I was significantly late to the wedding reception of one of my closest friends because of this game. He understood. And the blue streak of expletives deleted when I explained how it unfolded was impressive. That said, I have to conclude that this is his fault.

Back in 2003, another of our group got married. No big deal. An early wedding and the away game was at night. Plenty of time for the wedding and the reception. We gathered. We celebrated and later that evening we congregated at some bar in Altoona. And watched Pitt lose on the road to Toledo. He should have known better. Regardless of all the very good, logistical and logical reasons for having the wedding today — he should have known better.

Eight years later, history repeated. The wedding went quickly wedding receptions enough, and with the gap in time between the wedding and reception I went to a halfway point and to a place of nostalgia. I found myself in The Cage watching the game. Once there, with the way the game unfolded, I couldn’t leave. A good 2 hours late and I had to repeat to many what exactly happened. I felt shell-shocked after a while. And judging by the looks on their faces, they felt it just in the descriptions of the events.

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I very rarely, if ever, trash a player on the internet or in conversation.  I think because these kids are working hard and trying the best they can they deserve respect for their efforts.  So I’ll say, respectfully, that Tino Sunseri must be taught a lesson.  It has to be clear, unmistakable and administered with no hesitation.  If you cause your team to lose a football game you should expect to be replaced.  If you are any kind of team player and sportsman you’ll also realize exactly why it’s happening.

We had three turnovers today; each one was avoidable and directly caused by Sunseri.  It’s not enough to have one good play a quarter; it’s not enough to have a great completion percentage and it’s not enough, obviously, to lead your team to a big lead.  Not when you also lead your team to five three and outs… three in the second half alone.   Along with his turnovers, his inability to keep the offense on the field and extend time consuming drives killed us.

I won’t say the defense played well, they sure didn’t.  But you could see they were gassed by having to return to the field so soon after Iowa’s long drives in the third and fourth quarters.  They played damn well in the first half when they had a chance to get their butts on the bench for a while and then get their feet back under them when playing.  I’ll say this without hesitation, a major reason they played so poorly is, again, the direct result of poor play by the QB.

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I will be following with radio, twitter, hook and crook. One of my closest friends and fellow season ticket-holder is getting married today.

I know what happened. He figured this was going to be a 3:30 game. A meeting between a couple BCS teams. A better than average non-con match-up. Surely it would get some love. Evenly matched teams. A better thing to see than UNC-UVA or Washington-Neb or some of the other 3:30 games. It would be perfect. Bring in all his friends for the wedding. Get it done early and get some of the reception stuff out of the way and then we could all just be together and watch the game later in the afternoon. He didn’t count on Pitt and Iowa both being low in the expectations, and relegated to a noon start. Especially in a Central Time Zone.

Needless to say, if the ceremony doesn’t conclude by noon, I will be looking like a Secret Service reject with an earbud in place to listen to the game.

Not to worry about this liveblog. It is covered.

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