Who else has this past game as the hardest regular season loss they ever had to take?
- Thread starter grinagrin
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08 Iowa was worse between quality of opponent and what it ultimately cost the team. No big ten championship game or playoff. Would have put us directly into the bcs championship game. Team would have matched up better with Florida or Oklahoma than usc.
97 Michigan and 99 Minnesota were both way worse for me. Even 05 Michigan was worse. This one sucked, but I wasn't expecting a win going in (unlike those other three), and also feel as though there is still a realistic path to the National Title.
Minny ‘99 was tough, but Paterno passed up a FG and instead punted, meaning Minny only needed a FG to win. We gave Minny a chance and through a lucky bounce they got the FG opportunity and converted.
Iowa ‘08 was ours until the absolutely awful interception by Clark gave Iowa one last chance. A totally bogus PI call helped Iowa down the field.
For me, other than Sat, ‘Bama ‘89 was the worst. Thomas ran the ball down the field, down ‘Bama’s throat. But our sideline had no sense of urgency, no clock management and we ended up calling our last timeout on the one yd line on the right hash mark. Tough angle, ‘Bama stacked the angle and one hand was the difference between the W and the L. A fake FG would have been a walk-in TD. Sat in Beaver Stadium for close to 30 minutes without moving. Worst loss I’ve ever been to in person.
Sat was brutal.....doing nothing after the fumble recovery.....getting a punt blocked because of a blown assignment.....playing for the FG.....giving up two 5-play TD drives.....and doing nothing after getting great field position on the squib kick.....yeah, this is gonna brutalize me for the rest of my life.
Iowa ‘08 was ours until the absolutely awful interception by Clark gave Iowa one last chance. A totally bogus PI call helped Iowa down the field.
For me, other than Sat, ‘Bama ‘89 was the worst. Thomas ran the ball down the field, down ‘Bama’s throat. But our sideline had no sense of urgency, no clock management and we ended up calling our last timeout on the one yd line on the right hash mark. Tough angle, ‘Bama stacked the angle and one hand was the difference between the W and the L. A fake FG would have been a walk-in TD. Sat in Beaver Stadium for close to 30 minutes without moving. Worst loss I’ve ever been to in person.
Sat was brutal.....doing nothing after the fumble recovery.....getting a punt blocked because of a blown assignment.....playing for the FG.....giving up two 5-play TD drives.....and doing nothing after getting great field position on the squib kick.....yeah, this is gonna brutalize me for the rest of my life.
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I’m a Bills fan so I just move on!
I rate both 99 and 05 way worse than this loss. PSU is far from out of it at this point.
That USC RB was an abortion. It’s wonderful to see how much more favorably we matched up this past year in terms of talent and scheme. Our secondary was taken to the woodshed in 2008.
The 05 UM loss was terrible but that game was also robbed from us by the referines.
It MIGHT be in the top 10. But nowhere near number one.
Bama in 89 was exponentially worse. That blocked FG after it looked like Blair was in the end zone will be forever ingrained in my mind. I actually thought it was a dream, and they were going to let us try again. I think the whole stadium went into a weird daze like I did. 2005 Michigan was horrible. Destroyed my whole week. 1999 Minnesota and 2008 Iowa were also a lot worse.
There were others, but the difference with this team is I knew they weren't nearly as fundamentally sound as those other teams were. I knew our short yardage flaws on offense would kill us. If you can't control clock, you can't win big games. Those other teams could control clock, but lost on flukes.
We weren't hosed in any way, shape, or form. If anything, we got most of the calls.
We just aren't built to protect a lead. We remind me of those Drew Brees led Purdue teams. Just with more talent.
We did not make plays on defense, especially in pass defense. D backs were in position and all they needed to do was turn around, in some cases, to block the pass.
The loss that took the hardest emotional toll was against Michigan '05 because of how angry I was at the refs and the Big Ten for allowing such biased officiating to occur...especially so openly.
