I have officially accepted my role as the most offensive person in the world.
Greetings to one and all. As today is another Tuesday, I'm here to provide you with something to read, I guess... and I know I'm going to offend somebody today. I know it. Topics to be discussed: The truth, the blame, the right to voice disapproval, the tweets, the prediction, the final straw, and the crazies. On we go.
Well, what can I say? The Utes got trashed by TCU on Saturday. I was there. Wait... wait - do you hear that sound? Listen closely - it's the sound of all the BYU fans rejoicing. Hmmph. Misery loves company, I guess. I've taken a couple beatdowns from BYU fans in the last couple days - unprovoked, might I add - but whatever. They don't have much to back up their arguments with, so... whatever. Anyway, the great thing about being the underdog in a big matchup is that if you win, it's a miracle, and if you lose, who cares? You weren't supposed to win, anyway. I had pretty high hopes for the Utes going into Saturday's game. I thought we'd at least put up a fight. I thought we'd either win or lose in a close battle. As soon as TCU strolled right down the field to score on their first possession, I leaned over to Austin and said, "That was way too easy." Then they scored on their next possession. And we punted. And punted. And punted. Things were really not looking good going into halftime down 23-0 at home. I told Austin that the second half could be a whole new game for us and, as soon as Shaky Smithson had a 45-yard kickoff return, it was like the crowd's blood finally started pumping again. But alas, Jordan Wynn threw an interception two plays later. Everything that could have gone wrong for the Utes did go wrong. We fumbled, we threw interceptions, we punted - and the punts weren't very good - but when we did have a good punt, pinning TCU at their own 7 yard line, TCU responded with a 93-yard touchdown. On the other hand, everything that needed to go right for TCU did. When we fumbled, we practically handed the ball to them. When they fumbled five yards into the backfield, they scooped it up and ran it in for six. When they needed to burn our secondary, they did. In short, they were just the better team on Saturday. I'm not going to come out and whine that we deserved to win because we didn't. We played like it was a scrimmage. We dropped easy passes. We let them run all over us at home in the biggest game in the state's history.
Who was to blame for the 40-point loss? You can't blame the crowd for the loss. It was a bowl game atmosphere at Rice-Eccles Stadium last weekend. Austin and I woke up at 4 in the morning to go to College Gameday in the west parking lot. Going to Gameday was a lot of fun. The crowd was pumped. We were out for blood. Heading into the opening kickoff, it was easily the most hostile, deafening crowd I've ever been a part of at a college football game. Unfortunately, the crowd was taken out of the game early after about 10 minutes of the first quarter. I wouldn't blame the offensive line. A lot of people are saying that Jordan Wynn faced the most pressure he's seen all season against TCU, but as a spectator, it honestly didn't look like there was a lot of pressure on either side of the ball. There were no sacks and each quarterback was only flushed out of the pocket a handful of times. I wouldn't blame the running backs. They only rushed for something like 51 yards, but they didn't have a lot of chances to do anything. In fact, I think we could have - and should have - tried to run the ball a little more. The majority of the blame has to go to the quarterback, Jordan Wynn. Quite simply, he played like crap. He's a much better quarterback than what he showed us on Saturday. He looked shockingly like (no offense) Jake Heaps - throwing behind receivers, ahead of receivers, above the receivers, and right into the hands of a couple wide open TCU defenders. I think this was easily the worst game of his career. He just couldn't move the ball and, as the leader of the team, needs to accept responsibility for Utah's surprising inability to move the ball down the field. Our receivers are to blame to a small extent. When Wynn did make a good pass, it bounced right off the hands of the wideouts, most notably DeVonte Christopher. And, as much as it pains me to say this, Kyle Whittingham is also to blame. The decision to keep Wynn in the game blows my mind. I think the justification was that Terrance Cain is a senior and has nothing left to prove and that Jordan Wynn, as a sophomore quarterback, could learn from being in that situation - down big at home playing a top five team. However, I see the decision to stay with Wynn as a concession. We conceded the victory in the middle of the second quarter at about the same time some fans started chanting "We-Want-Cain!" The question in my mind was what could Cain have possibly done worse? Throw an interception? Fumble the ball? Not reach the first down marker? An article I read yesterday said the only difference Cain could have made would have been 47-14. GOOD! That would have been great! I would have taken whatever points we could have put on the board, even if the third-string punter was throwing the ball or an offensive lineman was put in as running back. Coach Whittingham claims he couldn't hear the crowd yelling its disapproval, which I highly doubt, considering the fact that many fans were booing every time the Utes took over on offense with Wynn at the helm. He made a decision to keep in his starting quarterback and that decision, to me, says, "It's not going to get any better, so we might as well keep him in."
