God Damn the Rose Bowl is wonderful.
It's what post season CFB is all about and has been for over 100 years. As a pure bowl game it is a pageant to the sport that the BCS and now 4 team playoff have yet to degrade an iota of value. For folks that want an expanded PO so some undeserving (can you cay UCF) get a shot... I say screw it. Not worth the risk.
Sure the bathrooms, tunnels and aisles are small, but once you're in your seat.... it's as wonderful experience as there is in the sport.
Sort of Like THE GAME, it's always played on the same day at the same time. Somehow or another the titans of Pasadena old money guarantee the weather to be perfect for football almost every . Not too hot unless your sitting directly in the sun and not too cold unless you are sitting fully in the shade and forgot to layer.
Oh yea, there was a game.
I had it Bucks 38 - UW 24 , if we could net 5 YPC and commit less than 50 yards in penalties.
At the end of Q3 ( more precisely 3 minutes left to play in Q3) we were trending way ahead of the final score at Bucks 28- UW 3, and the stats were on track.... but then Q4 happened.
The stats are interesting.... and confirm the eye test.
In H1 we totally bottled up Gaskin (7/24) and the entire offense had only 151 Yards. he Bucks had a nifty 272 with 109 on the ground and 163 in the air... and a 21-3 lead. Yay team!
Gaskin started to get some traction in Q3, but all UW was doing was burning clock b/c they couldn't score in the RZ.... 2 Drives 86 yards and no scores.
The UW drives sandwiched an easy breezy 8 yard TD drive, which featured 75 yards of passing and a 3 yard TD run.
Clearly, UW figured we'd come out trying to grind clock and their D scheme depends on guessing what you're gonna do to get the post snap action correct. If they don't, like they didn't on a couple of drives in H1, we we re gonna burn them on the ground, where our RBs were averaging 6.2 YPC, or in the air with 70% completion rate and 6.7 YPC.... This was the most balance we'd shown all
Most importantly we had only taken 25 YARDS in Penalties in H1 and none in Q3.
If there was a concern with H1 it was that we were below 7.0 YPA in the air, but the first drive in Q3 netted 100% completion rate and a startling 25 YPA. Clearly, UW was guessing RUN on that drive.
The game completely turned on OSU's second drive.
We ran Mike for 6 Yards and sat at 2nd and 4. Threw a bubble that got blown and up and then Dwayne got sacked after a wicked blitz.
My belief at the time was that UW was gonna sell out to stop the run or short pass on 2nd and 4... we played into it with a short pass on 2nd down, completely whiffed on the blitz then closed up shop for the rest of the game.
In Q4 we proceeded to gain 15 yards (8 on the ground and 7 in the air) and took 28 yards in penalties.
As one would expect for a team not built to play Tresselball and a defense in no way shape or form prepared to defend for it.... UW scored TD's on 3 of their next 5 drives and would have made things VERY interesting if they'd converted their on sides kick... BTW Why Tuf Borland is on the onsides return team is really bothering me.
Much like the season the outstanding was mixed in with some meh and the disappointing, but in the end we won which is likely all we'll remember a few years from now.
Final Thinking
When the Bucks were ON (for the first 42 minutes) this game they were good enough to compete in the CFP. I'm still not sold that our D could have done any more to stop Bama than OK or ND could to stop Clemson...at least not for a whole game where our O wasn't scoring on every other drive... and while UW D is GOOD both Bama and Clemson are better.
Why the Bucks Turned our O off I'll never know. I'm certain they did, since UW 's half time adjustments had NO impact on the first drive of Q3. In fact our passing stats with that drive pulled the cumulative total for the game through Q3 up from 7 YPA to 10 YPA and 6 YPC on the ground.
But we did turn the O off and the D started to give up chunks and take penalties to net 3 TDs on 5 drives against a really crappy offense whose scoring was 88th in CFB.
But that is who this team is. Damn good. 13-1 overall. Beat every Top 20 team we played.
Some folks will agonize over the loss to Purdue. To me the loss wasn't the problem it was the Q4 phone in. The team quit. Same thing at Iowa last season.
I'm more bothered by the fact that even when we were on we couldn't/wouldn't put good teams away.
It comes down the the lack of a killer instinct needs to change for the program to reach the full potential.
I will thank god for Urban Meyer being the coach to rescue this program from a potential ash pile when JT was dismissed. He was able to get recruiting up to if not beyond the halcyon mid 90's Cooper teams and NEVER LOST A SINLGE GAME TO TTUN... won a Natty over Bama and Oregon.... and 3 Bowl games over USC, ND and UW.
I'm already looking forward to 2019, but will savor the 13 wins this season even though there was some gristle I had to chew through in each one.
