I am a 1991 graduate if the University of Notre Dame, and two of the greatest sporting events I’ve ever been to were Notre Dame home football games, both viewed as iconic games with memorable outcomes. The first was the 1988 home game against the Miami Hurricanes, chronicled in the documentary Catholics versus Convicts. The Irish won that day 31-30, and I declared at that game that I would never attend a better sporting event. I was right.
The second historic Notre Dame football game was the 1993 Irish win over Florida State, dubbed the “Game of the Century,” as these were the top two ranked teams in college football. Notre Dame won 31-24 by knocking down a Florida State pass toward the end zone on the final play.
Both were incredible, exhilarating afternoons, but one win in retrospect reigns supreme for me. After beating Miami, Notre Dame went on to win the national championship that season. Conversely, the week after beating Florida State in 1993, the Irish were upset at home by massive underdog Boston College. The Irish would finish second in the polls that season.
The Miami game lives on in my memory, the Florida State game is sullied by what happened at the end of the season. That’s how things work sometimes. In the moment, outcomes of games can be euphoric, but if there is soul crushing failure shortly thereafter, then what did all mean?
University of Houston basketball fans surely know this feeling this week. The comeback win over Duke on Saturday was one for the ages:
However, the way the tile game ended on Monday, an abomination of a final possession allowing Florida to sneak out with a 65-63 win, was a massive kick in the junk:
For me, Monday’s outcome makes the win over Duke in the semifinal much harder to savor. It spoils it in a way, because you can’t fondly remember it without remembering how excruciatingly close you came to winning the whole thing.
So while we are wallowing in the cesspool of failure in championship situations, let’s bring up three more legendary postseason victories that were ruined shortly thereafter by a gut punch loss, one each for the Rockets, Astros, and Texans.
ROCKETS — 1997 Western Conference Finals, Game 4 (Eddie Johnson’s buzzer beater)
In 1997, the Rockets had loaded up on veteran players, including Charles Barkley and Eddie Johnson, to try to get back to their championship form of 1994 and 1995. In the conference finals that season, they faced the hated Utah Jaxx, and trailing 2-1 in the series, the Rockets evened the series at two apiece, with this buzzer beating gem from Eddie Johnson:
And incredible Houston sports moment that was ruined two days later when John Stockton did the same thing to the Rockets to close out the series and move onto the NBA Finals, depriving us of a series with the Chicago Bulls:
ASTROS — 2019 American League Championship Series, Game 6 (Jose Altuve’s walk off home run)
This was one of a handful of times that the Astros sent the Yankees home for the winter over the course of 2015 through 2022. Ladies and gentlemen, Jose Altuve:
It would have easily been the sweetest elimination of the Yankees, had the Astros gone onto win the World Series that postseason. Unfortunately, they lost in seven games to a very average Washington Nationals team, and did so while winning exactly ZERO home games in the World Series:
TEXANS — 2019 NFL Wild Card round (Deshaun Watson escapes a car crash)
Unlike the Rockets and Astros of those eras, the Texans don’t have two world championships they can lean on to rationalize failure in a given season. Thus, I’ll just go with the biggest one week emotional swing in the team’s postseason history. Back in January of 2020, in the postseason for the 2019 season, the Texans defeated the Bills at home in a thrilling wild card round comeback, highlighted by this improbable escape by Deshaun Watson:
A week later, however, the Texans would build a 24-0 lead in Kansas City, only to be outscored 51-7 the rest of the way:
Two months later, Bill O’Brien would trade DeAndre Hopkins, just as the pandemic hit. Ten months after that, Deshaun Watson would demand a trade. Then came the lawsuits. Indeed, the ripple effect from that Texans playoff loss was profound!
Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.
