No Sub- Categorizations Needed: The Final Honorable Mentions

 

No Sub- Categorizations Needed: Honorable Mentions

2011 NBA Finals – Game 3: Miami Heat at Dallas Mavericks

Six years after it felt like Dallas should have been the team to win this series, a veteran, past their prime Dallas squad made a surprise march to the NBA Finals to take on the Heatles.  Perhaps the single most covered sports team of all time, The Miami Heat, had rode “The Announcement” into the national villain that sports wanted.  Sporting the Big 3 of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, the Heat were enormous favorites to win the series, but Dallas was getting comfortable in this underdog role. 

The game mostly stayed close throughout, with Dirk Nowitzki and Mario Chalmers trading three point shots in the final minute of the game to leave a tie with enough time for one last possession for The Mavericks.  Taking the ball in the post, and after a failed attempt to back down for a simple shot, Dirk finally decided to pirouette around the defender and make a difficult game winning layup with his injured left hand to send the Mavericks home with a 2-1 series lead on the way to an eventual championship. 

Stanford Cardinal at Oregon Ducks 11/17/2012

Over the course of the early 2010’s there were few things more reliable than the late season Oregon choke.  By 2012 Oregon had made the USC Trojan dynasty of the 2000’s feel a distant memory, and were the default frontrunner to roar through the PAC 12 every season.  No preseason top 5 was complete without them. 

2012 saw, perhaps the best team the Ducks had fielded yet, bring the nation’s top ranked team deep into November on a seemingly unstoppable pace to another crack at the school’s first national championship.  After some memorable meetings in recent seasons, the Cardinal no longer had NFL star Andrew Luck under center, instead bringing Kevin Hogan to Eugene for a matchup that felt destined to result in Stanford just not being able to keep up with the high-flying Ducks offense.

But in football, not only does chaos sometimes strike, but even in the modern age, sometimes muscle still wins. 

The Cardinal defense did a lot of bending but no breaking, holding the Ducks to 14 points.  Trailing by a touchdown in the fourth quarter, them academic boys took a national spotlight and gave us an education, teaching the viewing audience that, yes, a shoulder down in the endzone is as good as a foot.  Future NFL stud tight end, Zach Ertz, hauled in a ten yard TD catch by landing solely on aforementioned right shoulder and rolling out of bounds immediately, and to the shock of most, tying the game at 14 in the process. 

In overtime, Stanford did what had become the recipe all game.  They played conservative offense, took the opportunity they had, kicking a short field goal, and then waited for the inevitable Oregon special teams choke.  Upset complete, Oregon again had a top five finish, and a long offseason of what ifs.

And as it did at the beginning of the decade, at the end of the decade “O” still stands for national championships. 

2017 Eastern Conference Finals – Game 7: Ottawa Senators at Pittsburgh Penguins

I was still quite early into my hockey fanhood while watching this game, and to be honest, I watched it begrudgingly.  The salt was still in my wounds from the season before, watching Pittsburgh knock off my beloved Sharks for the Stanley Cup, and their victory in this series seemed inevitable. 

But through two periods of the game, it became apparent there would be no cakewalk to the finals for Pittsburgh.  Ottawa hit harder and defended the goal better than Pittsburgh, and while their offense struggled to keep up, their defense did an adequate job of knocking the Penguins down to their level. 

Twice Pittsburgh scored and twice Ottawa evened things up within a few minutes.  There was no obvious tip to which team was actually better.  The teams headed to overtime and twenty minutes later, they took another break, still stuck in a 2-2 tie.  After a grueling 85 minutes of hockey, Chris Kunitz made suddenly less than inevitable history, sending the Penguins to the finals, and on their way to the sports first repeat in twenty years. 

Michigan Wolverines at Ohio State Buckeyes 11/26/2016

After a depressing 15 year stretch of near irrelevance in this supposedly heated rivalry, "The Game" finally appeared to be back on this day.   Ohio State had made beating Michigan a formality, over the past 15 years, they had lost more games to Purdue than to Michigan.  The Wolverines had churned through a few different coaches seeking a return to glory, but nothing seemed to land, until Jim Harbaugh showed up.  In Harbaughs second season, the Wolverines had gone from seeking a return to glory to seemingly destined for glory.  This game was a de facto playoff game, with the teams entering the game ranked #3 and #2 respectfully. 

