Tech vs. Maryland

I was lucky enough to score some primo
tickets to the Tech vs. Maryland football
game. Well, to be fair, I did little pro-
active scoring of tickets: Steve Johnson
hooked me up as he had previous
engagements. Steve is Mr. Tech and his 50
yard line tickets reflect this status.

The stage was set for a great game. Number
twenty versus number fifteen. ESPN was
televising the game. The weather was crisp
and clear. The cheerleaders were all
greased up.

Maryland put up an early 14 points in the
first half. Let's not discuss that part of
the game.

Tech gained momentum in the third quarter
with some big defensive plays. And then we
started to drop the ball. I think that the
QB was calling the play like this "go big on
this play, but then drop the ball." What
the Xxxk? We had an embarrassing number of
turnovers.

On critical third downs our defense made an
inordinate number of dead-ball fouls.
Despite ourselves, we put 14 points on the
board to tie. We then managed a field goal
for the lead with about 2:07 remaining.

Then we proceeded to let Maryland waltz down
the field and tie the game. We lost in
overtime with another fumble.

There were two key moments. First, we had
an awful late hit call. The Maryland QB got
hit with his foot in the field of play on a
third down conversion. He wouldn't have
made the first down.

Then, closer to the end, we were ahead and
trying to burn time. Maryland was out of
timeouts and our guy runs the ball out of
bounds. What the hell was he thinking? In
the end, this twenty seconds was what gave
Maryland enough time to get into field goal
range to tie the game.

Even with the loss, it was a great night of
painful, suspenseful and thrilling
football. Thanks again to Steve Johnson for
the tickets.

Let's go Tech!

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