Oops.
Oh, you don't know why I typed that? The short version is because there were 2 bowls today and I missed on both of my predictions. I'll repay you with a timely post:
New Mexico Bowl
Fresno State-28, Wyoming-35 (2OT)
You know, if you ignore the fact that these were two mediocre teams, this was actually a very good game. Good hard hits, a thrilling comeback in regulation, and some good overtime play. My thoughts?
Well, in the first overtime, Fresno State successfully got the ball down onto the one yard line of Wyoming and managed to do nothing in 4 tries...That's actually a credit to Wyoming's defense, as it is just about impossible to stop 4 straight runs up the middle. Fresno State did nothing wrong, and I hope that this episode doesn't encourage more coaches to try play action or sweep plays from the 1 yard line. Since it occurred in a fairly obscure bowl between two fairly obscure teams, I'm sure that won't be the case.
Any hoo, in the next overtime, Wyoming played it safe and went for the field goal. In footage that you can no doubt catch on youtube or ESPN, the kicker missed, but Wyoming players and fans were already headed onto the field. Look, guys, the football's in the air for, like, 3 seconds. Can't you wait for the referee to signal? Is that so hard? Premature celebrations bug the heck out of me, especially in light of the fact that, had Fresno won the game, the sting would have been made much more bitter. Kinda like what happened to Kentucky in this nifty link. So fans, I beseech you, wait for the refs' signal. It's not too hard, it doesn't take too long, and it keeps you from looking like an idiot...
Finally, for this game at least, take note that Fresno tried the ol' "offensive lineman gets the ball" trick again in the second overtime. If you'll recall, this happened during the last week of the regular season (second, equally nifty, link) during the final play against Illinois. This time it was intentional. Ironically, this time it didn't work. I'm not sure what that should tell us, but I'm sure it tells us something.
Congrats to Wyoming on winning their first bowl since 2004, and only their second since 1966. Also, congrats on starting bowl season off right!
CFR Pick counter: 0-1
St. Petersburg Bowl presented by Beef 'O' Brady's
Rutgers-45, UCF-24
See the post below this one? Where it says UCF will upset Rutgers? Yeah, whoever wrote that is an idiot.
Oh, you're still here? Well, I can analyze this one pretty simply: Once I found out exactly what Beef 'O' Brady's was, my interest in this game plummeted. I figured after the high scoring first half that we'd be in for something of a shootout. Unfortunately for those of us who thought UCF might win, they left their offense in the locker room for the 3rd quarter, and an 11 point halftime lead became an insurmountable 21 point 4th quarter lead. The onside kick attempt that was run back for a touchdown probably didn't help...
Congrats to Rutgers, you beat a team from an inferior conference. Since you play in the Big East and played one of the worst nonconference schedules imaginable (Howard, Florida International, Maryland and Texas Southern), that's basically what you've done all year. Nice job.
CFR Picks: 0-2
Tune in tomorrow to see if I'm really as bad at this as it seems!
Showing posts with label Bones was wrong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bones was wrong. Show all posts
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Texas/Ohio State mashup/matchup/thing
Oh, it's 2009. Oops. See, real sportswriters have an advantage over bloggers in that bloggers have jobs that don't entail writing and aren't paid. That said, I will not be attempting to review the previous bowls, though I would like to say that going to Miami for the Orange Bowl was pretty awesome.
But now, for the review of the Fiesta Bowl....
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Texas-24, Ohio State-21
The Buckeyes have nothing to be ashamed of here, as this is the best bowl that they've played in recent memory. Plus, were it not for an absolutely, shamefully bad "roughing" of Colt McCoy on the first of Texas's 3rd quarter scoring drives, we might have seen a different final score.
If there's a rule in college football that must be amended, it's the 15 yard roughing the kicker penalty. 99 times out of 100 that flag is thrown because the kicker treats a defender's accidental tap as if it were a gunshot wound. If there's a second rule that should be amended, it's the 15 yard roughing the passer penalty.
Quarterbacks need to be protected. To deny that would be, well, stupid. But QBs ARE football players. Getting hit is a part of the friggin' game, just as much as it is for any other player at any other position! When you release a football and are hit 3 seconds later, of course it's roughing! The defender had time to stop. When you're hit half a second later, it's not roughing, because the defender couldn't stop. And, back to the Texas/OSU game, when you're NOT hit in the head, it's NOT illegal contact!
