Playmaker 10: Best Games of 2011
By Javi Perez at December 29, 2011 | 4:47 pm | Print
Follow Javi on Twitter: @PlaymakerJaviWhat an awesome year it’s been for sports. It’s not officially over (who knows, tonight’s Alamo Bowl may have to retroactively be put on our list), we couldn’t help but put together a list to savor at the end of the week and into the weekend as we celebrate the best that 2011 had to offer and look forward to what 2012 will bring.
I love putting together these lists. Going back and remember the moments, even the painful ones, are always great because we can often remember where we were and how amazing it felt to watch the games unfold. Looking back at last year’s list, it seems like an embarrassment of riches. But to compare it to this list, 2011 leaves 2010 in the dust. There are games and moments that might have made the top 5 any other year, but in 2011 they can’t even crack the top 10.
The Raiders beating the Texans the day after Al Davis died? Not here. What about TJ Yates leading an incredible comeback in Cincinnati? Nope. Dirk Nowitzki is obviously on our list, but surprisingly not for his incredible shot over Pau Gasol or the comback he led in Game 4 against Oklahoma City. If TCU had completed an incredible comeback against Baylor, maybe they would have appeared three times on this list… but they didn’t. And there’s no sympathy for the Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team despite having to suffer the quickest five seconds in history in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Heck Nelson Cruz only makes this list once despite hitting a walk-off grand slam in the ALCS and setting all kinds of postseason records.
So here’s what we’re going to remember about 2011.
10. NCAA Women’s Final Four – Texas A&M vs. Stanford: Aggies Never Give Up
Photo courtesy Texas A&M Athletics
The Texas A&M women’s basketball team was playing with house money at this point. No one expected them to get this far because Brittney Griner and the Baylor Bears stood in the way. After finally slaying the dragon and beating Baylor to get the Final Four though, the Aggies found themselves down by 10 points with about five minutes left in their first ever Final Four game against Stanford.
And that’s when it started to get crazy.
It’s easy to say that the Aggies outscored Stanford 19-8 the rest of the way, but in the final 35 seconds of the game, the lead changed FOUR TIMES! With the timeouts, turnovers, and free throws, every excruciating possession was squeezed dry in this instant classic. Sydney Colson made two free throws to put A&M up by one. After a questionable foul call on Danielle Adams, two free throws put Stanford back in the lead. Then Tyra White made a great baseline move to get a layup to put A&M back up by one. Stanford took a timeout and set up a play for Nnemkadi Ogwumike, who made an impossible layup to put Stanford back on top with less than 10 seconds and the Aggies out of timeouts. A&M never hesitated. After the shot, Colson went coast to coast, drawing the attention of three defenders under the basket before making a simple bounce pass to Tyra White on the other side of the basket for the game-winning layup.
Two days later, the Aggies beat Notre Dame to win the national championship and head coach Gary Blair became the oldest man alive to do the dougie.
9. TCU vs. Boise State: Wild and Crazy Finish
Photo courtesy US Presswire
Boise State spent much of the 2011 season making the case that they not only deserved to be a BCS buster (they’ve done that before), but they also deserved a shot at the national championship. The Mountain West even changed the schedule in their favor. With TCU set to leave the conference, the Mountain West decided to have their game against the TCU Horned Frogs in Boise on the blue turf rather than in Texas, where it should have been scheduled before.
Thinking it was good for the conference, the MWC ended up losing the Broncos to the Big East anyway.
The game was a back and forth affair filled with big plays on both sides of the ball. Boise State was up by seven with less than three minutes left and they were driving in TCU territory. With the prospect of either running out the clock or making it a two-possession game, the Broncos were in great position… until they fumbled the ball away and the Horned Frogs took that opportunity to score a touchdown and put themselves an extra point away from tying the game.
Ironically, TCU ended up taking a page from Boise State’s playbook to win this road game. Down by one, TCU went for two to take the lead and got it on a pass from Casey Pachall to Josh Boyce. It looked like Boyce would be taken down short of the goal line, but he shook a tackle to get in.
But it wasn’t over! With a minute left, early Heisman contender Kellen Moore led the team to field goal range and gave Boise State one kick to win the game. But it never had a chance and TCU walked away with the upset. And now they’ll come to the Big 12 coming off a year where the won the Rose Bowl, gave Baylor all they could handle, and knocked off a top 10 team late in the season.
