I thought that was an incredible effort by the Buckeye players and an absolutely abysmal display of play calling by the Buckeye staff. They were able to run on Alabama. They kept taking shot after shot. They must have seen something in film, but man, it just wasn't there.. the run was though. Great game by both teams.
Looking back after a few hours of sleep, I am just endeavoring to enjoy this win. Alabama was most everyone's pick to win this game, and I count myself in that group. The fact that we scored 42 points against the Tide was amazing. Some brutal hits in that game last night and I am sure a lot of sore bodies this morning. The B1G TEN did themselves proud yesterday and we finally have this SEC thing off our back! The Oregon Ducks look to be a very formidable opponent come next Monday evening. Win or lose this has been an incredible season for my Buckeyes!
I did pick Ohio State..... but only had two confidence points riding on it. It was my only pick against the SEC grain.
Good win for Ohio State, Don. My worst fears were realized. I knew our defense was vulnerable, and our offense had to play lights out to beat OSU. Our defense was vulnerable and our offense did not play lights out. Additionally, OSU had a record setting run game and a freshman quarterback that looked like a much more experienced player. He is going to be a load for at least 2 more years if he can win the starting job next year. OSU almost gave this one away with early turnovers but they had the will to turn it around and do what they had to do to come back after a bad 1st quarter. Congratulations to Don and all Ohio State fans for a great win and good luck against what looks like a very good Oregon team. Sorry Tim, but winning the SECC and playing in the first FBS playoff can't be considered a negative. We won't be playing for the National Championship (this year) but we're still rollin. :wink:
Kp..... making the Final Four is just that.... a great accomplishment. Last year in BB UF went 36-3..... won the SEC and went to the Final Four. Anyone looking at that year would say it was a great year and the same goes for Bama this year. In spite of some bowl stumbles you had to have a stud team to win the SEC WEST alone... Congrats on a great season.
Actually, I thought the tide kind of comes and goes. Anyway, kp, congrats on a great season and an outstanding football game. Yesterday was a great day for the B1G. I have hated all the talk about how the conference was inferior the past couple years...but it was earned...the numbers don't lie. The new system has given us some great games (and debate). After the last couple of days I'm thinking that TCU belonged in this mix. But I don't know who you'd leave out. Maybe FSU but hard to leave an unbeaten team out. I'm ecstatic we have a chance to continue on...but Oregon will be a tough nut to crack. I see we have already been established as 7 point underdogs.
And we saw last night how accurate those assessments are, right? And yes the Tide goes out but it ALWAYS comes back. 8)
While FSU looked as if they didn't belong even well before the game was played yesterday there was no possible way they could have or should have been left out with a 29 game winning streak. TCU was the odd man out and that's just the numbers game of a 4 team playoff.
Meyer's teams seem to thrive as a touchdown underdog. I liked OSU vs. Bama and I like them vs. Oregon. It's gonna be a war.
Kp, As always, thanks for your gracious comments. I imagine Saban is already planning for next year! :wink: A great season for the Crimson Tide and I love the way your players tackle! Two storied programs and I love the college game as opposed to the NFL games. Happy New Year!
Color me shocked. I think the Championship game has every possibility of being very entertaining. Meyer has done an unbelievable job winning with a 3rd string QB. And he's a different looking guy on the sidelines than he was his last year at Florida. Good luck to both teams.
I think back to midseason when ND fans were following a 6-0 team and thinking of the playoffs, Ohio State fans were following a 1 loss team that had lost badly to a unranked VaTech squad. The narrative was that the B10 would be left out of the playoffs, that even if Ohio State won out that their SOS and the loss to an unranked team would not justify a place in the playoffs. The only real candidate for the playoffs was Mich State and they would have a tough time because like all the B10 schools they played a "weak" conference schedule. There would probably be 2 SEC teams in the playoffs, the SEC Champ naturally a SEC W. team and who ever finished 2nd in the SEC West. Lots of other teams vying for the 4th slot at that time, as the assumption was that FSU would beat ND and finish undefeated and grab the 3rd slot with the rest of college football jockeying for that 4th slot. As late as the ASU game ND fans still had hopes of ascending to the 4th slot with their only loss being a controversial road loss to the #1 team. OK then as always happens, teams start to lose. Injuries happen, teams stumble, etc. And Ohio State gets stronger as the season goes on, beats Mich State on the road, wins some close games, got lucky at Penn State and you have to get a little lucky along the way, and then gets unlucky with the loss of Barrett but Urban shows why he's a great coach and plugs in his 3rd QB and not only beats a good Wisc team but just absolutely murders them. I think if the Wisc game had been a close Ohio State win maybe TCU or Baylor slips back by them to the 4th slot. But they do what they have to do and bomb Wisc. So welcome to playoffs, the committee was vindicated by Ohio State last night, TCU great season, maybe could have beaten Bama but we'll never know and Ohio State did beat them. So the system in retrospect worked. Also showed the need for 8 team playoff but don't hold your breath for that to happen any time soon. But as we see every year in basketball and the NFL who the public, the pollsters, the guru's, etc see as the best team doesn't always win out. We've certainly had a lot of wildcard Super Bowl winners, the NCAA Tournment has certainly seen some great runs by mid-majors. It's who gets hot and healthy at the beginning of the playoffs. Back when Az beat Oregon, they were devestated by injuries, but they got healthy and finished strong when they got all their players back. Get healthy and Get Hot at the end. Oregon vs Ohio State is a long way from what anybody would have predicted after that Va.Tech game or even before the season started when Braxton Miller went down. Sure Oregon actually would have been a reasonable pick, along with FSU and Alabama of course. But Buckeyes ...no way. Looking forward to that game. Both teams earned their way to it on the field.
Nice analysis Terry and I agree with your findings. College football is so unpredictable, but that is what makes it so interesting to me. I really did not give us much of a chance t even make the playoffs after that loss to Virginia Tech.
Terry and Don, I actually agree with you to a point. I said early that Alabama did not deserve to be number 1. Did they deserve to be in the final 4? I think they did, but so did TCU and Ohio State and maybe Michigan State, and FSU was the reigning NC and still undefeated so they deserved it as well and of course Oregon. I think an eight team playoff is big enough, but sometimes number 8 is going to beat number 1. That doesn't mean the system didn't work, it just means that that is why they play the games.
KP, Cpngrats on a great season. I don't think a lot of people pay attention to the right things, but you're a coach's son so I know you do. Saban, while playing this year, has been pointing toward next year quite a bit. That's usually bad news for everyone. Local boy Reggie Ragland must have answered 'potato' when they asked him his name after that tackle. He looked awful on the closeup. They took him straight to the locker. I thought one of the big problems Bama had was their LBs getting knocked out. You guys gave up that long TD run when the freshman LB came in, stopped moving his feet, and got sealed. Do you think that next year is one of those 'banner years" that Saban looks forward to with good reason?
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