The luck (or lack thereof) of the Irish

Typically, when I lose or fail at something, I simply blame it on bad luck. It's just part of my character.

The same is true for the teams I root for. In fact, I can't even remember the last time my Iowa Hawkeyes lost a game in which they weren't screwed by the refs.

Conversely, any win involving my teams is a combination of superior skill and impeccable execution. Luck, obviously, never has anything to do with a victory.

This weekend though, I was nearly forced into abandoning this highly effective defense mechanism. In one case, my team — Notre Dame — won almost entirely thanks to good fortune, and in another, my team — the United States Ryder Cup squad — suffered a loss which couldn't have been prevented by all the good luck in the world.

Why I'm a ND fan is unclear to me. I've never really had anything to do with Notre Dame or its football program. True, my second cousin did graduate from the same high school as Brady Quinn — no, they weren't friends — and my grandma is Catholic, but beyond that, I have no affiliation with the university.

For whatever reason, though, I'm a fan and loved the outcome of Saturday's game. Yet despite my efforts, I couldn't chalk it up to skillful execution or brilliant play-calling.

Instead, Notre Dame just seemed to get lucky.

In the first half, MSU absolutely dominated ND. Not only did the Spartans score early and often, they scored with ease. Receivers were wide open, running backs were walking through holes in the line and MSU's quarterback Drew Stanton was so well protected that he actually looked bored in the pocket.

But in the fourth quarter, a storm front moved in, and along with the rain, brought with it the much heralded luck of the Irish.

It started when Quinn launched a 42-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Zamardzija on fourth and five, a risky play that Weiss himself later admitted "wasn't very smart."

Fortune remained with ND when two fumbled snaps, a 34-yd deflected pass and a Stanton fumble all wound up in the hands of the Irish.

These were followed by two equally remarkable and/or lucky interceptions — one game winning, the other game-ending — in the last three minutes by backup cornerback Terrail Lambert.

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Clearly, from MSU's perspective, bad things happen if you give up 19 points on three turnovers in the fourth quarter. But while it's very easy to criticize the Spartans for cowardly play calling and bumbling execution, you simply can't lose a 16-point fourth quarter lead at home without some serious misfortune. Luck was clearly on the side of the Fighting Irish.

Meanwhile, across the pond in Ireland, the home of the real Irish, luck had nothing to do with Europe's Ryder Cup victory over the Americans. Apparently you don't need any luck when your opponent sucks.

Europe never trailed in this year's Cup and went on to win by a whopping nine points — the largest margin of victory in the history of the 79-year old event.

The United States has now lost five of the last six Ryder Cups and hasn't won since little Justin Leonard sank an 85-foot bomb of a putt to secure a miraculous come-from-behind victory in 1999.

In the previous losses, however, it's been easy to make excuses. You could always say that the nasty European fans were unruly, disrespectful and flat-out mean for example. Or that Seve Ballesteros kept coughing in American players' backswings. Or, my personal favorite, you could simply accuse Colin Montgomerie of cheating.

If that didn't work, then you would just blame it on luck. The Europeans had it, the Americans didn't, and that's why we lost.

This year was different though. There was no luck involved in the European victory. They just beat us.

From top to bottom our roster was startlingly lackluster. Granted, we have Tiger, but he seems alienating to the point that I'm convinced he actually does more harm than good to the team chemistry.

As far as our other "big guns" are concerned, Phil Mickelson and his goofy, ever-present grin is far from intimidating, especially in match play, and Jim Furyk's helicopter swing and 255-yard drives don't exactly command respect. And besides David Toms and Chris Dimarco, few people had ever even heard of the rest of the guys.

The European squad, however, wasn't exactly full of all-stars either. They had just as many no-namers as the U.S did, maybe more. Thus, it wasn't the roster that made the difference, nor was it the home-field advantage, nor was it the team captains.

Instead, the Europeans executed under pressure, and the Americans didn't. We choked, and they were clutch. The Europeans simply outplayed the Americans over those three days on the coast of Ireland. And unlike Notre Dame's victory, the luck of the Irish had nothing to do with it.