8. Spurs vs. Grizzlies Game 5: The Last Shot
It’s hard to believe considering how poorly they finished the season and how quickly they exited the playoffs, but the San Antonio Spurs spent most of the season with the best record in the NBA and finished as the #1 seed in the Western Conference. But things started to unravel at the worst possible time for them. DeJuan Blair had become a shell of himself. Tiago Splitter wasn’t ready to shoulder the load down in the paint and Tim Duncan and Antonio McDyess were too old to hang with the young and fiery tandem of Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol.
On top of all that, their best player, Manu Ginobili, broke his elbow in the second to last game of the regular season. Their seed was a label only. Memphis wanted to play San Antonio in that first round and showed why through four games. In the 5th, San Antonio was in desperation mode at home. They scratched and clawed and played tough basketball. With less than five seconds left, Manu appeared to hit a three-pointer to tie the game and probably send it into overtime, but replays showed that his foot was on the line. So the Spurs fouled, Memphis went back up by three points and the series appeared to be over… unless San Antonio could make one more three pointer.
Enter Gary Neal.
That shot extended the game and eventually extended the series. On the road, despite playing close for three quarters, the Spurs just didn’t have it and were eliminated in Memphis. But people are going to remember that shot for a while. And it appears that the Spurs have that fire still burning heading into 2012.
7. Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State and Texas A&M vs. Arkansas: The Incredible Disappearing Aggies
The hype coming into this year was incredible for the Texas A&M Aggies. Not only were they among the favorites to win the Big 12, but there was talk of the Aggies being a dark horse pick to win the national championship. Looking back, it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Early in the season, the Aggies were a top 10 team and playing at home against the Oklahoma State Cowboys who were also a top 10 team looking to win the conference and get a shot at a title.
The Aggies led 20-3 at halftime before OSU came roaring back with three touchdowns in the 3rd quarter to take the lead back. It should have been more, but Justin Blackmon killed all the momentum the Cowboys had with a dumb play. What should have been an easy touchdown, Blackmon made an unforced turnover to give the ball back to A&M.
I’ve never see anything like that in all my years of watching college football. He just lost it. Ultimately, it just made the loss more painful for the Aggies because of how much OSU tried to give them the game away in the 2nd half.
The following week: same story. Playing the Arkansas Razorbacks at Cowboys Stadium, A&M once again looked dominant against a team that eventually climbed as high as #3 in the country. By halftime, the Aggies led 35-17: an 18-point lead. The previous week’s game seemed clearly behind them as A&M looked like they were back on track.
And then it happened again…
Arkansas came back to score 18 unanswered points while all the Aggies could muster was a field goal to give themselves a three-point lead in the 4th quarter, only to have their winning chances wiped away by a late Razorbacks touchdown that proved to be the game-winner.
Those two weeks were a nightmare that haunted the Aggies for the rest of the season. A&M blew a double digit lead at home to Missouri and lost in overtime later in the season, then blew another late lead to Kansas State and eventually lost in four overtimes to the Wildcats. Those weren’t nearly as bad as their losses to OSU and Arkansas. Against those two, A&M was ranked and still had hope for what would turn out to be a lost season where they finished 6-6.
As for their most memorable loss of 2011? We’ll get to that later.
6. Cowboys vs. Cardinals and Cowboys vs. Giants: Can’t Kick It
Speaking of haunting images, there’s one that’s going to haunt Cowboys fans for a while unless they have some unlikely postseason success. It’s the image of Dallas head coach Jason Garrett icing his own kicker.
Is it so hard to make two 49-yard field goals in a row on the road as time is expiring? YES! Yes, it is! There’s only a handful of kickers in the NFL that could be expected to do that. A rookie on the road? Despite his performances early in the season, it’s hard to put a player through that.
The sad thing is that the time out really took a lot of attention away from Garrett’s poor clock management at the end of the game in Arizona. Tony Romo completed a pass to set up Dallas at that spot with about 20 seconds left. Holding two time outs, Garrett let 15 seconds roll off the clock while Romo spiked the ball. 49 yards seemed close enough. Even though Dallas held two time outs and could have run two plays with the middle of the field open and gotten in chip shot range and had all the time in the world to set up the field goal unit, Garrett waited until the play clock was winding down to call a time out as everyone watched a perfect kick sail through the uprights.
