Well it's the one that some of us have been waiting for. After countless hours of watching, reading, writing, analyzing and talking about college football from some Mediterranean restaurant in Berkeley back in July where Matt and I both thought that Chad Henne was John Navarre over a plate of chicken shish kabob to December when West Virginia wasn't able to muster an ounce of offense at home to Pitt. In a year of wackiness the dust settled and a couple of 800 pound gorillas were playing in the BCS championship game. Do they deserve it? Probably about as much as any of the other teams. Are we happy to see them here? The answer is a decisive no.
It was LSU's defense that had the experts drooling coming into the year. But they underperformed and while much of that has been blamed on the injury to tackle and sure fire top two pick Glenn Dorsey, one man, no matter how amazingly talented cannot account for the defense giving up 43 and 50 points in their two losses, even if those games did go to OT.
In actuality it is the Buckeyes who come into the game with the nation's number one defense. Many will discount this because of the weakness of this year's Big 10, but having watched their performance on a rainy Saturday in Ann Arbor there is no denying that they are one of the top defenses in the country, starting with Vernon Gholston on the line.
It's the Ohio State running game of various Wells' most importantly Beanie/Chris/whoever that will be the key. If they can get him going as they did against Michigan, Todd Boeckman won't have to win the game by himself. He's thrown 12 interceptions this season, and after Tressel saw that Michigan's offense wouldn't be able to muster a first down, he kept the ball out of his junior quarterback's hands.
LSU's wide receiver threat Early Doucet is supposed to be ready to go. His presence will help the dual quarterback attack that Les Miles has said he will go with. The Tigers' more balanced offense and healthy defense should be enough to beat the Buckeyes, even if the game is closer than a lot of Big 10 hating fans would like to believe. If you believe in the law of averages, Les Miles' team is due for a few 4th down conversions in crucial situations not working. As college football fans trying to make the best out of what will be our last game until September, we can only hope the game comes down to one of those famous Les Miles fourth down calls.
Predictions:
Matt- LSU
Ben- LSU
Mike- LSU
1/7/08
BCS Championship Game LSU v Ohio St.
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3 comments:
Ben, I'm going to have to disagree with you about LSU's defense. You absolutely have to consider that both their losses occurred in triple OT. That means they gave up three scores after the first 60 minutes. If you take away the overtime periods, they gave up 27 points to Kentucky and 28 points to Arkansas. That's still respectable.
I'm also not sold on Georgia like you and Matt are. They lost to Tennessee and gave up 35 points to them. LSU beat the Vols and only allowed 14 points. And if you want to get into a debate about how many points they gave up to a certain opponent, explain how Troy scored 34 on the Bulldogs in November. Their last three wins were against Kentucky, which finished with 5 losses, a Georgia Tech team that barely finished over .500 and lost it's last game to Fresno State, and Hawaii. I love Hawaii, but they wouldn't have stood much of a chance against Vandy or Ole Miss.
The fact is, they lost to Tennessee and didn't make their conference title game. I know it's not a rule, but if you want to go to the BCS title game and your conference has a title game, you should have to at least play in the conference championship, if not win it. Georgia did neither.
Sorry fellas, but LSU won the National Title. They played the best the entire season, and it took 7 periods to beat them twice.
I'm not even going to go in-depth into USC. They lost to Stanford. When you're 40-plus point favorites, that game should even be a contest. That was a cupcake game they lost, even if Booty wasn't playing. If there was a plus-one system, I'd give them the first shot at LSU. But the cards fell in LSU's favor.
Matt, the SEC is the best conference in college football. LSU ran through it almost came out undefeated, except for those two triple OT games. They are good, and to say they weren't anything special tells me you were like my dad, in that you didn't watch the SEC enough, sticking with the crappy Pac-10 games. Spread your wings, and watch some good southern football.
Take it easy fellas,
Ali
Ali,
Thanks for your take man. I believe the SEC to be far and away the best conference in the country. I think Matt agrees, but he can speak for himself.
With Dixon's injury and Cal's collapse the Pac 10 wasn't anywhere close by the end.
Ali,
I appreciate the comment, and thanks for starting a conversation on our site, that is terrific.
A couple of things though. First of all, don't take offense to this, but you should probably get to know someone before you assume something about them. You don't know me well enough to make a comment about me needing to spread my wings and enjoy some SEC football. If you did know me, you would discover I am perhaps the biggest fan of SEC football you would ever meet. For Christ's sake, I root for Tennessee just as much as I root for USC. The Vols are like my 1B as far as favorite teams, maybe a slight notch below USC. Secondly, even if you didn't know me, your comment is assanine because I have Georgia ranked No. 1!! I have an SEC team ranked first and you make that comment!?!? Unreal.
Secondly, I never said that LSU wasn't the best team, or didn't deserve to play in the national title game for that matter, what I said was that I don't approve of how they jumped in the poles. If you vote on the polls the same way you did all year, how can you change it during the last week of the regular season!? You can't. If you try and correct a mistake (VT ahead of LSU), you do it earlier in the season and save some face.
And please, please never mention the fact that team A or team B didn't win their conference championship. It's not a rule, so therefore you shouldn't even mention it. It's a moot point and holds no merit whatsoever. If the SEC title game is why LSU jumped so many spots despite teams ahead of them not winning, then the whole system is a farce. I think that it should be a rule, but it's not and college football looks pathetic when voters make it a sudo-rule.
Lastly, I would like to point out (ask Ben, I am the most unbiased sports fan you will ever meet) but I don't think LSU earned the Tennessee win. I think the Vols beat themselves. If you wathced that game and have any other opinion, then you didn't pay close enough attention.
Try not to get offended, just some good old discussion. Spread your wings, have a good discussion and try to widen your view of things (the end is an attempt at humor).
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