Meanwhile, the Big 12's performance in Bowl games has been shoddy at best. Thus far, the conference's only bowl wins have come against the Big 10 (2 close ones and Kansas's crushing of Minnesota) and the ACC (Nebraska's comeback against Clemson). Since football pundits (including me) spent all season talking about who was better, Big 12 or SEC, I think we've gotten our answer...
As a side note, PTI was talking about the Texas/OSU matchup and felt the need to rip the Orange Bowl. Allow me a moment for rebuttal:
The Orange Bowl featured the champion of a muddled, highly competitive conference who everyone wrote off as crappy (Virginia Tech of the ACC) and an upstart squad who had the best season in school history (Cincinnati of the Big East). Now, we had to put up with fawning and "oooh"s and "ahhh"s over the Fiesta bowl, which featured a 2 loss Ohio State team against a just-shafted out of the title game Texas. Cincinnati had two losses! AND the Big East had a winning bowl record, compared to the 1-6 Big 10! Texas Tech finished in a 3-way tie (with Texas!) for first in the conference, and lost its bowl to an SEC team that was 4th in its conference! Virginia Tech finished in a 4-way tie for first in its conference and beat a Big East team that was first in its conference!
So let's play a little reversal. Let's put Ohio State and Texas Tech against one another. Seems fair. There would be so much hype surrounding these two teams, and if Texas Tech won? Well, then we'd have to put up with news that the Big 12 was superior and that the ACC and Big East certainly didn't deserve to be in such a prestigious bowl.
Am I saying that Cincy or Virginia Tech deserved a BCS berth? No. But if you're going to market the wonder of an Ohio State/Texas matchup, you'd best not bash a Virginia Tech/Cincinnati matchup. Especially since, inevitably, we are going to have to tolerate a spate of "USC is the REAL national champion!" articles in the coming future.
I, for one, look forward to mocking them...
But now, for the review of the Fiesta Bowl....
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Texas-24, Ohio State-21
The Buckeyes have nothing to be ashamed of here, as this is the best bowl that they've played in recent memory. Plus, were it not for an absolutely, shamefully bad "roughing" of Colt McCoy on the first of Texas's 3rd quarter scoring drives, we might have seen a different final score.
If there's a rule in college football that must be amended, it's the 15 yard roughing the kicker penalty. 99 times out of 100 that flag is thrown because the kicker treats a defender's accidental tap as if it were a gunshot wound. If there's a second rule that should be amended, it's the 15 yard roughing the passer penalty.
Quarterbacks need to be protected. To deny that would be, well, stupid. But QBs ARE football players. Getting hit is a part of the friggin' game, just as much as it is for any other player at any other position! When you release a football and are hit 3 seconds later, of course it's roughing! The defender had time to stop. When you're hit half a second later, it's not roughing, because the defender couldn't stop. And, back to the Texas/OSU game, when you're NOT hit in the head, it's NOT illegal contact!
Meanwhile, the Big 12's performance in Bowl games has been shoddy at best. Thus far, the conference's only bowl wins have come against the Big 10 (2 close ones and Kansas's crushing of Minnesota) and the ACC (Nebraska's comeback against Clemson). Since football pundits (including me) spent all season talking about who was better, Big 12 or SEC, I think we've gotten our answer...
As a side note, PTI was talking about the Texas/OSU matchup and felt the need to rip the Orange Bowl. Allow me a moment for rebuttal:
The Orange Bowl featured the champion of a muddled, highly competitive conference who everyone wrote off as crappy (Virginia Tech of the ACC) and an upstart squad who had the best season in school history (Cincinnati of the Big East). Now, we had to put up with fawning and "oooh"s and "ahhh"s over the Fiesta bowl, which featured a 2 loss Ohio State team against a just-shafted out of the title game Texas. Cincinnati had two losses! AND the Big East had a winning bowl record, compared to the 1-6 Big 10! Texas Tech finished in a 3-way tie (with Texas!) for first in the conference, and lost its bowl to an SEC team that was 4th in its conference! Virginia Tech finished in a 4-way tie for first in its conference and beat a Big East team that was first in its conference!
So let's play a little reversal. Let's put Ohio State and Texas Tech against one another. Seems fair. There would be so much hype surrounding these two teams, and if Texas Tech won? Well, then we'd have to put up with news that the Big 12 was superior and that the ACC and Big East certainly didn't deserve to be in such a prestigious bowl.
