It's a Saturday afternoon at Ramer Field in River Falls, Wisconsin. The River Falls Falcon football team is trying to force a fourth overtime vs. the La Crosse Eagles. The Eagles have defeated the Falcons 16 straight times coming into this matchup. The score is 47-47. The Eagles lineup for their two point conversion. Nick Anker drops back and fires to the far corner of the end zone. A Falcon gets his hand up and tips the ball...right into the hands of an Eagle player for the game winning score. The Eagles ran onto the field like they had just won the Super Bowl. On the other sideline, the Falcon football players look dejected. It's at this moment where I'm pretty sure that the Falcons are cursed.
I don't know when this happened. Did Taylor Edwards step on a crack somewhere? Did Ryan Luessenhide anger an old woman by not opening the door for her? Did former center Scott Witte eat a truckload of bad fish? Maybe Coach O'Grady was painting his house and walked under a couple ladders. It's insane how close this football team has been to rising back to relevancy. The final years of the wishbone era were kind of brutal, but then came the introduction of the zone offense to River Falls.
With this offense, the Falcons would mount a formidable passing attack. Storm Harmon would crush every Falcon passing record within two seasons as quarterback. Michael Zweifel was brought in two seasons ago and smashed every Falcon receiving record within a single season. Suddenly, the Falcons were exciting again. Shootouts were a common occurrence and they were fun to watch. However, a funny thing happened on the road to relevance.
It seems like every Falcon game, the team has one or two bad luck bounces that causes them to lose the game. Consider the following. The Falcons previous 5 losses have come by a total of 10 points. They're knocking on the doorstep, but they just run into bad luck. Just examine these losses for a second.
November 15, 2008: Oshkosh 13, River Falls 12
The Falcons hold Oshkosh to 6 points the entire game and the Titans drive all the way to the one yard line. The Titans attempt to run for the game winning score, but the running back is stuffed at the line of scrimmage for 5 seconds. After this, the running back springs out and throws a ball into the end zone that is caught by the quarterback for the game winning score. All 5 offensive lineman are down field, but nothing is called.
September 5th, 2009: St. John's 28, River Falls 24
River Falls jumps out to a 17-0 lead in this game when RB Taylor Edwards runs down the far sideline and he's gone...that is until a St. John's defender makes a desperation tackle and gets Edwards by his shoelace. Instead of a 24-0 lead, the Falcons would wind up missing a field goal and St. John's would fight their way back for a 28-24 lead in the 4th. To make matters worse, on the last drive of the game QB Ryan Luessenhide drives the team down to the St. John's 31, until Michael Woodward commits a chop block away from the play negating a 4th down conversion. The Falcons fail on their second attempt, and St. John's escapes.
October 3rd: Stout 13, River Falls 12 (OT)
The Falcon kicking game fails the Falcons as Chad Blair misses a seemingly harmless extra point in the first quarter. With the game tied at 6, Blair has a chance to make a field goal to win. He pushes it to the right and the Falcons go to overtime. After a Stout touchdown, the Falcons decide to go for the win on the road. The Falcons run a naked bootleg to the right, where Ryan Luessenhide is killed at the 5. Game over.
October 10th: Oshkosh 31, River Falls 29
The Falcons try to convert a two point conversion to get the game to a manageable state in the 3rd quarter. Ryan Luessenhide tries to hit a wide open Joel Yogurst in the end zone, but the ball gets caught in the wind and falls to the turf. Missed tackles also hurt the Falcons, and a missed PAT by Chad Blair doesn't help as the Falcons fall again.
October 17th: La Crosse 49, River Falls 47 (3 OT)
Before the game winning play, La Crosse blocks two punts and returns them for touchdowns. River Falls dominates the game, but these blocked punts kill the Falcons again.
This isn't the team's fault or any former players fault, but if you think cheering for the Vikings is hard, watch a Falcon game. What's most frustrating is the lack of interest by the student body. In most students eyes, this is a team that doesn't capture the imagination of the campus. They're still wondering if the Falcons can get that elusive 4th win. Just looking at those losses, it's very possible that if a couple bounces go the Falcons way, they wind up 6-0 at this point in the season rather than 2-4. Heck, even 5-1 or 4-2 would be incredibly possible at this point! But, the Falcons have had some unlucky breaks.
So there you have it. I certainly believe that the Falcon football team is cursed. What will it take to solve this dilemma? Will the Falcons have to win that 4th game to take off? Or do the Falcons just need to bite the bullet and try something else? The Falcons are so close to relevancy they can taste it, but they need to get lady luck on their side again at some point. The question is when?
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