Rose Bowl Open Thread

All times Pacific

Final Thoughts--EL--As I said below, if Pryor can pass well, it opens everything up for Ohio St. And he played a phenomenal game. His coming out party. I'm sure both Ohio St. and Oregon will be in the top 5 to start next season. Still can't believe Oregon attempted a 45 yard FG on 4th and 1--one of only 2 terrible calls Chip Kelly made all year.

5:20--LS--Sad as it may be for me, Pryor has played a phenomenal game, as has all of Ohio State. Congratulations, while I weep.

5:10--EL--I love Chip Kelly, but that was the exact wrong time to be conservative. 4th & 1 with your accurate but limited range kicker forced to try from 45? Terrible call.

5:08--LS--Good play, but seriously, those kickoff return reverses are dangerous plays.

5:05--LS--No doubt, that was brilliant football played by Ohio State. Go Ducks, they have plenty of time.

5:04--EL--Give Ohio St. all the credit--that was a world class drive against an Oregon defense that is playing very well.

4:55--LS--The offense sure is sputtering; this is considerably scarier than it should be.

4:33--LS--See Erik's pregame Note 4, below.

4:30--LS--Wow! James is such a brilliant runner, so much tougher than he looks.

4:27--EL--Next to "bend but don't break" in the dictionary is a picture of the Oregon defense.

4:26--LS--Pryor's starting to stare down Sanzenbacher. That's a good sign for the Duck defense.

4:21--LS--Lookin' sharp in those berets, OSU band

4:16--EL--What a love about that drive is not the awesome 4th down conversion (OK, I do), but bringing in Blount on the 1 and then faking it to him. Great play call. Give Ohio St. credit though--they are making Oregon work very hard to get their running yards. Give Oregon credit for being willing to shove it down their throats.

4:15--LS--The lead...finally.... A really nice drive, overall, and Erik's note on halftime adjustments is exactly right.

Halftime Update--EL--Not a huge deal with that last FG, but it hurts a little. Oregon was driving, tipped pass and pick. Down 16-10. Oregon has done an excellent job all year making halftime adjustments and dominating the 3rd quarter. They will need to do so again, particularly on offense. A bit concerned that Pryor is passing so well, though Oregon has gotten excellent pressure on him. I still feel very good about this game--Oregon gets the ball in the second half and I expect a good 2nd half from them.

3:47--LS--Some hot marimba work in this halftime show!

3:45--LS--Tough half. OSU is playing really strong, though that final Pryor pass was definitely grounding. Second half is Oregon's though, no doubt about it.

3:25--LS--Lucky to be 13-10, but that should have been a pick. A minute is enough for a TD. No fumble; no way.

3:10--EL--10-10. It doesn't take long for the Ducks to come back. Huge 4th & 9 conversion. Awesome pounding TD run for LaGarette Blount. Glad to see him have the shot to do it. Boom!

3:00--LS--Those are the exact kind of contain defenses we need to see. Make Pryor work for it.

2:49--Lyrad Simool--A good goal line stop, though, and now we're in the red zone...hook 'em Ducks!

2:46--Ohio St. offensive game plan also going very well. As I said earlier, if Pryor passes effectively, Oregon will have trouble stopping them. Indeed, that has been the case through one quarter. I kind of feel lucky to only be down 10-0.

2:40--Ohio St. clearly doing a great job. Again, it's very early and Oregon can score quickly, but the Ohio St. defensive game plan is working quite well. The Oregon offensive line is young and Ohio St. might be able to overwhelm them. If that's the case, things will be very difficult for Oregon.

This is the open thread for the Oregon-Ohio St. Rose Bowl. Perhaps Trend and/or Lyrad would like to join in. For casual readers, I am an Oregon alum and Trend is an Ohio St. partisan. Meaning that it's Civil War here!

A few notes to begin:

1. It's interesting--the nation believes in Oregon but Ohio St. fans are completely dismissive of the Ducks. The latter is interesting because Ohio St. can never win a big game and because it's reflective of their belief in football played as if it was 1954. That the country believes in Oregon I also find a bit strange because they are not the traditional power that the Buckeyes are.

2. The key of the game is the Oregon offense versus the Ohio St. defense. Neither team has faced an opponent like this. Ohio St. fans call Oregon's offense a gimmick. That's a perjorative, but whatever, we win with it. It's also in many ways a very traditional offense that just looks funny. Can Ohio St. maintain the discipline against the zone read for the entire game? No one else has except Boise St., which is a lifetime ago. On the other hand, Ohio St. does have a great defense, though against the "offenses" of the Big 10, I'm not sure what that means.

