Monday, October 2, 2006

Week 5 - UK Perspective (Issue 10)

"Please do everything you can to make sure the Skins win this week." - Scott E. Zakheim, 9/28/06.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Skins Serv. Whatever you guys did during Kol Nidre worked, because we were given the first miracle of the early year (sorry for those offended by the sports and prayer/god stuff).

After many complaints about the tone of the Serv being too pessimistic, the Skins Serv (and the Skins season) has officially been upgraded to "cautious optimism."

So instead of my perspective on the game (as always), I have pasted my cousin Doron's email from the UK after he watched the game on TIVO (and didn't know what happened). You're gonna love this and it is a fantastic analysis of the game as well.

I will be back later in the week for a very upbeat report in the upcoming game v. the Giants.

Go Skins!!!!

(Is this a team of destiny???)

 

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WOW! I can't speak, I'm just too excited! If my heart was beating any faster I'd have to go to hospital.

 

Let me start from the beginning...

 

I recorded the game last night and went off to shul. I couldn't stop thinking about the game the entire Yom Kippur and I was so excited for it to be over so I could get home and watch it as live without knowing the score (who's gonna ruin an NFL game in Hendon huh?!)

 

So I got home tonight and the first thing I did was have a drink. However, the second thing I did was NOT eat. I ran upstairs and swapped my suit for my Skins Moss jersey and settled down in front of the TV with a bit of food whilst my parents ate inside like 'normal' people.

 

After Brunell's interception I thought 'here we go again' but since I had extremely low expectations for this game, I didn't get too down about it. Next thing you know my baby Santana has delivered me a monster TD and we're away! Even though we went in at the half 4 points down I was so proud of the way our Skins had fought and played against a very good Jacksonville team.

 

I screamed, yelled, cheered and sweared continuously at the TV - my parents really had no idea what was going on, bless them. When Santana went in for another TD to make it a 10 pointer I was on my way to heaven...just praying we could hold out. We couldn't...

 

In a flash it was a tied game and my heart couldn't take it. Nevertheless we stayed strong and played so well on offense like we had done all day (CP was absolutely unbelievable! He tore up that Jags D like it was the little girls' league!) Driving the ball upfield, we eventually got a bad call from the refs and had 4th and 1 in field goal range. My heart wanted to give in at this point but Hall surprisingly delivered and gave us the lead with just under 2 mins to play.

 

This is when my heart got worse. Jacksonville were driving but our D, despite giving up a lot of points, was playing the best they have all season. 4th and 8, the crowd were screaming, I was screaming, but the bastards converted and scored a field goal.

 

Right about now my heart rate peaked and it wasn't to do with the game. I had added a bit of time to the recording in case of OT but I feared it wouldn't be enough and it would cut out in OT - the worst possible situation!

 

Anyway, Skins won the toss to my delight and after a gay penalty against Cooley (who was amazing) destiny had come...

Brunell dropped back and passed out left to my baby Moss. Moss leaped up in the air and made an outstanding catch between two defenders. He then ducked straight between them and was away...

You know the feeling - I screamed my head off as he went on his way running into the open space and straight through the endzone into the crowd. I actually celebrated the most I have done since Man United won the treble in the last minute in 1999.

I went completely insane, screaming, jumping up and down, running around - pure unfathomable joy!

 

I'm still in disbelief. 36 points against the Jags! What a performance! This team is too much - I love them more than anything.

The D played a great game despite the points - it became a shootout so it wasn't their fault. They finally got pressure on the QB sacking Leftwich loads of times - luckily for Leftwich he had his momma in the crowd!

Cooley had a comeback game, Portis played one of the best games I've ever seen - he IS the difference between winning and losing and he ran straight through that 'monster' D. And then there's my baby Moss whose name sits proudly on my jersey. He had another insane game and made me so happy that I don't even care that I left him out my fantasy team - I just feel ashamed and almost blasphemous to have doubted my boy!

Our offense has finally clicked into gear and Al Saunders' playcalling was brilliant. We were conservative when we needed to be and exciting and adventurous the rest of the time.

2-2 now and if we keep up the momentum we could be for real this season! After all my early season despair, my hopes have shot back up and I once again have a lot to look forward to. Life is good again. The air smells sweeter and the birds are singing louder than ever.

 

Hope you had a good fast and I expect to hear about your experiences of watching the game (whether you watched half and then watched the rest after Yom Kippur or if you just knew the result this morning).

Let me know.

 

I'm on cloud nine and WE CAN GO ALL THE WAY baby!

 

Love you all,

 

Doz

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