For every good, there’s a whole lot of bad, and we saw lots to make us cringe during the three weeks of Bowl season. Here are some of those who didn’t exactly cover themselves in gridiron glory, my Bowl season villains:
Oregon: I got into a rather interesting online conversation with some Ducks fans yesterday who tried to tell me that Oregon were the better team and that if they’d just converted those four turnovers into points… Figure that one out. The more likely situation is that a big win would’ve been made bigger of the Buckeyes had held onto the football and scored, at a minimum, field goals on that drive.
The opposite seems true to me. Oregon have a problem. We saw it in the 2010 Rose Bowl Game, where they lost to Ohio State, and in the 2011 National Championship Game, a narrow loss to Auburn. It seems that, facing very good football teams who have more than the standard amount of prep time.
I guess the old adage is true: offense gets the glory but a good defense wins championships, and Oregon came up short defensively. Like, way short. It didn’t seem like anyone tackled Ezekiel Elliott – at least, not before he’d already ripped off eight or nine yards. The inability, for the most part, of Oregon’s defenders to not tackle Elliott was astounding.
Sure, the Ducks missed Carrington on offense and Ekpre-Olomu on defense, but those absences don’t make up for Marcus Mariota being something less than his usual sharp self when he needed to be at his best. Imagine the legacy the Heisman Trophy winner could’ve left if he’d taken Oregon to a victory and their first National Championship, to go with a Heisman, and a slew of other awards en route to the NFL.
Instead, it’s a bitter post-mortem for the Ducks, and surely there will need to be some changes, given the way these big games have gone recently. Once or twice, maybe it’s just an aberration or an odd set of circumstances. Three times? That’s a pattern – and a worrying one at that.
Florida State: So, the Seminoles get whacked by Oregon, who then get whacked by Ohio State. That doesn’t say much about an FSU team who, let’s face it, were pretty lucky at times in the regular season. That luck ran out in the Rose Bowl, losing in a humiliating manner to Oregon. Their sportsmanship apparently ran out as well, with most of the team – though, crucially and importantly for his public image, not the polarising and controversial Jameis Winston – fleeing up the tunnel before the clock hit triple zeroes, and not bothering to congratulate the Oregon players. Not a good look, all around.
Arizona: Despite playing what amounts to a home game, and being in, you know, a big-time Fiesta Bowl, the Wildcats apparently forgot to turn up and play for most of the first quarter of the game in Glendale. Unfortunately for them, the Boise State Broncos were ready to go from the first kick-off, and had a 21-0 lead very quickly. The Wildcats never managed to claw back from that deficit.
Alabama: A lack of a run game late, some strange defensive lapses at key moments and a very other very un-Alabama-like occurrences contributed to the Crimson Tide’s surprise 42-35 loss to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. Ezekiel Elliott ran through, around and over Nick Saban’s defense for a Sugar Bowl-record 230 yards, including an 85-yard dash to seal a famous Buckeye victory.
Alas, we were denied the Saban defense vs. Oregon offense that many have wanted for so long – but maybe that’s a blessing in disguise because it might not have been the titanic struggle we all expected. A few questions in Tuscaloosa, now. Chiefly, where the offense goes without graduating quarterback Blake Sims.
Mississippi schools: Not a good New Year’s Eve for Ole Miss Rebels and Mississippi State Bulldogs, and surely both teams were relieved to see the dawn of a new calendar year after Ole Miss capitulated to Texas Christian in the Peach Bowl, followed, a few hours later, by State losing the Orange Bowl to Georgia Tech. There was a time, earlier in the season, when these two schools were ruling the roost, and it’s been quite the fall from grace since.
Baylor: Up twenty in the last quarter against Michigan State, the Baylor defense let the Spartans come roaring back to take a lead with less than half a minute to go. Still, with the way the Bears can score, it wasn't over, with Bryce Petty and the offense looking to once again score in a hurry. Except the offensive line broke down and Petty was sacked, before throwing an interception to end things. Not the Bears’ finest hour.
Oklahoma: One of the worst performances of the entire Bowl season was the Sooners capitulation at the hands of Clemson. There’s a lot written about a team being happy – or otherwise – to be at a particular Bowl game, and it seemed like, at least based on the way Bob Stoops’ men played, that the Sooners weren’t happy to be playing in the Russell Athletic Bowl. They turned the football over five times during an insipid performance that forced Stoops to fire a bunch of long-time assistants. It was 40-0 at three quarter time, and didn’t end much better for the Sooners, the final score 40-6.
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