3. I think equally important is the play of Terrelle Pryor. That's the biggest wildcard. If Pryor can throw decently, it makes things much tougher for Oregon. Ohio St. fans have slammed on Oregon's defense by saying the Ducks give up a lot of yards, but that's the equivalent of relying on batting average to say who is the best hitter in baseball. Oregon gives up a lot of yards because the offense scores in 4 plays half the time. The defense is on the field the entire game. So we need a different set of statistics to judge Oregon. Oregon's defense is entirely decent and carried the team early on.

4. The other wild card are Oregon turnovers. Sometimes Masoli gets a little careless. Fumbles could be huge. But if Oregon falls behind 10-0 or something like that, the game is far from over. Oregon can score very quickly. Of course, falling behind to Ohio St. is not like falling behind to Arizona or Oregon St., but this team has come back before and I feel Ohio St. needs a 3 TD lead to feel comfortable.

5. Final score--Oregon 30, Ohio St. 24

Updates to continue throughout the game.

The Derek Jeter of College Football

I ended up watching the last quarter of the Ohio State-USC game. I need to preface this by saying a few things. First, one of the best effects of being out of the country for awhile was I quit caring about college football for a number of reasons (sheer distance, the clearly-awful lack of a playoff, and the fact that it's better for my personal health and stress levels not to care). I also had no illusions about a national title for Ohio State, and I'm honestly fine with that - I'd rather see an Indians championship, a Cavs title, even a Browns appearance in the Super Bowl (stop laughing - I only mean some day). If Ohio State wins it sometime, great, but I have other priorities. Finally, I had no illusions going into this game that Ohio State would win, and honestly, I think the 18-15 loss was respectable, and much more than I expected.

That said, Matt Barkley can go to hell.

It's not because he "led" the Trojans to a win. It's not because he had a very good game as a college freshman. It's not even because he looks like a total douchebag who would literally die if he went to a college not located in Southern California. It's because of the Jeter-level tongue-bath the media began giving him immediately after the game.

Everybody knows the media just loves a quarterback - can't stop talking about them. The way the media usually tells it, the quarterback either totally won the game for you, or totally blew it for you. There may as well be no other players on the field. Even yesterday, when Adrian Peterson unsurprisingly dominated the Browns, the meme was "Brett Favre, with all his experience, knew to just hand it over."

And so it's been for Barkley. "He led his team!" "Such poise!" "A star is born!" "He's SO clutch!" "He won it for USC!!!!" Which would be fine....except he didn't win it for USC.

Joe McKnight did.

Again, I'm not saying this out of any bitterness. I watched that entire fourth quarter, including the final drive. USC was on their 5 yard line, facing 95 yards to win. It was Joe McKnight with a big run to get them away from their own end zone. It was Joe McKnight who made a very good catch and then ran it up for about 10-15 yards. It was Joe McKnight who stymied Ohio State that entire drive. Yes, Barkley got two first downs with quarterback sneaks, but that's not exactly impossible on 3rd-and-short plays. I'm not saying Barkley was a non-factor, or that he was horrible. But the way the media has talked about it, you'd think he'd thrown for 550 yards and 17 touchdowns. Overall, it's been an enormous disservice to McKnight's performance, about which nobody is talking. I thought the hype would die down once the game was over and people could look back at it and say, "wow - McKnight really made the big plays for them." But the media hasn't done this; indeed, the hagiography has only grown since Saturday night. Basically, Barkley is a white quarterback at USC - a perfect storm of extremely undeserving media hype (hello, Matt Leinart 2.0). Whereas McKnight was just a (black) player who made the biggest plays to help his team win on that last drive.

It's really a no-brainer which story the media would flock to.

One Post, Multiple Sports

-I told Erik earlier this week that I had little hopes for the OSU (sorry - that's THE Ohio State University)/USC game, and even fewer hopes for another OSU title game appearance. I just didn't think they had as good a team as everybody seemed to think they might. With Beanie Wells out, I really thought OSU didn't stand much of a chance against USC. Still.....ouch.

-That said, if the Bucks couldn't win in Hell-A (see what I did there?), it's good to see that at least the Notre Dame won in the one annual game where I don't-totally-and-rabidly root against the Irish.

-And now to things that actually do matter to the universe. While it's impressive that Francisco Rodriguez set the record for saves, if the pitcher who leads the leagues in wins, ERA, win percentage, and is second in WHIP, complete games, and shutouts doesn't win the Cy Young, baseball writers will prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that they truly do not know what the hell they are doing (and yes, I'm biased and partial, but the Angels are going to the playoffs, wherease the Cy Young is all I've got to hang my happiness on. Oh, that, and the fact that the Yankees aren't going to the playoffs....ah, sweet, glorious, beautiful, fair, just life).

Ohio State beats Michigan....AGAIN!!!!

I swear, after all the years of abuse as a Cleveland Sports fan and growing up in the heartland of Ohio for 7 years during the BRUTAL Cooper years (the first Buckeyes coach I remember), this still is surreal.