**QUESTION TIME!!**
Q. "Dear Aaron,
Do you ever think it's ever ok to boo your team if they are playing poorly at home?"
Just Curious,
- The Junior Mounties
A. You know, it's funny you should ask. I sparked a heated debate about this very topic on Facebook yesterday. (SALUTE!) Pretty much everybody that commented in response to this Question on Facebook was a BYU fan and pretty much all of them responded the same way. They said no, it is never, ever acceptable to boo your sports team. In fact, several of them claimed to never have booed their team in their entire lives. They have been upset with their teams, but have never once uttered a boo. This makes me wonder what they do when they're upset? That could be potentially funny to watch. What are they going to do? Cheer every time their point guard turns it over? Give a standing ovation when your team goes in for the half after shooting 25% from the field? I guess they're just better at zipping their lips than I am because you can bet your sweet bippy that I booed the Utes on Saturday afternoon. I read an article about Utes fans yesterday that contained a quote from Jerry Sloan. Coach Sloan said, "I think fans deserve it every time they come to the game. If you’re not playing hard and they boo you, they’re trying to send a message to you. … If you don’t put the effort into it, they get disappointed, because they’ve got to go to work at 8 o’clock in the morning." Agreed, coach! I didn't boo the Utes to say, "I hate you! I hate this team! I'm classless and drunk!" I booed them to say, "Come on, guys, you're better than this." Are Utah fans spoiled? Why would anyone ever boo an 8-0 team that had won 21 straight games in a row at Rice-Eccles Stadium? Probably because people paid big, big money to see that game. Students camped out for that game. I had been looking forward to that game for weeks and weeks and the Utes forgot to show up. I agree wholeheartedly that fans have the right to boo if a team isn't putting forth a good effort. Jared Anderson commented on Facebook, "It would be like never criticizing (or booing) your government when they make crappy decision (or perform poorly)." And if that makes me a bad or a disloyal fan... guilty as charged.
What could be more appropriate right now than to do everybody's favorite segment, The Boo Box? While we're on the topic of sports, let's talk about some of my least favorite people in the world: stupid sports fans. The worst kinds of fans are ignorant fans and illogical fans, both of which have made themselves manifest this past weekend. An ignorant fan, for example, would say that the Jazz are the best team in the NBA. I love the Jazz, but no, they're not. In fact, in John Hollinger's power rankings, which were released today, the Jazz slipped down to number 20. Not good. An illogical fan would be one who predicted the Jazz to win the NBA championship this year after going 8-0 in the preseason. I love the Jazz, but that's not happening. Other signs of stupidity would be all these crazed BYU fans who think that Utah sucks and that BYU is going to beat them in a couple weeks. Not happening. Another sign: Utes fans thinking that our season is over now that we have one loss. There is nothing left to play for and we might as well just pack our bags and head home now (e.g., David Locke, who said yesterday that he can see the Utes losing four games in a row to end their season). I have never really thought about punching my radio, but I almost did yesterday. And yet another sign of sheer stupidity is thinking that the Utes still have a shot at a BCS bowl game or even a national championship. OH NO YOU DIH-UNT!! Why would you think that? Why?? I don't mind optimism in a sports fan... but when you leave logic behind and let your emotions get involved (e.g., "The Utes suck! I can't believe how badly the let me down! Our season is over!" or "I'll be a Utah Man until I die. If Boise State, Oregon, Auburn, and TCU all lose two games before the end of the season, we'll be in the national championship! GO UTES!!"), you've become unrealistically optimistic. It bugs the crap out of me... and I'm picking on Jazz fans and Utah fans a lot this Issue, but that's basically to protect myself from another onslaught of rabid Cougar fans. I can't believe how crazy BYU fans have been in the last week. I dare say that the poor sportsmanship and stupid fan-ship displayed surrounding the Utah/TCU game was even worse than when BYU got whooped by those crazies up at Utah State. It's ridiculous. BOOOOOO!! I'll Boo everyone on my own since so many people out there apparently disapprove of myBooishness. Whatever. BOOOOOO!! to all you dumb fans out there. Everybody just calm down! Moving on...