I was at the '08 Iowa game in the front row behind our bench because I was friends with one of our starting OL who gave me his family's tickets. I can't tell you how tempted I was to jump on the field and tackle their kicker before he could attempt the game-winning FG. The worst part was that I had to endure the fans jumping over me to get onto the field.
'99 Minnesota was the third-hardest...it's the only time I left the room and couldn't watch part of the game as they drove down the field and lined up for the field goal.
I was at the '08 Iowa game in the front row behind our bench because I was friends with one of our starting OL who gave me his family's tickets. I can't tell you how tempted I was to jump on the field and tackle their kicker before he could attempt the game-winning FG. The worst part was that I had to endure the fans jumping over me to get onto the field.
'99 Minnesota was the third-hardest...it's the only time I left the room and couldn't watch part of the game as they drove down the field and lined up for the field goal.
'99 and '08 were worse.
OSU this year was bad, being up 18 twice and losing, but OSU always had a reasonable chance to win going in. Minny and Iowa were BIG upsets and ended PSU's chance for greatness.
This was a very tough loss, but can be overcome. Win out, and see what happens.
Yep, the lose was tough but the team still has a lot to play for. Win out and good things can still happen.
To this day, still one of the most blatantly wrong PI calls I have ever seen. Scirotto was playing the ball, and the Iowa WR who had no chance at the ball just ran right through him. It should have been offensive PI, and it would have ended the game.
JMO but michy in ,05 Iowa in '08 and Minny in '99 were worse...but truth be told we really weren't that good in '99.
This isn't even close for me. Some of the other losses mentioned here are way worse.
The 99 Minnesota loss was more meaningful as it was the end to an unbeaten season with so much potential... the Michigan loss in 99 was the worst for any game that I attended personally. I had been traveling a lot to China for work but had planned to attend the Michigan game with a friend, with the game falling a week or two after my return from a 4 week trip. I was really looking forward to that game, and the season still held promise despite the slip up against Minnesota. Giving up those fourth quarter points just crushed me... then it took forever to clear the north endzone stands. It was a very long ride home...
That USC team was absolutely stacked, still not sure how they lost to Oregon State.
Also, based on the majority attitude I've seen on this board over the past couple of days, you shouldn't say anything critical of the 08 secondary's performance in that game unless you think you would have stopped Mark Sanchez if you had played...
+1000....We made Sanchez 35-40 million in NFL money as a result of that game with our horrible pass coverage!
Couldn't sleep at all that night--and I had a 6 hour drive home the next morning.
Exactly. The Minny loss was much worse in my opinion because we were a vastly superior team....at home! Losing to OSU by a point in the Shoe when realistically they are a better team in many key areas isn't all that depressing. We lost because we can't match their talent at the scrimmages, and even more so because we certainly can't match their depth. Yes it's heartbreaking to give up the lead late like that, but it wasn't fluky like the Minnesota game. We were getting crushed at the line and our lack of depth and overall talent there caught up to us in the end. The game is 60 minutes not 55. It counts. Hard to say we shouldn't have lost.
The Minny game we shouldn't have lost. I'd put the 05 Michigan game a close second, because I do think we were a bit better than that Michigan team. I can live much easier with the players getting outplayed, than with coaching mistakes. In that game I saw a glaring coaching mistake that rarely gets talked about. Kevin Kelly was a freshman that year, and he had not put many balls even close to the end zone on kickoffs all year. Knowing that, and having a threat like Breaston back there, why in the world did they kick it deep to him? They should have squibbed it to an up-man in my opinion. Not only did they allow Michigan to start at mid-field, they gave the crowd and team a real momentum boost. If they squib it they start 10 or 15 yards back and a little less momentum...probably makes all the difference in the end.
...not even close and I was there in person ...suffering through 2003 - 2004 hurt me to my core.
Honestly don’t remember the earlier kickoffs, but actually the final kickoff in that game was a great kickoff, inside the five yd line and in the corner of the field, only a few steps from the boundary. Just very poor coverage.
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