Watching on Gamecast, the game looked pretty tough to watch (though since I couldn't actually SEE it, it may well have been one of those games where "the defenses imposed their wills on the offense"). Now, Ohio State is undisputed Big 10 champion and headed off to the Rose Bowl (where I SINCERELY hope they will play Oregon, though with Dixon out now, I'm not so sure...). I'm not sure how Ohio State (or THE Ohio State University, as some call it) will do in the Rose Bowl. They've done better than anybody expected, and than the talent on paper suggested they would ever do, though, once again, that's why they play the games. Last week's loss is REALLY disappointing now, but if it means the Bucks don't get killed by LSU, I guess I'll take it.

What is really sweet in all this is, for the first time in my life, a class of Michigan players never beat Ohio State. The Cooper years were ATROCIOUS (to the tune of 2-10-1 in his 13 years). Tressel now is 6-1 against Michigan, and this year's graduating class with Chad Henne (who I swear it feels like has been playing for 17 years at Michigan) at the helm never, NEVER beat the Buckeyes. I never could say that before - now I can. That alone is great. The fact we go into the Big House is even better. And while Michigan does finish 8-4, it's beyond wonderful, sublime, etc. (words fail) that they started their season losing to a I-AA team, then suffering their worst loss at the Big House in some time at the hands of Oregon, and ended it losing in historically bad fashion to the Bucks...again (the 3 Michigan points were the fewest in the series since 1962, and Michigan's total offense was 89 yards on the game - how's that decision to come back for your senior year to beat Ohio State working out for you, Chris Wells?). Again. Now, I can go downstairs and toast to the REAL conquering heroes and victors valiant - THE Ohio State University Buckeyes.

On to January!!! Go Bucks!!!! (and GO DUCKS!)

Buckeyes Lose......Oh Well

Certainly, the thought of another Buckeyes run at the national championship was fun. However, this isn't nearly as disappointing as the Indians' collapse against the Red Sox, for a few reasons:

-this team wasn't supposed to be this lights-out to start with. It is common wisdom that teams in the National Championship never make a return the following year, simply because of the graduation of most major players and the need to "rebuild". That Ohio State has proven itself this good after the "game" (stupid Florida) in January of this year is encouraging, both for what next year may look like and for the proven worth of Tressel-ball.

-Great as Tressel-ball is, THE Ohio State University is less than good against the SEC (0-9 I believe), and as desperately as I wanted a Bucks-Ducks title game (which would have been OK to lose), I was absolutely dreading getting our butts handed to us by LSU. Now that OSU is seemingly eliminated from the BCS title game, GO DUCKS!!!

-Finally, if Ohio State can just do its business against the hated Wolverines next week, a BCS bowl is locked up (I remember hanging out with Erik a few years ago watching Montana-Montana State and WaSu-Washington playing for the Apple cup and joking, "you know, Ohio State and Michigan play for something too - it's called the Big 10 title").

The only thing better than an Ohio State victory to kick off the college football season....

....is a Michigan loss.

To Appalachian State.

A FORMER I-AA TEAM.

AT HOME!!!!

Of course, there's the underdog factor. But, for those who didn't know, outside of baseball (my biggest and fullest sports passion), I'm a big fan of THE Ohio State University (fuckin' Florida). I fully follow the bumper sticker common in Ohio - "My two favorite teams are Ohio State and whoever plays Michigan this weekend". But this loss is something else. As great as any Michigan loss is (I have been a guaranteed Oregon fan once a year for quite awhile, even before meeting Erik, and there is only one time a year I don't mind a Notre Dame victory), this is other-worldly. From an OSU fan, this is, to me, the best non-Ohio State Michigan loss that I can remember in my lifetime. Yes, it's great if Michigan gets killed in its bowl game (especially the Rose Bowl). But I can imagine Michigan getting killed in the Rose Bowl (as has happened recently).

What I never would have even imagined (before today, that is) is that Michigan undid the following fact: "No Division I-AA team had beaten a team ranked in The Associated Press poll from 1989-2006, and it's unlikely that it happened after Division-I subdivisions were created in 1978."

I have no major hopes for OSU this year, beyond some bowl game (I find it irrational to expect that a team that goes to the national title game the year before will be as good the following year). Thus, I hope that predictions about Michigan's dominance (as Chad Henne enters what feels like his 17th year as Michigan's quarterback) are greatly mistaken. But for Michigan to start off its season losing at home to a I-AA team exceeds my wildest imagination. Barring the weirdest college football season ever, Michigan's national-title hopes are already dead. This is, without doubt as a Michigan-hater, the greatest non-OSU Michigan loss in my lifetime. And that speaks volumes.

Oh, and the blocked kick proves it was God's will that Michigan lose.