College Football

[hedge]

"Marvin Lewis is still coaching the Bengals? I thought he stepped down a few years ago and was doing analyst work on one of the networks."

You also thought Coach Peppers was still coaching at Hunt...

[hedge]

"The lack of urgency that the Bengals played with in the 1st and 3rd quarters is on the coaching staff."

I don't know. This isn't high school or college ball. These guys are getting paid millions, if they can't motivate themselves for a playoff game, I'm not sure the coaching staff can either...

"Speaking of which -- an article came out this week where Mike Brown stated he wanted Kaepernick three years ago but Jay Gruden insisted Dalton was the man for his offense. Brown said are you sure? Kaepernick's mobility would be a great asset. Gruden said he guaranteed it, Dalton was a better fit for Gruden's offense. So, the Bengals took Dalton with 35th pick of the 2011 draft. Kaepernick went to the 9ers one pick later."

If true, that certainly confirms Rat's post about Brown recognizing talent...

[Saint]

Dalton just seems like a loser to me. No college pedigree. No special physical skills. Just another white dude that some other white dude running the offense thinks can be a good player, which is how countless NFL players have gotten a shot.

[hedge]

That's a perfect description of your career as a newspaperman...

[Saint]

but it more precisely outlines your entire post-college existence

[eCat]

I'm not as down on Lewis as the other guys. I just heard Dalton went 34 playoff series and has 1 TD to date.

Should Gruden have gone with the passing game? Its worked well for us in the past. Should he have recognized the impact Ingram was having on the game, absolutely.

But Dalton doesn't go fumble, interception, interception in the 3rd quarter and the Bengals would be playing the Patriots this weekend.

[aTm]

Start of a great telecast. Musburger introduced himself as "Kirk Herbstreit" and claimed he was calling this game along with Brent Musburger.

[10ac]

I'll take the over on how many times Muffburger says "Herbie".

[aTm]

And just like that the Auburn lucky horseshoe runs dry.

[eCat]

I don't remember. Is this the first time the BCS Championship game has been on cable?

[aTm]

This is the 4th one on ESPN

[Jungle Rat]

FSU needs to wake the fuck up. They are getting rolled.

[eCat]

This is the 4th one on ESPN

really? I guess I never cared before tonight. I don't have cable on my bedroom TV

[Saint]

that's a shocking revelation.

[Owlman]

Entertaining game. Nice comeback by FSU

[innocentbystander]

Okay that was an excellent football game. Very competitive national championship game. A fitting end to the BCS.

If you had asked me before the game, I say FSU wins by a touchdown. As it turns out, FSU is so lucky just to win at all. Auburn played a magnificent game. Could have gone either way, truly.

[hedge]

I thought Auburn was more lucky than FSU. They recovered several kickoffs and and punts that they muffed and also got away with an obvious face mask on Jameis in the second half as well as an obvious horse collar on FSU's last drive on the pass that got them down to around the 22 yard line (not that it mattered, ultimately, but still it was a missed call with very little time left). Auburn is obviously a very good team and they probably beat FSU a few times out of 10, but in this game, I think they won the "luck" element and still came up short...

[Jungle Rat]

We'd be lucky if you would shut it.

[aTm]

We should change this thread to the Jameis Winston quote thread.

"We took initiative to show we deserve to be in the predicament we was in."

"We were bigger than the game."

"Can't nobody be bigger than the game man."

"We just. We champions together. After everything we went through. All the haters."

[hedge]

Yeah, those made for some good interviews/speeches. Even the MIF, who had been locked into vacation planning (her favorite pastime) the whole game, took her greedy beak from behind the computer screen to chuckle at his ripostes...