Am I saying that Cincy or Virginia Tech deserved a BCS berth? No. But if you're going to market the wonder of an Ohio State/Texas matchup, you'd best not bash a Virginia Tech/Cincinnati matchup. Especially since, inevitably, we are going to have to tolerate a spate of "USC is the REAL national champion!" articles in the coming future.
I, for one, look forward to mocking them...
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Rankings Rant 11/2/08
Wow! No updates in, like, a week? More than a week! Who runs this thing?! *looks in mirror* Oh.
Might/might not do a Saturday in Review. Who knows? Not I! The Rankings are much more fun to look at this week. We're using BCS rankings here. To prove computers screw up too.
Nick Saban and Alabama got rewarded with the #1 slot in the nation be beating...Arkansas State?! How the heck did that happen?! Now I am certainly not knocking the Crimson Tide. In my humble opinion (and what do I know?) they should have been #1 that week Oklahoma lost to Texas. But apparently it's a college football sin to move to #1 during a bye week. So here we are, eh? 'Bama's the team to beat it would seem, and I look forward to seeing what happens to them from here on out. For now, however, I have no complaints with the Tide as the #1 team in the land.
I stand corrected on Texas Tech. This, friends, is a good football team. They're fairly predictable (53 pass attempts compared to 28 run attempts) but danged if it doesn't work. I guess this is less of a rant than analysis. Meh...
Penn State's still at #3. I sincerely hope they get a shot at the title. It's hard to argue against Texas Tech and Bama (Ooooo, that'd be a good one.) But still. JoePa's a legend (even if he's not a great disciplinarian) and it'd be good to give him a shot. Frankly, weak Big 10 or no, I have a problem if a 1-loss school gets in ahead of an undefeated Penn State team.
I also have a problem with Utah at #8. Not that they're not the 8th best team in the country (they're not, but let's ignore that for now). No, it's more of the fact that they're ahead of Oklahoma State, but behind USC. This is not right. Oklahoma State lost to the #1 team in the country, beat then-number 3 Missouri (who I was totally wrong about...), and plays in one of the 2 best conferences in the country! USC (who, admittedly, I hate with a passion. Keep that in mind if you like being objective) lost to Oregon State and plays in the third-worst BCS conference.
Conclusion: If Utah is "better" than Oklahoma state, then they're "better" than USC too. Utah could beat Washington State by 69, too.
An old "friend" is still hovering in the top 15. #11 Ohio State. I need someone to rationalize this for me. They drop a few spots after losing to Penn State, then move up during a bye week. I'm not OK with this. Who has Ohio State beaten?! They're not in a good conference, and the 2 good teams they've played have defeated them. USC crushed them, and Penn State beat OSU in the Horseshoe! Weird...
Georgia's gone from preseason #1 to a middle of the road SEC team. Still good, but after what Florida did to them on Saturday...the Dawgs have some work yet to do before they hoist that ugly crystal football again.
At #14 sits Missouri. I am of the opinion that any time you beat Baylor by 3, you deserve to stay where you are in the rankings. So I'm glad they didn't move up. As a side note: Chase Daniel, I am sorry for jinxing you...
Ball State sits at #17. I hope they do well. I also enjoyed how, when Tulsa lost the ESPN commentator said "Another fly in the ointment gone." Wow. Do people really think that lowly of non-BCS schools. I mean, Boise State-Oklahoma was a thriller. Utah crushed Pitt in the first BCS game featuring an outsider. Sure, Hawaii stank in the Sugar Bowl last year, but what's with the phrase "fly in the ointment." That kinda screams "elitist conspiracy" to me. Frankly I was hoping for a Tulsa/Utah title game...
Stat o' the day: UNC's record against schools from Virginia: 0-2
UNC's record against schools from the other 49 states: 6-0.
Best hope their 1-AA opponent next year isn't the Richmond Spiders...
As a side note 4 ACC teams are ranked this week. That's impressive. What's sad is that the highest ranked one is UNC. They're the #19 team in the land.
I am curious as to how Maryland is #23 and Cal is #21. Is this anti-East Coast Bias bias? I mean, same record, Maryland's beaten more ranked teams (side note: 1 was Clemson. So...). The kicker, clearly is that these 2 teams played each other. And in that head-to-head matchup, the winner was...Maryland? No, wait, I must've read that wrong. No, no, it was Maryland. I watched that game. Maryland dominated in that game for 3 quarters. How in the heck are the Golden Bears "better" than the Terps?! Isn't that what the rankings are supposed to indicate?! Maryland plays in a mediocre but balanced conference, and has defeated the team ranked 2 slots above them! Cal plays in a conference with one good team, 6 OK to fairly bad teams, and 3 awful teams. AND they lost to Maryland. I am sorry, but that's just wrong.