The Twitter crusade is going all right, I suppose. After one week of tweeting, I am being followed by 42 peeps, some of which are likely spammers and some of which I don't even know. I have somehow tweeted over 300 times and have already offended at least three people I know. Let's just say I found a website that tells me who stops following me and I know you, Sara V. Martinez, have stopped following me for some unknown reason. That's right. I just called you out. Twitter is different than Facebook in a couple ways. It's really stripped down, so there is only one photo per user and no annoying Farmville invites. There are also far fewer of my so-called friends that use Twitter and the ones that do seem to be very fickle in their following. From what I've seen, people follow and unfollow that the proverbial drop of a hat (whatever that means). In comparison to my 800-something "friends" on Facebook, my 40 followers on Twitter makes me, not necessarily feel unpopular, but makes me just feel downright boring. Perhaps I'm too boring for people to want to follow... not that I really care or anything. I'm not going to start tweeting about Justin Bieber to try to get more followers or anything. I guess I'm still just new and don't really understand what it is that makes you a good Twitter...er... Tweeter... whatever. Anyway, if you, like the rest of my family and the several others that have started using Twitter after my soul selling last week, would like to follow me, look for @atownmania...
Greetings to one and all. As today is another Tuesday, I'm here to provide you with something to read, I guess... and I know I'm going to offend somebody today. I know it. Topics to be discussed: The truth, the blame, the right to voice disapproval, the tweets, the prediction, the final straw, and the crazies. On we go.
Well, what can I say? The Utes got trashed by TCU on Saturday. I was there. Wait... wait - do you hear that sound? Listen closely - it's the sound of all the BYU fans rejoicing. Hmmph. Misery loves company, I guess. I've taken a couple beatdowns from BYU fans in the last couple days - unprovoked, might I add - but whatever. They don't have much to back up their arguments with, so... whatever. Anyway, the great thing about being the underdog in a big matchup is that if you win, it's a miracle, and if you lose, who cares? You weren't supposed to win, anyway. I had pretty high hopes for the Utes going into Saturday's game. I thought we'd at least put up a fight. I thought we'd either win or lose in a close battle. As soon as TCU strolled right down the field to score on their first possession, I leaned over to Austin and said, "That was way too easy." Then they scored on their next possession. And we punted. And punted. And punted. Things were really not looking good going into halftime down 23-0 at home. I told Austin that the second half could be a whole new game for us and, as soon as Shaky Smithson had a 45-yard kickoff return, it was like the crowd's blood finally started pumping again. But alas, Jordan Wynn threw an interception two plays later. Everything that could have gone wrong for the Utes did go wrong. We fumbled, we threw interceptions, we punted - and the punts weren't very good - but when we did have a good punt, pinning TCU at their own 7 yard line, TCU responded with a 93-yard touchdown. On the other hand, everything that needed to go right for TCU did. When we fumbled, we practically handed the ball to them. When they fumbled five yards into the backfield, they scooped it up and ran it in for six. When they needed to burn our secondary, they did. In short, they were just the better team on Saturday. I'm not going to come out and whine that we deserved to win because we didn't. We played like it was a scrimmage. We dropped easy passes. We let them run all over us at home in the biggest game in the state's history.