Bailey missed his next kick and the Cowboys went on to lose in overtime.
The following week, with a chance to tie the New York Giants and send the game into overtime, it was the opposing head coach that iced Dan Bailey. But rather than go wide or short with the next kick, the kick was blocked by the Giants to seal the victory which solidified a loss when Dallas held a double digit lead late in the 4th quarter. Ultimately, those two winable games will be remembered if the Cowboys lose this weekend and miss the playoffs because they were a few moves away from being division champions.
5. Baylor vs. Oklahoma: RG3′s Heisman Moment
This is the game that won Robert Griffin III the Heisman trophy. It was his best game against one of Baylor’s toughest opponents of the season. Hosting #5 Oklahoma, Baylor hung in with a Sooner team that seemed headed to the national championship game.It looked like Oklahoma might be on the verge of taking control of the game in the 2nd half until Baylor somehow benefitted from a tipped ball on a deep pass. It’s easily the craziest play of the Bears’ season and should have served as a warning sign to OU that this was going to be Baylor’s night.
With the game tied in the final minute, Baylor head coach Art Briles was ready to run out the clock, but then Bob Stoops used a time out so that OU might get the ball back. So RG3 responded like, “Ok, we can play it like that. Let’s go win this thing right now.”
It took just four plays for the future Heisman trophy winner to put Baylor into the endzone for the winning score, capping an unbelievable game with an exclamation point.
Baylor finished the season on a five game winning streak and back-to-back bowl trips for the first time in school history and RG3 won the Heisman… thanks to this incredible game.
4. The Rose Bowl – TCU vs. Wisconsin: Horned Frogs Make History
Forget the Playmaker Curse. We’ve never had that. We give teams and players the Playmaker BUMP. We declared 2010 the “Year of the Frog” in our holiday issue last year, but didn’t realize that it would carry into 2011 the way it did.
The scrappy TCU team out of the Mountain West wasn’t supposed to hang with the tough Wisconsin Badgers who won the Big 10, certainly not in their first trip to the Rose Bowl. But Texas teams are starting to have a habit of winning legendary games in their first trips to Pasadena. Luckily, TCU was no exception.
What was impressive about this game is not the victory itself, but how it happened. Wisconsin didn’t let TCU hang around and then Horned Frogs got lucky a few times to win. TCU came out and smacked the Badgers in the mouth, took a lead at the half, extended that lead in the 2nd half and then grinded the game out with hard-hitting, tough defense. It was the kind of defense that Wisconsin couldn’t handle despite winning the Big 10 conference, known for those kinds of gritty games.
And Andy Dalton certainly looks like he was no fluke in his career or the system Gary Patterson has at TCU. He’s making things happen in the NFL and is a win away from the playoffs with the Bengals as a rookie. As we saw earlier in this list, TCU isn’t done either. They beat another top 10 team this year and almost beat Baylor on the road. Now they’ll play in the Big 12, where they hope to go from BCS busters to national championship contenders.
With Gary Patterson at the helm, I’m not counting them out.
3. Texas vs. Texas A&M: The Last Game… for now
Photo courtesy David J. Phillip/AP
It felt like the whole college football season for both Texas and A&M had built up to this game, with expectations constantly shifting based on the fortunes of either team. The Longhorn Network was, without a doubt, the #1 story in Texas this year. It prevented Texas from starting massive realignment last year and caused Texas A&M to start massive realignment this year. At the beginning of the year, with Texas struggling and A&M ranked in the top 10, it appeared that the Aggies would win in a walk. But then things started to even out. The Texas defense and running game picked up, while the Aggies threw away games left and right.
And so, all the last game came down to was who would be able to celebrate for years to come because this was the last time that these two teams would play for a long time.
Down 13-0 in the 2nd quarter and with no signs of life from the Texas offense, it looked like it was going to be a long day in College Station for the Longhorns, but then Texas reached into it’s bag of tricks to finally get on the board.