Oh, and congrats to West Virginia. The only Big (L)east team in the BCS rankings. I'm not going to rant on this...I'm just saying that without Pat White we'd be talking about UConn here.
Might/might not do a Saturday in Review. Who knows? Not I! The Rankings are much more fun to look at this week. We're using BCS rankings here. To prove computers screw up too.
Nick Saban and Alabama got rewarded with the #1 slot in the nation be beating...Arkansas State?! How the heck did that happen?! Now I am certainly not knocking the Crimson Tide. In my humble opinion (and what do I know?) they should have been #1 that week Oklahoma lost to Texas. But apparently it's a college football sin to move to #1 during a bye week. So here we are, eh? 'Bama's the team to beat it would seem, and I look forward to seeing what happens to them from here on out. For now, however, I have no complaints with the Tide as the #1 team in the land.
I stand corrected on Texas Tech. This, friends, is a good football team. They're fairly predictable (53 pass attempts compared to 28 run attempts) but danged if it doesn't work. I guess this is less of a rant than analysis. Meh...
Penn State's still at #3. I sincerely hope they get a shot at the title. It's hard to argue against Texas Tech and Bama (Ooooo, that'd be a good one.) But still. JoePa's a legend (even if he's not a great disciplinarian) and it'd be good to give him a shot. Frankly, weak Big 10 or no, I have a problem if a 1-loss school gets in ahead of an undefeated Penn State team.
I also have a problem with Utah at #8. Not that they're not the 8th best team in the country (they're not, but let's ignore that for now). No, it's more of the fact that they're ahead of Oklahoma State, but behind USC. This is not right. Oklahoma State lost to the #1 team in the country, beat then-number 3 Missouri (who I was totally wrong about...), and plays in one of the 2 best conferences in the country! USC (who, admittedly, I hate with a passion. Keep that in mind if you like being objective) lost to Oregon State and plays in the third-worst BCS conference.
Conclusion: If Utah is "better" than Oklahoma state, then they're "better" than USC too. Utah could beat Washington State by 69, too.
An old "friend" is still hovering in the top 15. #11 Ohio State. I need someone to rationalize this for me. They drop a few spots after losing to Penn State, then move up during a bye week. I'm not OK with this. Who has Ohio State beaten?! They're not in a good conference, and the 2 good teams they've played have defeated them. USC crushed them, and Penn State beat OSU in the Horseshoe! Weird...
Georgia's gone from preseason #1 to a middle of the road SEC team. Still good, but after what Florida did to them on Saturday...the Dawgs have some work yet to do before they hoist that ugly crystal football again.
At #14 sits Missouri. I am of the opinion that any time you beat Baylor by 3, you deserve to stay where you are in the rankings. So I'm glad they didn't move up. As a side note: Chase Daniel, I am sorry for jinxing you...
Ball State sits at #17. I hope they do well. I also enjoyed how, when Tulsa lost the ESPN commentator said "Another fly in the ointment gone." Wow. Do people really think that lowly of non-BCS schools. I mean, Boise State-Oklahoma was a thriller. Utah crushed Pitt in the first BCS game featuring an outsider. Sure, Hawaii stank in the Sugar Bowl last year, but what's with the phrase "fly in the ointment." That kinda screams "elitist conspiracy" to me. Frankly I was hoping for a Tulsa/Utah title game...
Stat o' the day: UNC's record against schools from Virginia: 0-2
UNC's record against schools from the other 49 states: 6-0.
Best hope their 1-AA opponent next year isn't the Richmond Spiders...
As a side note 4 ACC teams are ranked this week. That's impressive. What's sad is that the highest ranked one is UNC. They're the #19 team in the land.
I am curious as to how Maryland is #23 and Cal is #21. Is this anti-East Coast Bias bias? I mean, same record, Maryland's beaten more ranked teams (side note: 1 was Clemson. So...). The kicker, clearly is that these 2 teams played each other. And in that head-to-head matchup, the winner was...Maryland? No, wait, I must've read that wrong. No, no, it was Maryland. I watched that game. Maryland dominated in that game for 3 quarters. How in the heck are the Golden Bears "better" than the Terps?! Isn't that what the rankings are supposed to indicate?! Maryland plays in a mediocre but balanced conference, and has defeated the team ranked 2 slots above them! Cal plays in a conference with one good team, 6 OK to fairly bad teams, and 3 awful teams. AND they lost to Maryland. I am sorry, but that's just wrong.