Who was to blame for the 40-point loss? You can't blame the crowd for the loss. It was a bowl game atmosphere at Rice-Eccles Stadium last weekend. Austin and I woke up at 4 in the morning to go to College Gameday in the west parking lot. Going to Gameday was a lot of fun. The crowd was pumped. We were out for blood. Heading into the opening kickoff, it was easily the most hostile, deafening crowd I've ever been a part of at a college football game. Unfortunately, the crowd was taken out of the game early after about 10 minutes of the first quarter. I wouldn't blame the offensive line. A lot of people are saying that Jordan Wynn faced the most pressure he's seen all season against TCU, but as a spectator, it honestly didn't look like there was a lot of pressure on either side of the ball. There were no sacks and each quarterback was only flushed out of the pocket a handful of times. I wouldn't blame the running backs. They only rushed for something like 51 yards, but they didn't have a lot of chances to do anything. In fact, I think we could have - and should have - tried to run the ball a little more. The majority of the blame has to go to the quarterback, Jordan Wynn. Quite simply, he played like crap. He's a much better quarterback than what he showed us on Saturday. He looked shockingly like (no offense) Jake Heaps - throwing behind receivers, ahead of receivers, above the receivers, and right into the hands of a couple wide open TCU defenders. I think this was easily the worst game of his career. He just couldn't move the ball and, as the leader of the team, needs to accept responsibility for Utah's surprising inability to move the ball down the field. Our receivers are to blame to a small extent. When Wynn did make a good pass, it bounced right off the hands of the wideouts, most notably DeVonte Christopher. And, as much as it pains me to say this, Kyle Whittingham is also to blame. The decision to keep Wynn in the game blows my mind. I think the justification was that Terrance Cain is a senior and has nothing left to prove and that Jordan Wynn, as a sophomore quarterback, could learn from being in that situation - down big at home playing a top five team. However, I see the decision to stay with Wynn as a concession. We conceded the victory in the middle of the second quarter at about the same time some fans started chanting "We-Want-Cain!" The question in my mind was what could Cain have possibly done worse? Throw an interception? Fumble the ball? Not reach the first down marker? An article I read yesterday said the only difference Cain could have made would have been 47-14. GOOD! That would have been great! I would have taken whatever points we could have put on the board, even if the third-string punter was throwing the ball or an offensive lineman was put in as running back. Coach Whittingham claims he couldn't hear the crowd yelling its disapproval, which I highly doubt, considering the fact that many fans were booing every time the Utes took over on offense with Wynn at the helm. He made a decision to keep in his starting quarterback and that decision, to me, says, "It's not going to get any better, so we might as well keep him in."
Despite the 40-point slaughter, Austin, Scott Aylett, and I actually had a lot of fun at the game. After we went down 30 points in the early third quarter and half of the stadium had been evacuated, we all collectively accepted defeat. At that point, we just started joking around, heckling TCU fans on the other side of the stadium, leading chants, and dancing our booties off. When the Utes finally found paydirt toward the end of the game, we all started jumping up and down the bleachers, high fiving one another, and even hugging. I wonder what the TCU fans were thinking. Probably nothing. I'm sure they didn't care at all. As Austin and I have both mentioned, getting blown out by 40 is much, much less painful than it would have been to lose in a heartbreaker with a last-second Hail Mary or a field goal. We came home and were just fine, other than the sleep deprivation. Going to the game wasn't a waste of time. It wasn't very pleasant at some points, but it wasn't a waste of time. Scott, Austin, and I now have inside jokes and funny stories to last us months.
Where's Waldo??
**QUESTION TIME!!**
Q. "Dear Aaron,
Do you ever think it's ever ok to boo your team if they are playing poorly at home?"
Just Curious,
- The Junior Mounties
A. You know, it's funny you should ask. I sparked a heated debate about this very topic on Facebook yesterday. (SALUTE!) Pretty much everybody that commented in response to this Question on Facebook was a BYU fan and pretty much all of them responded the same way. They said no, it is never, ever acceptable to boo your sports team. In fact, several of them claimed to never have booed their team in their entire lives. They have been upset with their teams, but have never once uttered a boo. This makes me wonder what they do when they're upset? That could be potentially funny to watch. What are they going to do? Cheer every time their point guard turns it over? Give a standing ovation when your team goes in for the half after shooting 25% from the field? I guess they're just better at zipping their lips than I am because you can bet your sweet bippy that I booed the Utes on Saturday afternoon. I read an article about Utes fans yesterday that contained a quote from Jerry Sloan. Coach Sloan said, "I think fans deserve it every time they come to the game. If you’re not playing hard and they boo you, they’re trying to send a message to you. … If you don’t put the effort into it, they get disappointed, because they’ve got to go to work at 8 o’clock in the morning." Agreed, coach! I didn't boo the Utes to say, "I hate you! I hate this team! I'm classless and drunk!" I booed them to say, "Come on, guys, you're better than this." Are Utah fans spoiled? Why would anyone ever boo an 8-0 team that had won 21 straight games in a row at Rice-Eccles Stadium? Probably because people paid big, big money to see that game. Students camped out for that game. I had been looking forward to that game for weeks and weeks and the Utes forgot to show up. I agree wholeheartedly that fans have the right to boo if a team isn't putting forth a good effort. Jared Anderson commented on Facebook, "It would be like never criticizing (or booing) your government when they make crappy decision (or perform poorly)." And if that makes me a bad or a disloyal fan... guilty as charged.
