our 2nd game was at home against unraked Purdue Boilermakers the second saturday of september 2009
Purdue @ Oregon
PREGAME
the day before the game, i kept saying that i didn’t wanna go to the purdue game because of what happened in boise
my friend Danielle Bader and i were texting that day and she was able to get me to want to go to the purdue game
i don’t remember exactly what she said, but it was something along the lines of this:
“oregon football is your love, that is your passion. when you love someone you’re always there for them even in the worst of times. oregon is your passion, don’t give up on them. if you love the ducks like i know you do, you’ll go to the game and cheer for them like you always have”
so i told my dad to drop me off at my moms house that night
on saturday morning, my mom and i left bellevue and drove to eugene
since my mom can’t drive at night, we always get a hotel if the game starts after 1pm. the purdue game was a 7pm start
(my parents or older brothers always drive cause oregon football games is like a family thing, especially on my moms side. i’m the big duck fan of course, but since all of us live seperately, going to duck games together is family bonding time, which i love! especially cause i get to sleep in the back seat on the drive down and back up haha!)
at the hotel i get my ducks stuff on, but no face paint this time because its bad luck
not feeling good about the game, i decide not to send Mia a text telling her what channel its on, although if she did know and did watch thats awesome cause we won!
anyways my mom dropped me off at Autzen Stadium and i walk up to my seat
my season ticket was between the student section and the marching band, so i don’t bother trying to sneak into the student section cause i actually like my seat
when the team came out for warm-ups, the students all chanted Blount’s name
i was happy to finally be back in Autzen after 11 months
GAME
the ball is kicked off and autzen comes to life, yeeee!!! the sound of autzen roaring is music to my ears
for the first few drives, oregon’s offense still sucked so i was getting mad cause an 0-2 start destroy’s your season
oregon’s D gets a pick though and we get a field goal out of that so we go up 3-0 and i’m excited cause we actually have a lead! naturally since Danielle got me to go to the game, i texted her the score and what happened
on our next offensive posession, jeremiah masoli throws a bubble pass to jamere holland and he sprints down the sideline for a big gain. our offense is finally starting to come to life!
after a jeremiah masoli run, andre crenshaw punches it in for a TD so i’m estatic that our offense is alive! so of course i text Danielle that we’re up 10-7
but then purdue scores to go up 14-10
i’m starting to wonder if we have enough offense to keep up and win
then they get the ball back up 14-10, i’m thinking if they score our season is over
but hold on, oregon gets a pick six!!! we’re up 17-14 in a back and forth game with our season at stake. i’m lost in the moment so i pull out my cell phone again and text Danielle the score
everytime there was a score by either team, i texted Danielle because she couldn’t watch the game
purdue scores 10 straight points to take a 24-17 lead halfway through the 3rd quarter, our offense is just no where to be seen or found and i’m getting nervous
with the ball again up 24-17, same though goes through my head.. this could be it
on 3rd and 3, purdue does a run play but fumbles it, oregon’s javes lewis picks it up and runs into the endzone for a TD!!! WE’RE TIED!!! the second he crossed the goal line i grab my phone and text Danielle in all caps that we’re tied
late in the 3rd quarter, after a few lamichael james runs (get familiar with that name for later duck tales) jeremiah masoli takes a keeper into the endzone, TOUCHDOWN DUCKS! 31-24 oregon!
i text Danielle that we’re leading again
then purdue scored to make it 31-30, and i’m thinking: if our offense can just get one more score..
oregon drives down the field in the 4th quarter, and Kenjon Barner has a long touchdown run that puts us up 38-30! so i text Danielle again, this time i tell her the score and that the only way we can lose this game is if it goes into overtime.. so pretty much we can win right here and now
purdue marches down and scores a TD, they go for 2 to tie it but don’t get it
they do an onside kick because they have to but we recover it
we kneel the ball and we win
i text Danielle the second the clock expires that we won and i’m so happy that she talked me into going to the game
i’m so relieved!
POST GAME
i walk to the bus line and wait for an hour before finally its my turn to get on a bus back to the hotel
when i get back to the hotel, my mom has cinnamon pizza waiting for me (my favorite kind of pizza, call me weird if you want) and a bunch of gatorade cause she knows i never eat or drink during or before games because my adrenaline starts rushing about 4 hours before kickoff, and games last nearly 4 hours plus the bus ride so.. on gamedays i usually go about 9 hours without food or drinks, and during that time i walk a lot of miles and lose my voice
i eat all the pizza and drink all the gatorade within 20 minutes haha!
then i went to sleep relieved we won
next day we drove
after the purdue game, i didn’t text Danielle with score updates from games because the way the season went, i could handle everything on my own. with #16 utah in town the next week, i was plenty fired up on my own, i didn’t need Danielle to help in the motivation category. Danielle got me through the Purdue game. after the Boise State game, i was ready to move on in life to other things but Danielle, she picked me up and made sure i didn’t give up on my passion
adamkendall2 