Monday, January 07, 2008

Notes on the National Championship

Here are some notes as I watch the National Championship game, because the rest of the blogosphere and media are bound to get it wrong come tomorrow.
  • First a foremost. Ohio State is losing because of a dropped touchdown pass, a blocked field goal, a bunch of personnel foul penalties, and bad tackling. This BS about we always hear about from the media regarding SEC speed and athleticism has been a minimal factor.
  • Continuing off that point, great design by the LSU offense. Getting the tight ends involved and moving Flynn around really kick started the LSU offense.
  • LSU's offense is moving the balls because of Flynn, Hester, the offensive line, and some nice catches by the receiving core. Those "x-factor" athletes people said LSU needed to win? Supplements, at best.
  • Jacob Hester deserves to be more than a walking cliche. An honest attempt at playing tailback in the NFL to start with.
  • Chris Wells has got to be a scary ass dude to try to tackle.
  • LSU facing 3rd and shorts and Ohio State facing third and longs has made all the difference.
  • Momentum is huge, and LSU grabbed it in the second quarter and never looked back.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adam,
Considering that "The" Ohio State University is now 0-9 against SEC teams in bowl games, ... inquiring minds have just gotta know why the #1 rated Defense (in the Land) the past two years has gotten shredded. Yeah, ... those "miscues" you cite are certainly happening, ... but this is once again the #1 ranked Div 1A football team (in the Land) we are speaking to, ... and even with the "rust", ... should they be playing this poorly (AGAIN)???
---> I contend that the superior speed/athletic ability (across the board) on the likes of Florida, LSU, and prior SEC opponents CAUSES the OSU players to make these mistakes, or be out of position, as they try to compensate for it??? Just an educated guess, ... unless someone has a better explanation.

GO NAVY!!!

Adam said...

FDD,
I have to respectfully disagree. To borrow a tennis term, any team can have forced and unforced errors and many of the errors I saw from tOSU last night were unforced. Penalties especially, but like I said the sequence of the dropped touchdown and the blocked field goal definitely swung momentum in LSU"s favor and turned out to be a 14 point swing. The roughing the punter penalty too was big for LSU and led to another 7 points. Let's face it, tOSU had a chance in the 4th quarter, but because of so many self-imposed miscues early on were put in a position where they couldn't run the football and had to go for it every time.

I just can't the argument that there is a large scale talent disparity in terms of athleticism between the SEC and Big 10. It's a ridiculous assertion propagated by the media in my mind (to be perfectly honest) and one which just doesn't make much sense when you take the time to scrutinize it. Lou Holtz actually made a good point at halftime over at ESPN where he said that the design of tOSU defense was making LSU look "faster" than it actually was. The different zone blitzes and various coverage packages gave Flynn wide open guys, and only made it look like LSU's wideouts were getting separation. By the same token, LSU's offensive gameplan was outstanding, and caused tOSU defenders to be out of position not because of a disparity in athleticism, but just great design on the part of LSU's OC.

LSU won this game upfront, both on offense and defense. Not because they ran circles around anyone. If you're trying to suggest there is a mental roadblock when it comes to playing SEC teams on tOSU's part, you may very well be right, but I still will never buy what I see to by one of the greatest myths in the sport today. I just think you have to take things on a tam by team basis, and that although you can make the case that LSU has better guys at the skill positions, it really didn’t matter when you look at the way the game played out.

Anonymous said...

dad, gotta agree with adam here. LSU just completed the luckiest run to a NC in the history of CFB. OSU out gained them in yards, had more yards per carry, had more YPC, etc. They lost the game on turnovers and penalties. Oh yeah, they also had almost 30 more yds of offense even with a 8 minute TOP deficit.

And UF being better than the rest of the B10? Come on - Michigan showed that they are horrible on defense and extremely vulnerable on offense...blitz and cover Hester and UF chad no answer. Again, were it not for Michigan killing themselves, that game would have been a 4 TD blowout.

Anonymous said...

Geez Louise ... Don't you guys ever read & attempt to comprehend the entire post??? Reference to the Florida Gators was about the 2007 BCS Championship game against (then #1 ranked) OSU, ... which if my memory serves correct, they blew out the Buckeyes.
I'm not looking at just this one game, ... but the pattern of OSU losses to SEC teams in bowl games. And I guess if you want to look at it, ... What's been happening to Big-10 teams in the Rose Bowl of late, ... and the comparative "success" of the SEC in overall bowl games vs how the Big-10 teams have fared???
Like you, (I'm sure) I find it hard to believe that the overwhelming majority of "better players" & "better coaches" only reside in the SEC, ... but then how can Ohio State go into the New Year ranked #1 the past two seasons??? Last night OSU made a butt-ton of errors ... but why are they committing these errors --> poor coaching? dumber players? warm-weax bias?
I think that there is an overall (across the team @ all positions) speed & faster-style-of-play mindset that exists in the SEC/PAC-10 that (at least psychologically) makes those Big-10 guys play/coach outside of their conference play "comfort zone" ... so prone to making more mistakes. If the Big-10 "heavies" didn't routinely play weak-ass out of conference opponents, ... and if the Big-10 teams were more competative "in-house", ... then these big bowl games (as a whole) wouldn't turn into such mis-matches.
Just a thought ... Not the "burning bush" answer.

GO NAVY ... BEAT ARMY!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh bye the way "GL", ... I entirely agree with you that LSU isn't "championship worthy" this past season, ... and frankly I don't think that anyone "deserved" to be playing in the national championship game when one considers "terrible" losses, # of losses, pathetically weak (SOS) schedules --> especially out-of-conference, and "weak" wins over lousy teams. No one team really stood out as "head & shoulders" better than the rest over the course of the entire season.

Anonymous said...

It would be great to see USC play either Georgia or LSU for the championship. These are obviously the best teams despite their regular season records.

Adam said...

This may rattle some feathers (or maybe not) but I really feel like Missouri may be as close to "perfection" as any other team. To lose two games to a BCS bowl bound team, one of them by a small margin and one in a conference championship game sounds about as good if not better than any other loses by the Top 10 teams in the country.

Anonymous said...

Adam,
re: Mizzou ... Sounds great "in theory" (and I really liked them if one looked @ SOS quality opponents, impressive wins, and their personnel), ... but there is that one "little" glitch --> Their conquerors (OU) getting trounced by underdog WVU in that Bowl game.

Anonymous said...

Taint nobody that stands a chance beating ANY top SEC teams in their warm locales (Superdome - LSU in Superdome-talk about death valley?)in their territory.
They would beat USC there but USC would crush them in Rose Bowl or Cali.

Anyone else enjoying the Rutgers departures and thinking about how nice "revenge" will be for us next year?