It's what post season CFB is all about and has been for over 100 years. As a pure bowl game it is a pageant to the sport that the BCS and now 4 team playoff have yet to degrade an iota of value. For folks that want an expanded PO so some undeserving (can you cay UCF) get a shot... I say screw it. Not worth the risk.
Sure the bathrooms, tunnels and aisles are small, but once you're in your seat.... it's as wonderful experience as there is in the sport.
Sort of Like THE GAME, it's always played on the same day at the same time. Somehow or another the titans of Pasadena old money guarantee the weather to be perfect for football almost every . Not too hot unless your sitting directly in the sun and not too cold unless you are sitting fully in the shade and forgot to layer.
Oh yea, there was a game.
I had it Bucks 38 - UW 24 , if we could net 5 YPC and commit less than 50 yards in penalties.
At the end of Q3 ( more precisely 3 minutes left to play in Q3) we were trending way ahead of the final score at Bucks 28- UW 3, and the stats were on track.... but then Q4 happened.
The stats are interesting.... and confirm the eye test.
In H1 we totally bottled up Gaskin (7/24) and the entire offense had only 151 Yards. he Bucks had a nifty 272 with 109 on the ground and 163 in the air... and a 21-3 lead. Yay team!
Gaskin started to get some traction in Q3, but all UW was doing was burning clock b/c they couldn't score in the RZ.... 2 Drives 86 yards and no scores.
The UW drives sandwiched an easy breezy 8 yard TD drive, which featured 75 yards of passing and a 3 yard TD run.
Clearly, UW figured we'd come out trying to grind clock and their D scheme depends on guessing what you're gonna do to get the post snap action correct. If they don't, like they didn't on a couple of drives in H1, we we re gonna burn them on the ground, where our RBs were averaging 6.2 YPC, or in the air with 70% completion rate and 6.7 YPC.... This was the most balance we'd shown all
Most importantly we had only taken 25 YARDS in Penalties in H1 and none in Q3.
If there was a concern with H1 it was that we were below 7.0 YPA in the air, but the first drive in Q3 netted 100% completion rate and a startling 25 YPA. Clearly, UW was guessing RUN on that drive.
The game completely turned on OSU's second drive.
We ran Mike for 6 Yards and sat at 2nd and 4. Threw a bubble that got blown and up and then Dwayne got sacked after a wicked blitz.
My belief at the time was that UW was gonna sell out to stop the run or short pass on 2nd and 4... we played into it with a short pass on 2nd down, completely whiffed on the blitz then closed up shop for the rest of the game.
In Q4 we proceeded to gain 15 yards (8 on the ground and 7 in the air) and took 28 yards in penalties.
As one would expect for a team not built to play Tresselball and a defense in no way shape or form prepared to defend for it.... UW scored TD's on 3 of their next 5 drives and would have made things VERY interesting if they'd converted their on sides kick... BTW Why Tuf Borland is on the onsides return team is really bothering me.
Much like the season the outstanding was mixed in with some meh and the disappointing, but in the end we won which is likely all we'll remember a few years from now.
Final Thinking
When the Bucks were ON (for the first 42 minutes) this game they were good enough to compete in the CFP. I'm still not sold that our D could have done any more to stop Bama than OK or ND could to stop Clemson...at least not for a whole game where our O wasn't scoring on every other drive... and while UW D is GOOD both Bama and Clemson are better.
Why the Bucks Turned our O off I'll never know. I'm certain they did, since UW 's half time adjustments had NO impact on the first drive of Q3. In fact our passing stats with that drive pulled the cumulative total for the game through Q3 up from 7 YPA to 10 YPA and 6 YPC on the ground.
But we did turn the O off and the D started to give up chunks and take penalties to net 3 TDs on 5 drives against a really crappy offense whose scoring was 88th in CFB.
But that is who this team is. Damn good. 13-1 overall. Beat every Top 20 team we played.
Some folks will agonize over the loss to Purdue. To me the loss wasn't the problem it was the Q4 phone in. The team quit. Same thing at Iowa last season.
I'm more bothered by the fact that even when we were on we couldn't/wouldn't put good teams away.
It comes down the the lack of a killer instinct needs to change for the program to reach the full potential.
I will thank god for Urban Meyer being the coach to rescue this program from a potential ash pile when JT was dismissed. He was able to get recruiting up to if not beyond the halcyon mid 90's Cooper teams and NEVER LOST A SINLGE GAME TO TTUN... won a Natty over Bama and Oregon.... and 3 Bowl games over USC, ND and UW.
I'm already looking forward to 2019, but will savor the 13 wins this season even though there was some gristle I had to chew through in each one.
