Resolve to go for two

We offer the perfect strategy for anyone getting picked on for watching too much college football. Inform the critics you are building character for the Game of Life.

Halfway through the annual trek of bowl games, fans have witnessed two outstanding displays of football moxie. It's the kind of good-for-you confidence and fortitude coaches love to yammer about. Last Friday, the Oregon State Beavers beat the Missouri Tigers with a gutsy decision to go for two instead of playing for a tie. True pioneer spirit was demonstrated by the hardy progeny of sojourners who started down the Oregon Trail with a farewell wave to those who stayed behind in St. Joseph, Mo.

OSU coach Mike Riley credits his players with the raw enthusiasm and attitude to take chances in overtime.

"Like in a card game at the end, we were all in," Riley said after the game. Write that down.

Monday night, the country watched one of the greatest moments in the history of football since Cain inflated a pig's bladder and yelled at Abel to "Go long!"

The Boise State Whos? went up against College Football, Inc., the No. 7 Oklahoma Sooners. The team from somewhere around Wyoming was unbeaten and supposed to be decent, but all the smart money expected more blood and body parts than a cable channel cosmetic makeover. Oklahoma would be running up numbers known only to the likes of Washington, D.C., lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Two solid football teams hammered on one another in a sporting attempt to reduce the other to molecules, the smallest recognizable piece of a Bronco or Sooner. Boise State leads, but Oklahoma ties with less than a minute and a half to play. An interception gives OU the lead. BSU ties with seven seconds to go. In overtime, Bob Stoops' Sooners go up seven points. Boise State scores and coach Chris Petersen never pauses to ponder a tie.

The underdog Broncos scored on a misdirection play as old as personal grit, ambition and chutzpah. Coaches across America are crocheting iPod covers and wall hangings that invoke the spirit of the Boise State win. The end-zone marriage proposal by the game-winning running back to a cheerleader, no less, pretty well ices the movie.

The beauty of the two games is that risk was rewarded. Critics cramping your bowl-game schedule? Resolve to go for two.