That SEC game was a barnburner, hoo boy. Every time it looked like Georgia was on top for good Alabama came back behind excellent, excellent running from their RB tandem Lacy and Yeldon. It was such a shame how that game ended though. I was really rooting for Georgia despite myself, and to see the game end with the time simply running out like that was such a let down. I understand the pressure and everything but if Murray had just spiked the ball they would've had a good chance of winning. It would've even been better for that receiver to just not catch the ball, but them's the breaks, that's going to haunt Georgia fans for years.
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| The catch that was, but shouldn't have been. |
McCarron had his first pick in 4 games but no one will remember that. People will remember that bomb he threw late in the 4th to put Alabama up on top for good. That was a thing of beauty.
For his part Murray had a pretty good game himself, out playing McCarron even. They both had one pick and one TD but Murray threw for about 100 more yards. Gurl-talk, Todd Gurley also had a respectable game, running for 122 yards and 2 TDs.
The game really came down to the Alabama rushing attack behind those two beasts listed earlier and Georgia's inability to stop it. There was one series in the second half where it seemed like the Alabama RBs were getting anything they wanted, rushing for nearly 10 yards every drive all the way down the field into the endzone.
Fandom aside it was one of the best games I watched all year.
Attention now turns to January 7th where Alabama will play Notre Dame for all the Tostitos. Extremely early lines have Alabama by 10 and it'll be interesting to see how those fluctuate over the next month. For what it's worth Notre Dame is 5th at stopping the run but of course they haven't seen anything like what they'll see in the title game.
Of course I won't be watching so I hope for everyone else it's a good one!
Elsewhere a couple of teams decided to show up to see who would be the champion of the ACC for some reason. It was Florida State and Georgia Tech if you're wondering. I predicted that the game would be a lot of rushing and rushing being stopped and early on that's just what happened as the Seminoles slammed shut the rushing attacking from Tech's vaunted triple option three times in their first possession. Things wouldn't get much easier the rest of the game for the team averaging 323 yards rushing per game as the Florida State outstanding defensive line kept the Tech RBs in check.
The Yellow Jackets did make things close in the third quarter when they cut it to within 6 but in a move that was sure to both infuriate and wat-ify Tech fans, they attempted a two point conversion and didn't make it. Meaning all FSU had to do was get a field goal to make it a three possession game.
EJ "Big-game" Manuel had other plans however throwing a pick to give the Yellow Jackets a last chance shot at it however they, too didn't want the ball so the GT QB threw a pick himself to seal the deal.
Thankfully for the Good of the Nation Georgia Tech has already received clearance to play in a bowl despite their 6-7 record.
UCLA did in fact figure out how to run against Stanford in a game in which they lead in just about every category except points.
First downs? Yep
Total passing yards? Why not
Total rushing yards? Sure
Plays run AND yards per play? Absolutely
So then how'd they lose? Well the kicker missed a long one but before that Hundley threw a pretty costly interception. It was a back and forth game for a while but ultimately Stanford did just enough to earn their trip to the Rose Bowl something red shirt freshman Kevin Hogan has already done that Andrew Luck never did.
David Shaw the Stanford head coach has a strong case for coach of the year for doing what he did despite losing the best quarterback out of college in a long, long time. Too bad it's Bill O'Brien's to lose.
Speaking of rushing did anyone see notice Wisconsin rushed a couple times against Nebraska? Man, they sure rushed. It turns out they rushed for 539 yards, that's a lot of rushing. They even rushed for 8 touchdowns. Melvin Gordon rushed for 216 yards and a touchdown, Montee Ball rushed for 202 yards and three touchdowns, and James White rushed for 109 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Taylor "another Big Game kind of player" Martinez had a rather Taylor Martinez'riffic day. Throwing for 2 interceptions but running for 2 TDs. Maybe that balances out, nah probably not. There was this though:
So with the Rose Bowl locked up, it'll be Wisconsin and Stanford. I bet there will be an edge towards Stanford but I can definitely see it being closer than a lot of people might think.
Now I'm going to drink a glass of bleach because the NCG is Alabama and Notre Dame.
Cheers!
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