Over the past decade, athletically speaking, Oregon State has held Notre Dame in a headlock. Or a full-nelson. It’s not that the Beaver are always better, they are just better at the right moments. Maybe it’s even luck.
The Beavers have turned the Irish away from two bowl victories, a handful of baseball games, another handful of softball games (including once this year), wrestling matches, volleyball games, beer-pong, backgammon and go-fish.
A Division-I school that beats another Division-I school as habitually as the Oregon State Beavers do the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is silly. The Beavers could probably beat the Irish in a game of follow-the-ball-under-the-cup. Blindfolded.
The Beavers get a flush while the ‘Domers get a pair of three’s and a Queen. All off-suit.
Even Mitch Canham and Darwin Barney rap better than Darius Walker, Rhema McKnight and Maurice Stovall. Okay, that’s not luck. And the truth of that statement is quite debatable.
It seems like the Beaver simply have the Irish beat at their own game: Luck. That is, until it’s a quarterback battle and the NFL is involved.
Twice in the past three years Notre Dame quarterbacks have been drafted and stolen the show from their Beaver teammates. Sort of. First, Brady Quinn tried to slip into the back door while Derek Anderson was still getting his feet wet in Cleveland. Now Jimmy Clausen is set to step in front of Matt Moore in Carolina.
Interesting.
There is a lot of buzz around the Beaver community today. A lot of people are pulling out the old, “Here we go again!” card. But this time it’s a bit different. Exaggerations of what Anderson had to go through are surfacing. Anderson was still able to produce in Cleveland. And he was given the opportunity to succeed.
It wasn’t the end for D.A. In Cleveland when Quinn arrived. In 2007, Quinn’s rookie year, Anderson threw for over 3,700 yards with a QB Rating of 82.5 and started 15 of 16 games. He was a first alternate in the Pro Bowl.
It was an unlucky start to 2008 that led to Anderson’s eventual demise – not Quinn.
In the preseason, Anderson was sacked by the New York Giants defensive end, Osi Umenyiora and suffered a (mild) concussion. He was unable to practice the rest of the preaseason and was dropped into live-games on opening day against the 2008 Super Bowl favorite, Dallas Cowboys – and lost.
By Week 6, the team had turned the corner. Anderson and wide receiver Braylon Edwards seemed to be on the same page.
“This is us,” Anderson told the AP. “These were the guys who made plays all last season.”
It was Week 9 that sealed his fate, though. Even when Anderson threw for 219 yards, two touchdowns and only one interception (his first since Week 4), the Browns announced that Anderson would be benched in favor of Quinn.
“It’s always deflating when you don’t make a play because we needed plays,” Browns coach Romeo Crennel told the AP. “It’s deflating when they run the ball in for a touchdown. It’s deflating when they throw the ball over your head. It’s deflating when you don’t make a catch in the open. It’s deflating when you lose a game.”
Only three weeks later, during a game against the Houston Texans, Quinn was benched by Crennel in favor of Anderson. The following week, Quinn was ruled out for the remainder of the season with a broken finger and Anderson was renamed the starting quarterback. The first game he was back at the helm he suffered an MCL injury effectively ending his season.
Bad luck struck again. And it wasn’t over for Anderson.
Crennel was fired in the offseason and incumbent Eric Mangini preferred the more-mobile Quinn. Quinn was named the starter until the the team quickly found itself 10 quarters deep into the NFL season with more questions than answers. Anderson’s first start, after Quinn was benched in the third week, was against the Cincinnati Bengals, the same team that he faced after replacing Frye in 2007. But he lost the game.
Even though he struggled, Mangini stuck by his quarterback.
“I think he gives us the best chance right now to move the ball,” Mangini told the AP of Anderson. “I know his numbers have not been impressive, but he isn’t alone in producing those numbers. There’s been a significant amount of drops.”
That is until Anderson’s QB rating fell to the worst in the league by Week 9. Then he was benched.
He was released by the Browns after the season ended and was quoted as saying, “The fans are ruthless and don’t deserve a winner. I will never forget getting cheered when I was injured. I know at times I wasn’t great. I hope and pray I’m playing when my team comes to town and (we) roll them.”
In the end, Brady Quinn didn’t force Anderson out. It was bad timing, bad luck and, at times, bad play by Anderson. Quinn, the heir-apparent, was recently cut by the Browns and picked up by the Denver Broncos (which is a completely different article). It will be interesting to see if Moore in Carolina will face the same sour luck that plagued Anderson in Cleveland.
It’s been heard through the grape-vine that Moore and Anderson don’t often have a chance to speak due to scheduling conflicts. But that may change given the Panthers decision to draft Clausen, Moore may be a little faster to pick up the phone and seek a bit of guidance from someone who has walked down a similar path.
Or, Moore can simply take a page from general philosophy and know that there is a difference between knowing the path and following the path.
When did you head East and what are you doing there?
I think Derek Anderson is still a good back-up quarterback. I don’t think he was ever an NFL starter (except for the Browns). If you really watch him at the NFL level, he is slow in his progressions, tends to lock onto targets (Braylon Edwards), and can “feel” his way around the pocket.
Okay, so you say he lacks in-game experience? He was a starter for 2 years! By Tom Brady’s 2nd year he could do all of that and more!
D.A. is going to be the next version of Vinny Testeverde. A great number two option who can put up gawdy stats (Vinny is 8th all-time in passing TDs I know) but never a good choice for your starting quarterback (he has lost 123 games, the most games by a QB in the history of NFL).
Great read and an interesting angle. I bet that Matt Moore will be fine, though. He always seems to prove everyone wrong.
Where is the “Like” button on this website? Good post. I totally forgot that Derek’s big year was the “golden” boy’s first year in the league. Even still, I’ve never liked Brady Quinn and I probably never will and the same goes for Clausen. I hope Matt Moore owns him in training camp.
You still suck. Get over it.