He didn't say worst team, he said worst loss and given opponent, stakes, and what was happening in the game, I agree. It was an all-time pants shitting when there was so much to gain by just holding on to a 2 score lead, with the ball in our hands, in the fourth quarter, against a bad team.
We finish that game off and we're somewhere between 9 and 13 in the first CFP ranking tomorrow night, with an outside chance of making the CFP without winning the conference. Now we need help with even making the championship game. If we win out and have to watch Colorado and BYU in the the CCG, this game becomes the third worst loss in program history.
That's all fine and good, but I think even the most optimistic K-State fan has (hopefully) realized we've been awfully fortunate to not have 2-3 additional losses at this point. This isn't 1998 when we were legitimately one of the best 2-3 teams in the country.
This is not a top 12 team - even in a wild/crazy year without the usual crop of dominate teams - and I think the rest of the year will show that (I personally think we'll drop at least one of the next three games and think it's more likely than not that we drop two of three).
We'll find out soon enough, but it's obviously gut check time for this team.
I don't agree with this thought process, at all. Why are we fortunate to have 3 one score wins? Can you tell me a good team that doesn't have close wins? You think Oregon fans are saying "we're lucky we didn't lose to Idaho, Boise, and Ohio State?" It's not 1998, no one wins games like that anymore. I don't know what being a top 12 team entails but if we won that game on Saturday we would have been ranked in, or right outside of it. Nearly all of the one and two loss teams ranked at the bottom of the top 10 and just outside of it have very similar profiles. I entered a bracket prediction contest today and I really struggled with teams 10-12 because there are so many teams that are indistinguishable right now.
Let me rephrase - we have played four close games this year and are 3-1. Of the three wins, one is against a fringy top 25 team (Colorado), one is against a team that is good by lower conference standards (Tulane) and one is against a team that won't go to a bowl game this year (KU).
Most good teams do have close games during the season, but, most of the time, those games are against teams of similar aptitude (certainly not always, but most of the time). Colorado will need to win the Big 12 to make the playoffs, which is possible, but otherwise, they (and the other 3 teams) won't make it.
The point here is that we've been skating on thin ice for, quite literally, almost half of our games this year, which says to me that we don't truly belong in the playoff conversation. Could we have been if we hadn't laid a turd against Houston? Sure, but my view is that it would have only delayed our exodus from that conversation because I do think we'll lose 2 of the next three (obviously hope I'm wrong). And, that's to say nothing of even being in a competitive game against Houston in the first place.
The secondary point is that I think reasonable fans always viewed this as the bridge year to next year, which is when my expectations will be higher.
The circumstances are certainly different due to the playoffs, but I can't see saying this Houston loss is on the same level as any during the 1997-2003 seasons (minus 2001) or 2012. I say that because my expectations were never at the same level as those years (and, perhaps unfairly, it's also based on how I think this team will finish).
