Nice Package

Everything of consequence that folks buy seems to be shrink-wrapped in such inconvenient ways. Think about it. CD. Wrapped in plastic, then the ends have this sticky label. It is a complete pain to remove it.

Surely, surely, the manufacturers know this, and yet, they proceed to confound the consumers with packaging that is meant to infuriate. Why, oh why, do they do this?

I know. If it were so easy to open something, then someone would accidentally open it, and then what would you do? But is it really necessary to make it extremely painful? Is there no middle ground?

Well, that wasn't much to write about, so I'll throw in some other stuff.

USC was playing Texas in the national championship game. Of football. College football. I thought I should elaborate since you may not know this fact. But then, if I have to elaborate, you simply don't care.

USC was hyped up. Last year, they were undefeated, and won a national championship. This year, they were also undefeated. They won the national championship the year before too. They were trying to win three in a row, a feat never accomplished in college football.

Texas, meanwhile, has struggled in the past, especially to beat rival Oklahoma. That has to be rather shameful. Texas is a much larger state than Oklahoma, yet, Oklahoma has remained very competitive in football, even winning a national championship a few years ago. Texas would try again and again to beat their rival to the north.

This year, they finally thrashed them on their way to an undefeated season. However, given USC's track record and with electric stars like Reggie Bush, LenDale White, and Matt Leinart, a list that includes the last two Heisman trophy winners, it's no surprise that USC was favored, and somewhat heavily at that.

ESPN had, for weeks leading up to this evening, hypothesised how the 2005 USC Trojans would fare against a variety of opponents, and the pundits claimed they'd beat all the great teams of the past. Texas was noticeably left out of the discussion.

The game started off low-scoring, and eventually, USC took the lead, at the end. While Leinart and Bush was efficient, it was the Vince Young show for Texas, who was doing pretty much everything for them on offense--running, throwing.

In the end, coaching let USC down. When they had the ball, wanting to eat up clock, they threw a ball for an incomplete, rather than just run the ball. At fourth down, they went for it and did not make it, when they could have kicked the ball and given Texas a much longer field to work with. They called time outs when they didn't have to. A key penalty let Texas have a first down when it looked like they would turn the ball over.

In other words, USC had plenty of chances to seal the victory. Instead, Texas moved the ball down, and let Vince Young and his legs do the work, eventually trotting down with some twenty seconds left to take the lead, and making the 2 point conversion to lead by 3 points, forcing USC to cross enough of the field to attempt a field goal.

Though USC made up a lot of ground on the first play, they simply ran out of time on the second, unable to find an open receiver close enough to make a reasonable kick.

So, in 2006, Texas manages to beat juggernaut USC, showing that, in a close game, coaching still make a difference, or in this case, lack of good game-time decision.

Too bad these games run so long, but at least that's the end of college football until it starts up again in the fall.