Thoughts on the Fiesta Bowl and the bowl season
I’ll say this much: Driving for 14 hours is a lot better when your team won its bowl game the night before. Now, on to a random collection of thoughts about the Fiesta Bowl and other bowl games.
-The Phoenix area is excellent. My trip to the Fiesta Bowl was the first time I’ve been there, and I can’t say enough about it. Someone told me I’d think it was less awesome if I was there in August when its 120 degrees, but I’m just going to pretend it’s always 75 and awesome there.
-Note to future Fiesta Bowl visitors: If you’re going to grab a few beers outside the stadium before the game, think about just bringing them yourself. Otherwise you have to pay $20 for the right to get in to the fenced-off area where you then can buy a thin selection of Budweiser products.
-In other miscellaneous Fiesta Bowl news, Stanford’s band: Dumbest sideshow I’ve seen at a football game. They may think they’re really funny with their snide political statements and condescending humor, but all they really do is flail around the field and play “music” that you can’t even decipher. Isn’t the point of a band to play music that people can hear? Calling them a band is forgiving. They should be renamed “The people who flail around the field while blaring on instruments while spelling out human letters.”
-OSU wide receiver Tracy Moore — one of Brandon Weeden’s top three targets this year — saw limited playing time. He was being punished for violating team rules. Some suggested he violated curfew. Thank you, Tracy Moore, for reminding me how dumb it is to get wrapped up in college football. Seriously, who other than a college kid would risk not playing in the biggest game in school history just so he can stay out late?
-Someone who should be thanking Moore, however, is Colton Chelf. The backup wide receiver had the game of his life running the routes that Moore would have been running.
-Speaking of running routes, Justin Blackmon is pretty good. I read a quote before the game from one of Stanford’s defenders that they had devised their entire defensive game plan around stopping Blackmon. How did that plan work out?
-Some might be inclined to think OSU was lucky to win on account of the three missed kicks. As far as I can remember, LSU still got credit for beating Alabama in overtime when the Tide missed three kicks.
-Speaking of LSU-Alabama, wasn’t the OSU-Stanford game like an alternate-universe version of that game? Both games were slugfests featuring the teams’ strengths dominating each other, overtime and missed field goals. The only difference is that LSU-Alabama featured defenses dominating, and OSU-Stanford featured offenses doing the dominating.
-I still think the untold story of this college football season is how LSU’s or Alabama’s defense would measure up against OSU. Stanford was no slouch on defense this year — heading into the Fiesta Bowl, the Cardinal ranked 23rd in the nation in points allowed (20.3 ppg) and 25th in the country in total defense (331.4 ypg). Although Arkansas has a good offense, neither LSU nor Alabama has or will have to face anything like they would have seen with Weeden and Blackmon. Thanks to the BCS and the voters, we’ll never know what would have happened.
-I’m not saying Andrew Luck isn’t good. Clearly he’s got a strong arm, is an accurate thrower and made some nice plays while under pressure/on the run. I’m just getting a little tired of the lovefest because they guy “does so much at the line of scrimmage.” It may be 100 percent true, I’m just sick of always hearing about it.
-Kind of like how I’m sick of hearing about how much of a great dual threat Robert Griffin is. Does Griffin have good straight-line speed? Probably. Can you compare his running to Michael Vick? Heck no. Let’s have those comparisons come to an end. I like to point out Griffin’s last two games against OSU. He averaged 1.7 yards per carry in each game, and in 2010 was outrushed by Weeden.
-Speaking of dangerous ball carriers, Weeden’s first career rushing touchdown couldn’t have come at a better time. It was so unexpected, I count it as a trick play.
-Let’s hear it for the ACC! A solid 2-6 in the bowl season, including BCS losses to an average Michigan team that didn’t even deserve to be in the BCS and last night’s humiliation against 23rd-ranked West Virginia. Good thing we got two ACC teams in the BCS and only one Big 12 team.
-The PAC 12 went 2-5 in bowl games. Good thing we got two PAC 12 teams in the BCS and only one Big 12 team.
-The Big 10 went 4-6 in bowl games (with one of those wins coming in a nailbiter against Western Michigan and another coming against a UCLA team with a losing record and no coach). Good thing we got two Big 10 teams in the BCS and only one Big 12 team. Did I mention the Big 12 is 6-1 in bowl games to this point?
-I couldn’t be more happy to see a story that several AP voters have gone on the record to say they’ll vote for LSU as their No. 1 team even if LSU loses in the title game. Down with the BCS!
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Great comments about the field goals.
While an admitted OSU fan, I too am tired of hearing about Luck. His offense is straight out of the nfl, so the praise at the next level is warrented, but it’s at the expense of other talents at the college level.