Wow! Pretty Good Weekend of Football!

I just want to get this out of the way now: as an OSU alum, I am still recovering from the abuse my boys suffered at the hands of the SEC officiating crew. I won't argue the targeting call other than to say that the NCAA really needs to change the rule. But there is no doubt in anyone's mind (except for the minds of Clemson fans and UM fans and the pea brains that pass for the minds of SEC officials) that it was a catch and a fumble. And the punter thing should have been the 5 yard penalty, not 15. There, I got it off my chest. I will address the true causes of the OSU loss below. Moving on...


OU v LSU

OU's "improved" defense was, as I said before, only improved compared to last season's historically abysmal team. It was only through the grace of Coach Eaux that Burreaux didn't have 10 passing TD's and the score wasn't 80 bajillion to zero.

Jeaux Burreaux will be the #1 pick in the NFL draft unless the Bungles bungle that as well.

OU was missing some key players, no question, but would they have mattered? It's possible that Perkins could have helped a D-line that rarely gave Burrow concern, but my opinion is that he would not have slowed the machine that is the LSU offense.

Honestly, I don't know if anyone can slow Burrow and the Tigers. I used to think OSU could, and of all the teams they had the tools to do so. Moot point now.

I actually took a nap in the second half. That is not hyperbole. Needed the rest to deal with the 4 friggin hour ridiculousness that has become the norm for televised CFB games.

The Sooners were simply over matched in all areas of the game. Jalen Hurts cannot do it all by himself, and by keying on him LSU's defense looked very good against a very good offense. There's not much to analyze here, really. LSU was firing on all cylinders, and OU looked like a Group of 5 team. Sorry Sooner fans. Maybe next season.

Here's an interesting tidbit: In my final pre-playoff rankings, I had Oklahoma #4 based on the formula used. That formula includes the SRS scores that I pulled from Sports Reference which are modified to account for "non-major" teams. My system does not reward FBS schools for playing FCS teams, and my SRS numbers are different. I didn't figure out how to calculate SRS until recently, so I could not include my numbers in the rankings. But now that I know how, I re-ran the numbers using my SRS scores and Oregon is #4. I'm not saying the outcome would have been different, but who knows? Maybe Herbert has something for LSU's D?


OSU v Clemson

OK, I will do my absolute best to keep the homer glasses off here, but it will be hard for me. Please be gentle.

First - holy smokes, what a game! Glad I got my nap in because this was worth staying up for.

Now, I have watched every OSU game this season, but I've only seen Clemson twice. Shame on me, I know, but I decided to start this ranking thing very late in the season and had no need to watch them.

My takeaway from OSU: that was the team we've seen all season, but we really only got to see them for about a quarter and a half (and for the Buckeyes, it was at the wrong end of the game). Yes, there was the targeting call that flipped the game around, but while I disagree with the rule and its current application, it was called correctly based on NCAA rules. Shame on Wade for lowering his head. The fumble call was simply wrong. The running into the kicker call should have been the 5 yard penalty, not the 15 yard (watch it again). But none of that should have mattered. If you put your team into a situation where a few calls cost you the game, it wasn't the calls that cost you the game.

Let's talk about 3 FG's in the red zone from a team that was a monster in the red zone all season. That's 12 points (or at least 9) left on the field because Day wasn't brave enough to go for it. This was a major knock against OSU last season that everyone thought they had solved.

How about the conservative play calling that dominated OSU's O after going up by 16? I get that Dobbins was hurt, but we've seen Teague run wild this season and yet the O-line stopped getting pushes and poof! the run game was gone.

Quite possibly the most egregious call of the game, though, was during the next to last drive. 3rd and 5 on the Clemson 40, out routes are killing Clemson, the field is ridiculously slippery (though I don't recall seeing quite as many Tigers on their butts as I saw Buckeyes?), and Day calls a bubble screen?

No, it wasn't the officials that killed OSU. It was bad and conservative play calling.

My takeaway from Clemson: for a team with a ridiculously bad SoS, Clemson is the real deal. They did what championship teams are supposed to do. They got punched in the nose and hung in there. They took the opportunities given to them and made the most of them. And most importantly, when they needed Lawrence the most he took them 94 yards in 1:18 and scored the game winning TD.

OSU essentially dominated the game, hanging 516 yards on a Clemson D only giving up half of that. OSU's D held the Tigers to more than 100 yards under their season average. None of that mattered in the least, as Clemson just kept getting back up and limiting the damage and staying in the game until they could take the lead.

The Clemson defense was really quite good, all things considered. I figured Dobbins would have about 300 yards rushing, but the Tiger LBs really stepped up their game, and Venables called a masterful final half.

The mobility of Lawrence was very much a surprise to the Buckeyes, and man did Dabo make the most of it. That last TD with the fake run and pass to a mostly ineffective Etienne was just brilliant. Experience in the biggest of games came through when it mattered.

In the end, Clemson looked OK, but eye tests don't matter, right? They beat the best team in the country, period. The question is, can they do it twice?

By the numbers, LSU should win. I am predicting they will win. The story is too good: "2nd tier" SEC team with the transfer QB and Cajun coach everyone loves playing for it all in Nawlins? Yeah, I can't see how Clemson competes with that, outside of the talent of Burrow and Company. But while I called the Clemson/OSU matchup a coin toss, in my heart I expected a full game of the 1st quarter. Dabo is super smart, Lawrence is pretty darn good, and this might be the best D LSU sees all year (yes, even better than Georgia's - more imagination from Venables).

Other games

I did not watch much of the Notre Dame game. That one felt like a dis of the Irish, and the score didn't do much to change how I see it. I mean, Iowa State had 45 yards rushing. Total. That was a waste of a potentially good bowl game. ND vs App State would have been better.

Penn State and Memphis was entertaining. I felt like PSU would simply squash the Tigers, but that didn't happen. Memphis only had 63 yards rushing, but had 479 yards passing against what was supposed to be a pretty stout Nittany Lion defense. Lots of fun watching this one, though I have to wonder if PSU felt slighted by the selection of their opponent. Franklin did a great job of keeping his guys' minds right.