Heartbreak in the Swamp

Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler played his best game of the season on Saturday. It was arguably the best game of his college career. While Vandy repeatedly marched down the field on the Florida Gator's nationally fifth-ranked defense, a costly mishandled snap that led to a Florida score and an interception in the second overtime to end the game will assuredly be his enduring memories of a game in which he became Vanderbilt's all-time passing yards leader, thereby completing his stranglehold on every significant quarterback record in Commodore history with at least two games still to play before he bids adieu to the Black and Gold.

While Cutler and the Vandy offense engineered a miraculous 14-point comeback with 4:11 on the game clock against 13th ranked Florida in Gainesville to send the game to overtime before succumbing in the second frame 49-42, I cannot help but cry in my beer over the travesty that was the officiating in Saturday night's game. Luckily, I'm not alone in this as Sean McDonough and Mike Gottfried (the ESPN announcers for the game) and the crew on ESPN Gameday Final were very critical of the judgment shown by the officials on the field and in the instant replay booth. Read more about that here.

Granted, committing three turnovers that led to great field position and subsequently 21 of Florida's 35 points in regulation made these calls more important than they should have been, but I can still moan and wail about it for at least another 24 hours before I turn my attention to the urgency of our 'Dores winning the last two games of the regular season. Hopefully they've already done so because I'm not ready to see this team pack it in quite yet.

"It's awfully important to win with humility. It's also important to lose. I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won't know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back." Coach Paul Bear Bryant