04/24/24
January 02, 2015
Ducks v. Bucks in Arlington: The post-BCS era started with a firm (if unintentional) repudiation of the BCS, as defending national champion Florida State was embarrassed by perennial bridesmaid Oregon and defending-minus-one (and -minus-two) champ Alabama was beaten by perennial SEC victim Ohio State.
some of the Ducks went full-on troll and chanted "No means no" while doing the tomahawk chop
Which their coach says they will be disciplined for. I assume that means a strong speech about not getting caught on tape, perhaps featuring guest lecturer Professor Winston.
the meme of 2014 explains Winston's inexplicable collapse (and that of a referee)
That's awesome. In retrospect it's hard to blame the ref for reacting quickly enough to the play's change in direction that his feet couldn't keep up, but it doesn't make it less funny.
posted by yerfatma at 08:31 AM on January 02, 2015
As more and more bowl games played out I began to believe Ohio State could and would beat Alabama. The SEC, if these recent games are any type of indication, may not have been as dominating as many have been conditioned to believe (at least this year) with Ole Miss, Miss. St, Auburn, LSU, and of course Alabama all losing. In each of those losses the team's defenses were less than stellar.
posted by dyams at 08:55 AM on January 02, 2015
Winston's horizontal Statue of Liberty play has been diagrammed on the daily specials whiteboard in the seafood department of my local Publix.
Boise State has looked at the game film and decided not to add that play to their bag of tricks.
To their credit, Winston and Fisher were among the minority of FSU team members who shook hands with the Ducks after the game, with most of the Noles directly exiting the sideline and refusing to take part in a post game handshake. No banner sportsmanship to be found on either side of the field.
Meanwhile, other conferences are trying to find out what the Big 10 teams poured on their breakfast cereal yesterday.
posted by beaverboard at 09:14 AM on January 02, 2015
The BCS matchup for this season would have almost certainly been Florida State (undefeated, defending national champions) vs. Alabama (one-loss SEC champion), with Oregon and Ohio State battling it out in the Rose Bowl as a consolation prize.
One of the biggest cliches in sports is that "this game isn't played on paper; it's played on the field." While I still have reservations about this new playoff system, I still favor it over the previous BCS methodology where the games were seemingly "played on paper" (or on computer, if you will) to determine who gets to play for the championship. Here, Florida State and Alabama were taken out on the field whereas before, they would've merely defaulted to the championship game as Etrigan stated. Really, this isn't a bad thing at all.
posted by NerfballPro at 01:04 PM on January 02, 2015
That was a great day of football. Oregon's offense is amazing television. I don't think I have ever seen more plays where one team controlled the line not by power but by utter discombobulation. I thought FSU was going to be FSU again and eke out an unsatisfying win in the second half. I was rooting for them, but Oregon's way more fun to watch.
Playing the game after such a long break makes me wonder whether the outcome would've changed with just a one-week break.
Any doubts I had about Ohio State were dispelled by that swift comeback from 21-6 down with only minutes left in the second half.
posted by rcade at 03:35 PM on January 02, 2015
My anti-FSU bias makes me extremely gratified about the lopsided result. To go from a winnable position at 20-25 in the 3rd quarter to a 34-point blowout makes the FSU program look somewhat overrated. It probably isn't, but Oregon's tempo seemed to wear FSU down. The "no-means-no" chant is quite tasteless. Perhaps it could have been replaced by "we like crab legs clap clap clapclapclap".
I'm of mixed emotions about Ohio State vs Alabama. I'm ambivalent about the Tide, but since I am a Penn State fan, Ohio State is not my favorite. However, since Ohio State is in the Big 10, it is sort of the "I and my brother against my cousin; I and my cousin against the world" feeling.
I fully expect Oregon to easily prevail over Ohio State, but after yesterday who knows?
posted by Howard_T at 03:30 PM on January 03, 2015
The BCS matchup for this season would have almost certainly been Florida State (undefeated, defending national champions) vs. Alabama (one-loss SEC champion), with Oregon and Ohio State battling it out in the Rose Bowl as a consolation prize.
The 'Noles lost so badly that sportswriters nearly ran out of verbs to describe the 59-20 shellacking: "blows past", "dominates", "crushes".... And then some of the Ducks went full-on troll and chanted "No means no" while doing the tomahawk chop, a reference to sexual-assault allegations against FSU QB Jameis Winston. Fortunately, the meme of 2014 explains Winston's inexplicable collapse (and that of a referee).
The late-night playoff game between Urban Meyer and Nick Saban (oh, and some players) provided rather more excitement, with the 42-35 Sugar Bowl being hailed as an "epic" "instant classic". SI calls it a key power shift (while walking it back some in the story itself).