Week 14 Post

Well, things just continue to get stranger in the college football, even as things went exactly as predicted on Saturday. Despite all the weirdness at the end of games, and all the exciting finishes, essentially nothing interesting happened on Saturday. Unless you count the #2 team beating the #1 team as an upset, because that doesn't really seem all that big to me, sorry. Anyway, let's talk about some games.

Cincinnati over Pittsburgh

You know, of all the things that people thought might affect this game, I don't know that anybody expected it to be the shoddy turf at Heinz Field. I watched the first half of this game and saw Cincinnati players slipping all over the place. Then, in the second half, it was the Pittsburgh players who were losing their feet on every play. Because of each team's respective inabilities to keep their traction at different points of the game, the entire game came down to a bobbled snap on a PAT.

And did anybody who watched the second half of that game really think that Cincinnati didn't have plenty of time left to score with a 1:30 left on the clock? Oh, the prevent defense... still the worst idea on earth. It might work against a team that doesn't throw the ball well, but Cincinnati has excellent receivers and a very efficient quarterback who hit something like 15 straight passes coming into the last drive. There is a different Ohio school that strategy might have worked against, but it was not going to work against the Bearcats of Cincinnati. Do you ever get angry at the stupidity of coaches who should know better? I sure do.

Texas over Nebraska

I was at a dinner party Saturday evening, so I was not able to watch this game. If this was my job, I would have. Instead, I'm just a bozo who runs a website in his spare time, so I can't tell the wife that I have to watch the game, because it is not really required. However, with that said, WTF?

I watched the replays of the entire sequence behind the end of this game, but I cannot understand what anyone in burnt orange was thinking in that final play. There are times when commentators will whine about how stupid the coach was in some situation or another, but I can often understand what the coach was thinking. However, the pointless play that ended with an overlong pass that barely landed out of bounds with 1 second left on the clock... I don't understand anything that anyone was thinking there. The LSU situation was goofy, but Les Miles has always been a little wonky, and the situation there was almost impossible (and I would like to point out that there was no way they were going to get the field goal unit on and lined up in 2 seconds). But that rollout pass thing was entirely insane. However, despite all sense to the contrary, they pulled out the win to get themselves to Pasadena, so it seems that the Fates have other plans for the Longhorns.

It should be noted, however, that Nebraska showed very effectively how to stop a passing team: get pressure on the quarterback. When the entire offense runs through one man, if you knock that man down, you stop the offense. Needless to say, it helps tremendously when you have Ndamakung Suh on your defense, but the concept is still pretty easy to understand.

Alabama over Florida

Some 10-15 years ago or so, when Alabama was hitting the skids and having trouble winning games, I came to the conclusion that the rest of the SEC had better get their conference and national titles while they were there to be had, because Alabama was not going to stay down forever. And when Alabama did come back, they were going to do what they always do: dominate the league entirely. That dinging noise you hear indicates that their time is up.

Again, I was at a dinner party where I did not have direct access to football. So I missed most of the game. However, it seems that I was incorrect in my prediction of the game; at least one team will actually stop Tim Tebow. The loss of Percy Harvin hurt their offensive production all season, but I didn't expect it to catch up with them if Tebow stayed healthy, as I did not expect anybody to attempt to go after Tim Tebow. But it seems that some other folks did not agree with my assessment and successfully refuted my expectations.

Oregon over Oregon State

I hate to admit this, but it feels like this game happened so long ago, I can't even remember it. Pretty sad, I know. But the craziness of this weekend has even snuffed out memories of a pretty good and very entertaining battle in the pine-scented portion of America. But it, like almost every other game, turned out exactly as expected, so what else is there to say? Except that Oregon is back in the Rose Bowl, which is pretty exciting for the historically overlooked team from Eugene. Chip Kelly has done an excellent job in his first season as Head Duck, and it will be interesting to see how he does in subsequent years.

Arizona over USC

You know, USC has not been the most sympathetic team on earth in the last few years—winning almost all of your games every year tends to do that. But after the late long ball against UCLA, I don't think anyone will cry for the Trojans. Even I lost respect for them on that one, and I at least appreciated the excitement and sense of fun that USC brought to the game. The serving of humility they received this year might do them a power of good in the future, supposing that Pete Carroll can get his players' emotions up again. That, I should mention, is a pretty big "if". But I will have plenty of time to talk about that later.