Speed Kills
I’m eating my words from last week, with joy. Well at least the ones I wrote about how the BCS Championship would turn out. The other ones about the Colts’ run defense, well, read on for what I have to say about that.
Not Yours
The (formerly) Number One Ranked Buckeyes looked like the Buccaneers Monday night. And it was due in large part to the Gators’ under appreciated defense. Here are the rushing stats against this defense this season; 119, 21, -11, 39, 83, 90, 133*, 64, 93, 135, 24, 46, 132, 47 (*Auburn). And not once during the season did a team surpass 300 yards passing. And aside from Vandy’s 298 and South Carolina’s 275, no team passed for more than 240 yards against this defense. Chris Leak played a great game, and I’ll talk about that more later on, but the defense is the reason we won this game.
Leading up to the game the big topic was “speed”. The problem was that people were focusing on wide out and DB speed. Someone forgot that the Gators have speed at damn near every position. And that’s the thing. Sure the Big Tenleven (saw that somewhere, don’t remember where) has become speedier on the outside. But they still recruit and groom 300+ pound offensive and defensive lines. That’s the game they play, and that’s what they need. And with defensive speed like this, the guys get to the ball and make tackles. It was not uncommon to see UF D-linemen making tackles down-field.
OSU is not leaning on the Ted Ginn injury as an excuse, which is good. If your team relies so much on one player, then you’ve got bigger problems. Championship teams aren’t about one player. They have guys making plays all over the field. The Buckeyes were beaten because they didn’t have a counter for the speed of our D-Line and because Chris Leak played the game of his life.
King Chris I
Give the dude his props. He had a great freshman year, and he played the best game of his career in his last game. A game that won a championship for the Gators. All season long any time he was under pressure I would cringe. Waiting for the duck to flutter out of his hand and into the waiting grasp of the opposing team. But on Monday night he produced but two (by my estimation) cringe-worthy plays. Hell, the lone sack he took was a “good” sack. He doesn’t get a pass for all the terrible mistakes he’s made over the last two seasons, but he does get the credit he deserves for his performance against OSU.
But, But, But, Boise State!
As we talked about last time, BSU made a good case for being talked about amongst the top programs. Would it have been nice to have another game pitting UF versus BSU? Sure. But it wouldn’t have happened any way you slice it. They finished the regular season 8th in the BCS, so even the much talked about “Plus One” scenario would have left them out. Again tho, would BSU have been 13-0 versus the competition faced in the SEC, Big Tenleven, or Pac-10? Probably not. They were better than Oklahoma one night. And the deserve all the accolades they have received. However, who thinks that a game between Florida and BSU would turn out much different than the one between UF and OSU?
Geaux Tigers?
If you have been reading message boards and “mail bags” on college football sites over the last week you might have heard a growing sentiment that LSU was actually the best team in the SEC for 2006. I’d like to point out that they did lose to the eventual SEC and National Champion Florida Gators. Only in college football folks can you have people proclaim that a team that lost, and badly I assure you, to another is actually the better team.
College football teams do change over the course of a season. They don’t have the cohesion and depth of talent present in the NFL, so a rash of injuries for instance can turn a 5-0, top-5 team into a 6-6 unranked team by season’s end. “What about Auburn?” you might ask. And rightfully so. Auburn beat the Gators by 4 points. Do I think the Gators would lose to Auburn if they played them again right now? Nope. I think the Tigers would be stomped. Likewise, I don’t think the LSU Tigers would fare much better on a second go-round.
Next Year
When 2007 opens on September 1st against Western Kentucky, the Champs should be in the top five. It is true that we are losing a ton of seniors and probably a fair number of juniors. But Florida featured an insane number of freshmen in key roles this year. Not just clean-up work or spot duty spelling an upper-classman. These guys played in big games and at key points in those games. Don’t expect much fall off from this year to next.
Super Bowl Tournament, Divisional Round
Bully for the Colts. They did what many, TALB included, figured they were incapable of doing; stopping the run. And they didn’t do it with a huge lead either. The score at halftime was just 9-0 in favor of the Colts. Before we all get too giddy and declare that they’re going to the Super Bowl, let’s see how they do against the Ravens away from the nice fast carpet. I’m going to take the home team here.
What did I tell you? Never underestimate the Patriots in the tournament. Under the command of Tom Brady, the Pats are 11-1 in the extra games. Often times football fans and scribes will talk about a particular conference championship game being the “real” Super Bowl. But this year, I think it will be the Divisional playoff game between the Chargers and Pats on Sunday at 4:30 PM ET. The Bolts were probably the best team in the regular season, and we know the Patriots are good in the playoffs. If the Chargers and Schotty can get past them I don’t see any reason they can’t handle the winner of IND-BAL and then into the Super Bowl. And they should be able to take advantage of the home crowd and LT’s legs to get them one step closer.
Seattle versus Chicago makes for an interesting, if not all that exciting, match-up. Both teams kind of limped through the season and won their divisions by default. I don’t expect the winner of this game to make the Super Bowl. Go with Chicago at home.
The “real” NFC Championship game will be played on Saturday between Philadelphia and New Orleans. Philly has renewed spark since Jeff Garcia stepped in. And NO has played crazy good all season.
BAL over IND
SD over NE
CHI over SEA
NO over PHI
Yes, all home teams. But only Chicago is my choice just because they are at home. The others I think are better teams, but just barely, and being at home will give them the edge. Hey, I only got one wrong last week.
And Finally….
As a Gator fan I want to believe they will win. But when you look at Ohio State and see how complete they are, you just have to stand in awe. They would probably give the Raiders a run. Which isn’t to say the Buckeyes are undefeatable. It will take a mistake-free game the likes of which we haven’t seen all season. I’m going to call it Ohio State over Florida, 40’s to 20’s. I will be more than happy to eat my words.
The little nugget of prognostication that came out of that “a mistake-free game the likes of which we haven’t seen all season” was about the only thing right amongst those words. As I said, I’m more than happy to eat those words. Go Gators!
