[NU Sports] worst loss ever

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> ... a fascinating question.

I agree - and thankfully, I don't have as much
perspective on this as some of the other NU fans on
this list who sat through some truly lean years.

I do know that MSU wouldn't really be at the top of
that list. Painful? Yes. But one reason it felt
different from other losses was that I can't ever
remember NU jumping out to such a huge lead and
looking so dominant in a half ... usually we're the
ones coming from behind so this one felt odd, hurt
like heck and was a big disappointment, but not the
worst.

It's actually looking like the MSU loss will be much
like the Miami of Ohio loss of 1995 - a painful shock
that clipped our wings a bit but wound up being much
more of a stimulus for improvement and a turnaround.
If we escape Miami '95 28-27, I'm not sure we go 10-1
and head to Pasadena. And if we held on against MSU,
we may not have come together as much as we did to
beat Iowa.

> So I'd pick among losses when better things were
> expected: 2000 Iowa certainly qualifies, as does

That's probably the one that I'd rank #1. It was a
game we should have won and the result later in the
day from East Lansing made it even more painful. We
win that game and we're playing the Illini at home the
next week for a trip to Pasadena. The feel of
clinching Roses on home turf against a hated rival was
something we never got to experience in all the wonder
of 1995 and all we had to do was beat stupid Iowa.
That one was devastating.

> But I would say the worst was 2001 Penn State -- a
> game we had every chance to win at home, blew 38-35,

Good point here too, as well as the 2001 Indiana and
Iowa losses later in the year when it looked like the
team had plain old quit. 2001 was supposed to be a
good year but it just fell apart after PSU's rally
that year.

Some good ones there - I'd add to the mix ...
* 1996 Wake Forest (what the ?!?!)
* 1997 Wake Forest (again!?!?!?!)
* 1998 Duke (I actually blocked that one out of my
memory for awhile)
* 2003 Air Force (we had those dirty cheats and let it
slip away!)
* Motor City Bowl/Sun Bowl - should have won those
* Alamo Bowl - We weren't the better team, but we were
flat and the Huskers rubbed salt in the wound as well
* 2004 Hawaii (cost us a bowl)
* 1994 Ohio State (we had 'em! we HAD 'EM! And was it
because Lundy was on the take that we let that one
slip away?)

Not as much fun as the best win list ... but sometimes
good can come from those heartbreaking defeats, and
it's looking more and more like MSU '06 will be one of
those cases. It's certainly shown us that Fitz may be
green, but this is the man we want on our sidelines
for years and years. He can get coordinators to help
with the X's and O's, but he has the emotional and
inspirational side down and few coaches ever have
that.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!


 
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