly fits a pattern. It is no longer "bad luck" and " things always even out" excuses made by victors to excuse their false manner of winning.
Channel 4, ABC TV Pittsburgh showed the first Alabama touchdown, a pass deep in the endzone (and they complain about a regular season game play in a similar area). This is the only angle not shown on the TV in game telecast. It showed the ball in the Alabama receivers hands, then falling out, hitting the ground and bouncing back up into the receivers hands, called a TD. I have never seen this camera angle ever again and it was probably destroyed when enough people saw what had happened. For a few moments I thought we were playing OSU who get first and second bounce completions, receptions, interceptions, etc. Even with replay the tiny 10 are able to keep OSU winning for the bowl payout. It so far out of hand now that in our home stadium we can see the obvious drop of an interception but as Jerry DiNardo noted, the problem isn't replay, its the refs blowing the call on the field in the first place. Not tough bang, bang calls but easy calls with two or three refs having great angles to see the ball hit the turf, twice.....................It doesn't rival the non field goal snapped and kicked three or four seconds after the play clock stopped at 00 but it certainly fits a pattern. It is no longer "bad luck" and " things always even out" excuses made by victors to excuse their false manner of winning.
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Alabama Sugar Bowl, USC Rose Bowl, Michigan plus two seconds, and N.D. the last game in South Bend ( to Charlie Weis no less).I know this is not a pleasant subject, but all my posts don't have to be questions about the top, or best or greatest, etc
For me, the ones that stand out the most were the I believe 14-7 loss to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl when we were stopped up the middle from the 1 yard line 4 straight times? Our loss to Oklahoma in the 1982 Orange Bowl,and that last second loss to UM on the Maningham TD reception in the back of the end-zone when a few seconds were given back to the clock to allow that last play!
Wow, unless I missed it, no one cited the ND game back in 92 (I think) where ND needed two touchdowns AND a 2 pt conversion to win.... And they got it. Christ was I pissed. "There's no freaking way they'll get 15 points".......
My other one's where well cited. UM with the +2 seconds added to the clock. Henne hits Manningham on the slant right in front of Zemitis.... Painful. I recall telling my wife "those 2 seconds won't matter".....
'99 vs MN speaks for itself. Off the guys foot??? Are you kidding me?
'89 vs Bama - was listening to the radio in the car at a wedding... No freaking way.
Speaking of weddings, my brother got married in 91 on the day of the Miami game. That doesn't rate with the above though IMO.
My other one's where well cited. UM with the +2 seconds added to the clock. Henne hits Manningham on the slant right in front of Zemitis.... Painful. I recall telling my wife "those 2 seconds won't matter".....
'99 vs MN speaks for itself. Off the guys foot??? Are you kidding me?
'89 vs Bama - was listening to the radio in the car at a wedding... No freaking way.
Speaking of weddings, my brother got married in 91 on the day of the Miami game. That doesn't rate with the above though IMO.
It is hands down the most shocking loss I have ever watched. The difference being there was never a thought that we would not win.It was going to be a storm the field win like Nebraska in 82. For about 45 seconds after the blocked kick my living room filled with ten men was silent. The Minnesota game in 99 comes close but this one was the most heart breaking.
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