Watching an Arizona team in a big game is a heartbreaking experience. As Oregon made their game tying drive I kept reflecting on how similar this felt to the Cardinals v. Steelers Super Bowl.
Our coaching staff put us in the best position to win all night long. Masoli's first touchdown, he was covered by three wildcats who missed a tackle. Jeff Maehl's catches, he was consistently covered. Arizona's go ahead TD, caught the Ducks in a blitz and tricked them with a screen. I think we can say that we have a very talented coaching staff.
The real heartbreak comes when you think about all of the opportunities we had to win. We fumbled a ball on the 5 yard line, into the end zone through one of our player's legs. Zendejas missed a field goal from 24 yards out. Oregon made a field goal that bounced over the cross bar. We made Masoli fumble twice into an open field but were unable to recover. Wade had his hands on a perfectly intercept-able ball, dropped. Turner drops a TD and it gets intercepted. By my count we should have been up 24 points in the 4th quarter.
Each time one of these missed opportunities occurred it was a reminder of what it means to be an Arizona fan. Want proof, Greg Hansen points out that in 99 Arizona was 5-2 on the way to the Roses and Oregon came to town. We losed, 44-41. Last night, we lost 44-41.
This game will go on the list of Arizona disappointments next to the Super Bowl, the "Amare gets ejected" 2005 Suns Conference finals and the 2001 NCAA finals. It makes you really appreciate that 97 championship because of how rare they are for fans from the desert.
Does this loss crush the Cats spirit? Or do we rebound with two straight wins to finish out the season?
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