Any preconceptions about Ohio State turning this into just another Michigan game provided to be misguided as the Wolverines were ready to withstand every punch the Buckeyes threw for four quarters, and like so many games on this list, four quarters provided unequal to the task of deciding a better team.

In overtime, Michigan scored first, and settled for a field goal to carry a three point lead to defense.  No Wolverine fan could have felt comfortable with that being enough, but it nearly was.  The Buckeyes failed to pick up a first down after their first three plays, and field goal attempt and second overtime seemed certain.  But Urban Meyer likes to roll some dice.  On 4^th and 1, they decided not to settle for 3, and try for a first down, and a J.T. Barrett scramble rewarded the risk….. depending on whose side your on.  In what was one of the most up and down two seconds of game time I’ve ever experienced as a fan, the play changed quickly.  What appeared to be a wide open lane and obvious big gain, saw a linebacker flash amazing closing speed and tackle Barrett what then appeared to be obviously short of the line to gain.  On replay, the official determined a first down for Ohio State would be awarded, and honestly, I still couldn’t say if that’s the right call.  It was sooooooo close and die hards of either programs fan base would be justified in saying the call should have gone their way. 

That fourth down effort turned out to be the last drop of gas in the Wolverine tank, as on the next play, Curtis Samuel found a large hole, and ran unchallenged 15 yards to the endzone and Michigan had another painful bus ride home to Ann Arbor.

2018 Divisional Round Playoffs: New Orleans Saints at Minnesota Vikings

Another game that for me is just as memorable for the interactions of the people around me as it was for the game itself.  I was visiting my younger brother in Boise, a diehard Packers fans, and his roommate and good friend of mine as well, a diehard Vikings fan.  As you can imagine, they had polarizing cheering interests. 

My friend, the Vikings fan, and also a fellow Boise State University attendee, has pains attached to kicking failures that I don’t think I could survive as a fan.  Jeremy, if you’re reading this, you’re a stronger fan than I am.  The Boise State kicking game leaves deep scars on it’s own, layering Vikings fandom upon it is a cut too far. 

So come the thirty second drill at the end of the game, with the Saints up by one, Jeremy was already cursing and bemoaning the forthcoming wide right or left that seemed fated to chill his bones for yet another offseason.  Could there be some new variety?  A blocked field goal perhaps?  As the Vikings approached midfield, he seemed to actually be getting less happy, preferring to never get in position for the kick might be more palatable this year than living through any miss to end the season.

That made the Minneapolis Miracle all the more fun to watch.  The swing of emotions that was the Keenum to Diggs completion, in obvious field goal range was immediately met with screams of “GET OUT OF BOUNDS” from next to me on the couch.  Suddenly, instantly, as hope was teased, Jeremy returned to the masochistic roots that run from the feet of all Minnesota Vikings fans.  He may have feared the missed field goal but he craved it all the same. 

As Marcus Williams decided to take the worst possible angle for making the tackle on Diggs, he decided to ignore the advise that Jeremy had provided and instead took advantage of the clear green grass in front of him.  Darting towards the endzone for a game winning touchdown with zeros on the clock.  Jeremy screamed with joy, not even because they won, but because the kicker wouldn’t need to take the field at all. 

After watching the game, and seeing the Nick Foles led Eagles defeat the Falcons in the later game, I asked Jeremy if he was happy about the Eagles win, as the Vikings would now have to go on the road for the NFC Championship Game.  Jeremy beamed with confidence as he said “I don’t care where we play, I’m already thinking about the Super Bowl.  I’m not scared of Nick Foles.”  After a three hour break, the masochist was back. 

Clemson Tigers at Notre Dame Fighting Irish 11/07/2020

The closest a big game came to feeling like a big game in 2020 was this bad boy.  It’ll be the only time the year is represented here.  The game was two months ago, you don’t need a recap.  Key points are this: Clemson starting QB Trevor Lawrence missed the game with COVID, and the Irish faithful all felt so bad that he couldn’t play, they all decided to get COVID after the game too.