Friday Night Lights Pilot: Great Show, Lousy Football Ending

OK, so let me see if I get this correctly. In the first game of the first season of Friday Night Lights, the following scenario happens. The team's superstar QB, on the verge of signing with Notre Dame, throws a duck of a pass. As he makes a very QB tackle on the defender, he gets paralyzed. He also causes a fumble while getting paralyzed that his team recovers. In with them so far. In comes the completely inexperienced backup. We'll let it pass that this team, supposedly ranked number one in Texas, does not have a touted backup. This is a drama and we need to beat some odds. This QB comes in and with three minutes to go manages to look like absolute ass throwing the ball but the team still scores on a shovel pass (actually a good play call) and a run.

The team gets the onside kick with less than a minute left. That's fine. Then with no time outs (more on that later), they run the ball and the guy dives out of bounds at the 30 of the opponent. Even though his body lands out of bounds, the clock starts again like in college when a team gets the first down and the chains are moved. There are seven seconds left, so if the team had a time out they would have called it. The QB calls a play and snaps the ball with one second left. Nobody from the defense is blocked. He has to avoid three rushers, runs backward a long way and launches the ball. The defense must have rushed most of their defenders, since a receiver runs past everyone and catches the ball around the 30-yard-line, which is where I thought the ball was snapped. He scores the winning touchdown.

The characters and the drama and the setting were nailed so well that I'm willing to overcome that crazy scenario. I still have 20 episodes left in season one. I bet die-hard fans who are watching the final season wish they were where I was.