That made the game closer, but what really set things off was Carrington Byndom’s interception return for a touchdown to start a dominant 3rd quarter for Texas. The Longhorns outscored the Aggies 17-0 in the 3rd to take the lead. But the offense once again stalled in the 4th quarter, allowing A&M to take the lead back in the final two minutes on a touchdown from Ryan Tannehill to Jeff Fuller.
The game was over. Texas fans basically stopped watching with any hope that they’d win the game. All season, the offense hadn’t been capable of going on a long, sustained drive. There was no confidence that Texas could put together a two minute drill to even get a field goal to win. It was over.
But then Case McCoy, in the game for his superior pocket presence, made a mad dash up the field to set kicker Justin Tucker up for one of the most important field goals in Texas Longhorns history.
It was good. It wasn’t for a conference championship the way Hunter Lawrence did. It wasn’t for the Rose Bowl the way Dusty Mangum did. It wasn’t even for a win over a ranked team on the road the way Ryan Bailey did. But it was against A&M for a game that will be remembered for a long time. This isn’t the last time the two teams will play. Eventually, cooler heads will prevail and they’ll renew the yearly game. But the Aggies won’t get a chance to avenge this loss for a really long time. And until the day comes when they face each other again, the Longhorns can look back on this victory with pride. Goodbye A&M.
2. NBA Finals Game 2: We’ve Got a Series
Unless you were a Miami Heat fan, you were rooting for the Dallas Mavericks. The very soul of the NBA was on the line in the NBA Finals. With the empire of the Big 3 in Miami going up against the rebels in Dallas. But realistically, it seemed like a lost cause. Sure, the Mavs had beaten the Blazers, Lakers, and Thunder as underdogs, but this was the NBA Finals and the Heat looked unstoppable. As much as I tried, I couldn’t talk myself into seriously thinking that the Mavs could prevent the evil empire from getting their first of what could be many championships. And in the 4th quarter of Game 2 of the NBA Finals, it looked like it was going to be easy for Miami.
Up 15 with about 7:00 minutes left following that three-pointer, Dwyane Wade made a mistake. He lingered with his hands in the air right in front of the Dallas bench. Rather than sink back into their chairs and wonder how they could ever beat this team, the Mavs got mad and played like it.
The Mavs clawed back to tie the game in the final minute and then Dirk Nowitzki stepped up with what should have been the dagger the sealed the game.
Instead, Jason Terry played some really lazy defense and Mario Chalmers tied the game up in a matter of seconds.
But we all know what happens when the game is tied with time winding down and the Mavericks have the ball. Of course, it was in Dirk’s hands and he made the play Dallas needed like he’d done all through the playoffs.
I love the look on Dirk’s face after the win. Completely serious, not celebrating, as if to say, “I expected nothing less than playing perfect basketball to win this game and you should too.” Even though Dallas lost Game 3 at home, the Mavs knew that they were capable of beating Miami anywhere and any way to win a championship. They had more comebacks in them, but up until Game 2, it seemed somewhat impossible, as if the ride would end with another disappointment and no championship.
Instead, Dallas got a long-awaited ring, Dirk solidified himself amongst the all-time greats in the game, and, perhaps most importantly, Lebron James still doesn’t have a championship. The Mavs became NBA heroes for that reason in 2011.
1. World Series Game 6: So Close, So Epic
Sadly, this year’s list and last year’s list have something in common. The best and most memorable game of the year was a loss for the Texas team that played. But while they did lose, they provided one of the most entertaining games in the history of the World Series.
The Texas Rangers didn’t go through a ton of internal changes between their two trips to the World Series, except that they went from first-timers and underdogs to overwhelming favorites. When Nolan Ryan predicted that his Rangers would beat the Cardinals in six games, I honestly thought that he was being modest. With the exception of CJ Wilson, most of the starting rotation and bullpen looked untouchable. The defense was great and players were killing the ball up and down the lineup, particularly Nelson Cruz and Mike Napoli.
Going into Game 6 in St. Louis, Texas had already recovered from the thumping they took at the hands of Albert Pujols by winning the last two in Arlington. They looked poised to win their first ever championship, the first for the Lone Star State.
From the start, pitching was out the window. This game was going to come down to who brought the bigger bats to the plate. Lance Berkman, Ian Kinsler, and Michael Young all made early impacts at the plate. Through six innings, the game was tied 4-4 and both teams had dipped into their bullpens to carry them the rest of the way.
