Why do we have to call it luck. Its obvious as the games wear on that we are under the more understanding of the "60 minute game" concept than the other team. We wear them down and take over in the 4th qtr. The only reason these games were even in question in the 4th is because of our own miscues. I dont see where luck has played a huge factor. We're the ones that are becoming unstoppable in the crucial situations and executing when it matters most.
+1 - Luck is a combination of preparation and opportunity. Nebraska has put themselves in a position to do well, and have prepared themselves effectively to win the game!
I wont argue that there was some luck involved. Missed FG by NW. Dennard Robinson injured by falling down. PI call Michigan St. Possible phantom fumble Penn St. But if youre 100% honest with yourself, you would agree that not one of those incidences were THE deciding factor in our wins. Maybe the missed FG by NW is the closest to that, but there was still well over a minute to go. We could have just as easily driven for our own go ahead FG, and obviously the other 3 have been discussed in-depth enough over the past few weeks that we know where everyone stands on those, one way or the other.
I just think to say we were "lucky" the past 4 games is a far stretch and again looking for reasons to say we suck.
Call it whatever you will - but this team has not won a game "convincingly" in some time. Outside powers - whatever they are - seem to be creaping in (fortunately in our favor). A missed field goal is unlucky for the other team, but they didn't execute. We've missed plenty. Now, a 60 mile an hour gust on a calm day would be lucky for us...but that didn't happen. The Dennard injury was lucky (it's not as though our preparation contributed to that) - but happened far to early for us to consider the outcome decided by that. I'd say both the phantom fumble and the PI call were game change officiating decisions that we got lucky on though. That's 2 wins. I know the game is 60 minutes - but both of these were towards the end and all but sealed a victory for us. We still executed and took advantage of both, which certainly isn't luck -
but had neither happened I think we'd be looking at 6-4 right now. The fact that we can even point to a single officiating decision and know that the game would have turned out differently is rare, the fact that we can point to 2 in two weeks is probably unheard of for a team. There is plenty of luck in our current situation. Catching a hail mary is lucky, but it's also execution. Getting clearly questionable officiating calls to go your way and swing the outcome in your favor 2 weeks in a row - very lucky.
Against MSU, PI was being called extremely tight all game long. MSU was gifted two TD's off of similar ticky-tack penalties. It wasn't a "shocking" call, unless you subscribe to the "you don't call that" fallacy that you must call a game different in the last 2 minutes, than you did the previous 58. We were still inside the 20, and well within FG range to take it into OT. MSU was gassed, we weren't.
As for PSU, there was almost 8 minutes left on the clock during the fumbledown. Even if they get the TD, they weren't stopping our offense. We went into ultra conservative mode to kill the clock and end the game.
We were in easy FG range against MSU, and PSU had no answer for us in the second half.
