Scenes from a Football Game

So football finally happened this weekend. I was very excited and happy. Here's a little wrap up of the my first football game of the year NC State v. UCF:

1. I park my car roughly half a mile from the stadium and head over to a friend of mines tailgate. I am getting a late start. This is the first year since the shootings at Trinity Road three years ago that we get five full hours of tailgating. I only need a couple of hours, but I will use the full five for one game this year. My cousin call while I am walking an tells me that App. State is gonna beat Michigan in the Big House. He give me the play-by-play over the phone while his sons cry in the background. The way some people remember how great sportscasters called memorable moments in sports, this is how I'll remember this one. Lloyd Carr has already started looking for a coaching job at FAU or Stetson as we read/write this.
2. Finally run up with my tailgate. Let me get this off my chest, girls looked really hot or cute, but the functionality of their ensembles was seriously lacking. They all looked like they were going to the Kentucky Derby. I want these girls to know that NC State is not in the SEC, so quit dressing and acting like we are. Also, when did this whole short skirt with cowboy boots look start back again. I thought it was dead. While I am thinking this, a fight breaks out on the other side of an RV. The police and sheriff's department swarm enforce and very quickly. I was impressed and a little spooked. A couple of drunk kids start to chant "F*ck the Police" and they are given open container tickets. I decide it is time to head into the game. As I walk with the masses, so UCF fans are mixed in. I am walking with a UCF family of six, a dad & mom with their four daughters in ages from 10 to roughly 18. A "class act" State fan yells at them to "F*ck off and f*cking die!" I am embarrassed. I do not mind trash talking or taunting opposing teams fans. They are on our territory and should expect some fun rassing. As early UCF fans came by my tailgate, I sang the "Mickey Mouse" song and even this family felt my witty reporte when I asked them if they go to DisneyWorld every weekend. This good hearted and fairly clever. When the State fan in front of us flicked the UCF family off, things got ugly and again I was embarrassed to be associated with them. The UCF father got in the kids face and then I wondered where all the police were...oh right.
   
3. I had great seats for the game, or so I thought. They were on the 40 and 15 rows back. I was really pleased with them. UCF gets the ball first and runs a single back sweep and NC State misses the first tackle and their RB scampers 80 yards for the TD. It is one of those first game, first play type of flukes. I knew that, but the ass clown behind me did not. He starts in as if the season was all over on the first play. I don't know who he was talking to. His wife was busy going to town on some funnel cake. He was a nightmare to sit in front of. Loud, wrong, negative, and loud. Daniel Evans looked pretty lost. I really didn't understand it, but when he slipped under pressure in the end zone for a safety. I was really upset. Coach O'Brien gave him another shot when NC State got the ball inside the 20. Evans couldn't do it and NC State had to settle for a field goal. These two plays pretty much doomed the team. Evans gave the other team two points and couldn't get an easy TD for six. That's a big swing.
   
4. Harrison Beck came in for Evans in the next series. He looked a big frazzled early. Then the half came. I switched seats, I could not take anymore of the f*ckface behind me. The scout team did some real work for NC State. They looked a lot better in the second half. In the first, State's passes we going out to the flats and sidelines with little success. Also, Andre Brown almost non-exsistant. The second, Beck was tossing over the center of the defense. It was wide open almost every time. The O-Line did a much better job of giving Beck time to wait for the receiver to get in the weak spot of the UCF zone. The NC State defense was making the tackles they were missing in the first. It was a definite tale of two halves. State score 23 unanswered and had a very real shot at a W until the official called an illegal procedure penalty and docked State 15 yards. I was a little shocked. That was big penalty. It doomed us. Tick-tick-game over.
5. There was a lot of grumbling as I walked back to my car, which when I walked through the dark parking lots with all the drunken angry sports fans in it felt like I parked it in Garner. I was mad. I mean, we lost. NC State lost all because of bad play and penalties in the first half, seeming Amato-esque. But, the second half, looked really crisp and automatic. This was the first game with a new coach, who doesn't even have the kinds of players he need to get his system done the way he wants it. I was fairly happy with the results and look forward to what else is to come.