It didn’t help. The runs kept coming, but Texas was the biggest beneficiary.
Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz hit back-to-back home runs followed up by an RBI single from Ian Kinsler later in the inning. Texas was up 7-4 through seven innings. They could taste it. Two more innings and the championship was theirs.
Derek Holland came in for relief in the 8th and Allen Craig, the hero of Game 1 and near-hero of Game 2, cranked a solo shot to left, but that was all the damage that St. Louis did in the 8th. Texas was still up by two runs in the 9th inning and the Cards were down to their last out when David Freese came to the plate. Berkman and Pujols were already on base. Craig had just struck out. If there were three guys the Rangers didn’t want to see at the plate in this moment, that was them. They weren’t afraid of Freese. But the Iceman Cometh when he was down to his last strike. Freese lifted a fly ball to right field and that’s when the madness started at New Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Cruz never had a shot. He blindly jumped hoping that by some miracle the ball would land in his glove, but the only prayers that were answered on this night were the ones made by Cardinals fans as Freese had a game-tying two run triple to extend the game.
I have family members that are Cardinals season ticket holders. In talking to my Uncle Jim, who lives in Ballwin just outside of St. Louis, he said that he never had a doubt in his mind that they would come back from being down 7-4. But he, and many other fans, thought the game was over when Josh Hamilton launched a two-run shot to give Texas a 9-7 lead in the 10th inning.
Hamilton was playing hurt and everybody knew it. The previous year, the Rangers rode him and his ALCS MVP to the World Series, but this year he’d become a defensive centerfielder making more plays with his glove than his bat. But one last time, he reared back and dealt what should have been the winning blow for Texas in Game 6 of the World Series. Stunned silence engulfed the crowd. Nobody thought St. Louis had another comeback in them. But they were wrong.
No big homers here, the Cardinals came back in the 10th to tie the game on great hitting and manufactured runs. And they did it with their best hitters this time. Down just one run with a runner at 2nd, Texas intentionally walked Albert Pujols to get to Lance Berkman, who was the hottest hitter St. Louis had in the World Series at the time. Berkman was 2-4 with two RBI’s in the game already. He was 7-18 in the previous five games coming in. I completely expected them to load the bases for Allen Craig, but they pitched to Berkman. They got him down to his last strike… for the second time, once strike away from the championship… but they paid.
Tie game once again. At that point, St. Louis went from Comeback Kings to Team of Destiny. Texas was out of gas and it became apparent that the Cardinals were going to win this game because a two-run lead was just not good enough for Texas on this historic night. Nelson Cruz popped out and Mike Napoli hit a single to right while Esteban German (one of the worst calls Ron Washington made in the World Series) ended their half of the 11th. In the bottom of the inning, St. Louis needed just one batter to put this one away. And it was Freese that would play the hero once again.
Texas never recovered. They took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of Game 7, but gave away the lead in the bottom of the inning and never led again. St. Louis just came up with the big hits when it mattered most, when their backs were against the wall. And what’s painful for Texas is that they were clearly the better team coming in, but just couldn’t close it out. St. Louis just willed themselves to win every important game.
We should thank the Texas Rangers… and the St. Louis Cardinals. A World Series nobody wanted to see had everybody watching every game because of how close nearly every game was. With both managers making moves and players on each side coming up big constantly, the drama provided by the 2011 World Series was among the best in history. And it was played between a team from a football state and a team that snuck into the playoffs on the last day.
There were a lot of great memories provided for Texas fans. Nelson Cruz’s home run derby of a postseason was a wonder to watch. Derek Holland’s mastery at the plate on the big stage was unlikely and amazing. Mike Napoli grew into a leader and clutch player in the 2011 playoffs. Michael Young, the guy that Texas didn’t even want to bring back, constantly showed why it was a mistake that they even thought about sending him elsewhere. It was an incredible year to be a Texas Rangers fan.
But ultimately, you’ll have to live with the pain of disappointment like the storied franchises throughout baseball that have existed for a century or longer. You’re one of them now. You’ve got a team that people want to emulate and that people look up to. You lost the World Series, but if there’s something good that you can take from 2011, it should be that.
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