It was kind of sad that we were already into October before we got ourselves into Autzen Stadium for a Duck game. We had decided to sell some of our previous game tickets as they weren't conducive to our schedules - so this Thursday night game against Arizona was to be our first attendance as a family.
I wish I had more positive to say about the game. We lost. It was a sad loss, a hard loss, and a game in which a lot of people totally lost confidence in our team and our coaching. In reality, our quarterback was still pretty beat up from the previous game and our offensive line was down to bare bones due to injuries, so there was a lot of justification as to why we didn't shine. But, it's still hard when you think your team could potentially go all the way to the National Championship and this one loss could be the end of it all.
The reality is, the following weekend, 8 out of the top 15 teams went down, so we were in very good company. And, as I'm typing this in hindsight, I can say we demonstrated yesterday, against UCLA, how the Ducks really can play again - and as one announcer said, "the story of our demise has been much exaggerated". (Take that GameDay announcers - none of which thought we would win or come back as a team).
Wins or losses aside, though - this guy just continues to impress. He is Marcus Mariota - our quarterback - and from everything I've heard, one of the most upstanding young men you'll ever meet - again, as one announcer said, "the kind of guy you'd be happy to let your daughter date".
He could have wallowed in his physical pain at the end of the game, or emotional pain of the loss and its ramifications to his team's post-season play or his own chances at the Heisman (which he insists he doesn't even want to reach for), but he chose instead to love on these kids from the Children's Hospital who got a special field trip to the game. That's character. That's a true win.
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