I can't bear to watch...
The Twitter crusade is going all right, I suppose. After one week of tweeting, I am being followed by 42 peeps, some of which are likely spammers and some of which I don't even know. I have somehow tweeted over 300 times and have already offended at least three people I know. Let's just say I found a website that tells me who stops following me and I know you, Sara V. Martinez, have stopped following me for some unknown reason. That's right. I just called you out. Twitter is different than Facebook in a couple ways. It's really stripped down, so there is only one photo per user and no annoying Farmville invites. There are also far fewer of my so-called friends that use Twitter and the ones that do seem to be very fickle in their following. From what I've seen, people follow and unfollow that the proverbial drop of a hat (whatever that means). In comparison to my 800-something "friends" on Facebook, my 40 followers on Twitter makes me, not necessarily feel unpopular, but makes me just feel downright boring. Perhaps I'm too boring for people to want to follow... not that I really care or anything. I'm not going to start tweeting about Justin Bieber to try to get more followers or anything. I guess I'm still just new and don't really understand what it is that makes you a good Twitter...er... Tweeter... whatever. Anyway, if you, like the rest of my family and the several others that have started using Twitter after my soul selling last week, would like to follow me, look for @atownmania...
Follow me.
I think there are two types of A-Towners when it comes to the Newsletter: Those who are easily offended by the stuff I write and those who are just dying to know how my "Dancing with the Stars" pick is doing. I'm sure I've already offended some people today, so I might as well catch the rest of you up on how the lovely Miss Brandy is faring on everybody's favorite dancing show. I've already chronicled her slow start. I seriously thought I might as well go hide in a cave for the rest of my life. She wasn't good at all the first three weeks and stupid Jennifer Grey was a shoe-in to win it all. Well the tables have turned now, babies! After a couple slip ups by Jennifer and consistent improvement from Brandy, I proudly report that I'm back on top of the world and the odds of yours, truly, becoming a four-time psychic are looking pretty good right now. Brandy has been at the top of the leaderboard for three or four consecutive weeks now and she's looking like the front runner at this competition, especially considering the fact that Bristol Palin, Kyle Massey, and Kurt Warner (three of the worst dancers in the whole competition) are still in (as of Tuesday afternoon - one will go home tonight). Kurt actually hasn't been that bad, but he's nowhere near as good as Brandy or, dare I say it, Jennifer. It will be a real shame if Jennifer ends up winning. She has had some colossal meltdowns in the last couple episodes and hasn't been as consistently good as Brandy has throughout the season. The judges love her, though, and I guess that's all that matters *rigged*cough*biased*cough*
There is a man that has won nearly every professional football award in existence. He used to be good, but he's not anymore. He used to be cool, but he's not anymore. He only keeps setting records because he's been around since the invention of cleats. There is one award, however, that has evaded him through the years. That award is the illustrious Game Ball. I don't want to do this, but I must - and I do it mostly in hopes that once he has collected this, the last of all football hardware, he will go quickly and quietly away. The Game Ball this week goes to our good friend Brett Favre, who completed 36 passes for 446 yards and two TDs, earning the seldom-mentioned Tyronne Biggums 68.94 fantasy points. That's pretty good, I guess. Now go away. Please.
One cool customer.
The Shoutout of the Week this week goes to the drunken man that talked to me, Scott, and Austin on our way into Rice-Eccles Stadium. OH NO YOU DIH-UNT!!! Yes. Yes we did. Actually, let's give another Shoutout to the large man sitting down a few rows from us who was busting a move during a timeout late in the game. His inspirational dance moves generated our "CRAY-ZEE DOOOO-OOOOD!" chants and later motivated the three of us to start our own dance party. We busted some sick moves, as well, and Facebook has the pictures to prove it. And finally, we'll throw one more out there. Here's a Shoutout to the gutsy couple that dared sing the Utah fight song on one street corner with accordion accompaniment. That's just plain intense. Good work, everyone.
That's about it for this week. And remember - I'm not a bad guy, I just blog like one.
Until next Time,
Move It! Sell It! And Leave the Door Open!
Aaron
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