The streak is over.
The streak, you ask?
As I wrote in this space back in January, there’s a divide in our household over sporting events. No, it’s not that we cheer for different teams. It’s that my father can seemingly simply turn the tide of a game just by turning it on.
My mom just refers to it as the jinx.
Back in January, the instance was when he turned off the Rose Bowl between Penn State and Southern California, the Nittany Lions suddenly started playing really well, turning a 20-7 deficit into a big lead.
The future was bright. Hello, national title talk in 2017!
When he started watching the game again, quarterback Trace McSorley promptly threw a late interception that naturally set up the game-winning field goal for USC.
However, this time it was different.
On Saturday, Penn State was locked in a tough, old-school Big 10 battle (can we really call any Big 10 game involving PSU as “old-school” when they’ve only been in the league since 1990?) in Iowa City vs. the Hawkeyes.
Dad stopped watching, Penn State remembered it was the No. 4 team in the country and everything looked rosy.
Then he started watching again, Iowa’s Akrum Wadley scored on a 70-yard pass and then a 35-yard run with 1:42 left on the clock suddenly meant Penn State was doomed to lose as a top-five ranked team – again – in Iowa City.
But then McSorley and Heisman Trophy candidate Saquon Barkley helped the Nittany Lions march down the field in a clock-friendly manner with the 19-15 deficit. At the seven-yard line, McSorley threw quick slant to the left that was inches from being intercepted. If it was caught, the clock likely would have wound down and the game would be over.
Two breaks.
The next play, McSorley lofted a beautifully arched pass on a dime to the back of the end zone where only Juwan Johnson could catch it. All zeroes on the scoreboard – Penn State wins.
Then, somehow, the same thing happened on Sunday.
The Bears, who by all accounts are supposed to be terrible this year, are our team – unfortunately. And our team was playing Pittsburgh, a team that wins important games and has, for more than a decade, been able to trot out a Hall-of-Fame quarterback.
Chicago started out ahead, kept a lead and had every chance possible to give the game away.
I should have known things weren’t normal when the Bears blocked Chris Boswell’s field goal at the end of the second quarter and Marcus Cooper scooped it up, running freely toward the end zone.
Dad starts to cheer. Cooper starts to jog, then walk toward the end zone. Dad starts yelling, as if the play went into slow motion. Cooper fumbles and hilarity ensues.
“Only the Bears” is what we’re left with.
Except it worked out in the team’s favor, with Chicago ultimately kicking a field goal that proved to be a difference-maker in the 23-17 overtime win.
Dad 2, Jinx 0.
Maybe we can invite him to watch games again.