Oh, and congrats to West Virginia. The only Big (L)east team in the BCS rankings. I'm not going to rant on this...I'm just saying that without Pat White we'd be talking about UConn here.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Multiple birds, singular stone.
As a Virginia Tech fan, let me give you the Saturday in Review for last week: Worst Saturday ever! Tech lost, UVa won, and USC scored 69 points. What was worse was having to see Matt Ryan every 2 seconds on my TV. The man was the main attraction in a game that he WASN'T EVEN PLAYING IN!
The thing is, it isn't his fault. Matt Ryan isn't the one who did this to himself. He's not responsible for the media worship of him. I'm sure he's probably a nice guy! (Mind you, I thought that about the last Falcons QB to come from the ACC, too...) But this is absurd. I don't need to see him beat Tech again. I sure as heck didn't WANT to see it.
Carrying on, in this brief and somewhat boring Saturday in Review, Chase Daniel isn't who I thought he was. I had him winning the Heisman, etc, etc. He's looked fatally flawed this year, and I'll admit that I was wrong. I'm sure Nolen enjoys that. Colt McCoy's looked simply amazing (and now I've probably cursed him, too.)
As for the rankings: I sincerely hope that the dang USC Trojans aren't in the national title game. Barring a major upset, though, they're going to be undefeated for the rest of the year because they play in the PA(theti)C-10. So...I'm now a Texas, Alabama, Penn State, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech fan. Just so you know.
Finally, the battle of the underachievers:
Auburn-17, West Virginia-34
This is insane. Auburn has gone from "new look" to "just plain bad" in a matter of weeks. They're in a tailspin, and I'm not sure how they're gonna get pulled out. As I said last week, Tommy Tuberville is going to be fired. He has no chance of NOT being fired. Thus, he should start having fun. Run the option on 3rd and 27. Bring in an O-lineman to play wideout. Threaten to kill a puppy for every 3 and out. Actually, scratch that last one. One dead puppy is bad. Auburn would kill, like, 30 a game.
As a note to West Virginia fans: Your team may get back into the Top 25 this week. Don't read anything into it, please. You haven't beaten anyone. The ONLY 2 ranked teams on the schedule are South Florida and Pitt, neither of whom have beaten a good school (sorry, Kansas). So please don't get cocky WVU fans. Or I'll call the ECU Pirates on you again.
See y'all on Saturday!
The thing is, it isn't his fault. Matt Ryan isn't the one who did this to himself. He's not responsible for the media worship of him. I'm sure he's probably a nice guy! (Mind you, I thought that about the last Falcons QB to come from the ACC, too...) But this is absurd. I don't need to see him beat Tech again. I sure as heck didn't WANT to see it.
Carrying on, in this brief and somewhat boring Saturday in Review, Chase Daniel isn't who I thought he was. I had him winning the Heisman, etc, etc. He's looked fatally flawed this year, and I'll admit that I was wrong. I'm sure Nolen enjoys that. Colt McCoy's looked simply amazing (and now I've probably cursed him, too.)
As for the rankings: I sincerely hope that the dang USC Trojans aren't in the national title game. Barring a major upset, though, they're going to be undefeated for the rest of the year because they play in the PA(theti)C-10. So...I'm now a Texas, Alabama, Penn State, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech fan. Just so you know.
Finally, the battle of the underachievers:
Auburn-17, West Virginia-34
This is insane. Auburn has gone from "new look" to "just plain bad" in a matter of weeks. They're in a tailspin, and I'm not sure how they're gonna get pulled out. As I said last week, Tommy Tuberville is going to be fired. He has no chance of NOT being fired. Thus, he should start having fun. Run the option on 3rd and 27. Bring in an O-lineman to play wideout. Threaten to kill a puppy for every 3 and out. Actually, scratch that last one. One dead puppy is bad. Auburn would kill, like, 30 a game.
As a note to West Virginia fans: Your team may get back into the Top 25 this week. Don't read anything into it, please. You haven't beaten anyone. The ONLY 2 ranked teams on the schedule are South Florida and Pitt, neither of whom have beaten a good school (sorry, Kansas). So please don't get cocky WVU fans. Or I'll call the ECU Pirates on you again.
See y'all on Saturday!
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