EngineerHorn
No todo alli
In regards to the Big 12's bowl performance so far.
Missouri- They struggled over the last few regular season games, and Daniel played poorly by his standards in each. I'm not sure what happened, but I think he got frustrated with the season and reverted back to his sophomore year when he tried to do too much. Still, I expected a comfortable 38-20 type of win for them. It was slightly disturbing seeing Northwestern slow them down as much as they did. Still, I didn't put too much stock in results.
Okie State- The whole year I thought Okie Lite was a damn good team. I kind of blew off their blowout loss to Tech as part of Tech's two weeks of home night game wad-blowing (more on that below). Other than that, they hung with UT and kept it close with OU until the last few minutes. I really thought they'd go in and put up 45 points on Oregon, and that Kendall Hunter would easily get 150 on the ground. I figured the Ducks would score some points, but seeing them run through the oSu defense like that was troubling, as was seeing oSu struggle to run the ball. But maybe the Ducks were just playing really well on both sides of the ball to close out the season, as they did average 60ppg over the last two games against Oreg St and Arizona. But I'm not gonna lie, this one hurt. I was pulling for the Pokes. They have a really good shot to win the South next year FWIW.
Kansas- The only game that went about as I expected, especially when you consider Minny's struggles over the last few games. KU gave up some yards and points as expected since their defense is pretty awful, but the offense more than made up for it. I really like Todd Reesing. Fun to watch. I didn't really care if KU won but I always want Reesing to do well since he's from Austin, has his head on straight, and he reminds me so much of Colt. Nothing really revealing about this game, at least as it pertains to the Fiesta Bowl, and especially since Minny was so awful to close out the year.
Nebraska- The only Big 12 bowl team that UT didn't play this year, so again, there's not a whole lot to take from it. It's also the only other team besides oSu that I was actively pulling for. I figured Clemson would slow down their offense a little, and they did it completely for a half. But their offense got on a bit of a roll (even though it kept stalling inside the 20) and Ganz showed why he's a good quarterback. The Nebraska D did a really good job in containing the Clemson offense to 200 yards of total offense. I realize underachieving with really good talent on offense is Clemson's M.O., but Clemson's O did perform a little better after Sweeney took over, including a nice 400 yard day against South Carolina to close the season. Also the only game that the offense did comparitively well against a decent defense.
Texas Tech- I talked about this in the Cotton Bowl thread, but I kind of expected that performance and I think it was hilarious. I really wanted Ole Miss to score another touchdown after the onside kick from the 7.5 yard line. To restate, Tech blows their wad every year against UT or OU in a big night home game, and can't really get it up against anyone else. It's like clockwork. The only difference this year is that Tech was able to keep it up for TWO night home games, the second one against oSu the week after they beat Texas. After the oSu game, they were done. A blowout loss to OU and a last minute win at home over Baylor tells you all you need to know about how TT closed out the season. Yes, it is embarrassing having lost to them, especially after seeing Ole Miss run all over them. It sucks, but that's the nature of playing teams with a moderate amount of talent and severe inferiority complexes. It also didn't help matters for TT that the officials actually called them on their systemic holding, which for some reason was not called much during Big 12 play, and NONE against UT despite doing shit like this all game:
And if you want some video evidence, check out the left tackle after he got beat grabbing Kindle's facemask to keep him away from Harrell.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxeP6aUjw_k"]YouTube - no call2[/ame]
If I'm coming across as a sore loser, it's because I am one with this one game. It's one of those losses that just sticks with you and eats at you. And I'm not trying to take EVERYTHING away from Tech in their win. Harrell played a really good game and didn't miss, and the Tech receivers had some great catches. But you want to know how to beat Tech? Make the first tackle, limit YAC, punish the receivers after they catch short passes, but most of all, GET TO HARRELL. Kinda hard to do though when they're getting away with this shit. They didn't get away with it against Ole Miss as I counted 3 holding penalties.
So after that rant/dissertation, what does this mean for the Fiesta Bowl?
1. I still think there are some very good offenses in the Big 12. In each bowl game except for Daniel, the QB's have played well. Even Robinson and to a lesser extent Harrell in their losses. But they're not putting up the type of offense I expected. especially oSu and Mizzou.
2. These defenses are pretty bad. Mizzou's is a joke and Tech's is still pretty pathetic. Again, I thought Okie State's was better than that. During the Big 12 season I thought it was mediocre defenses against really good offenses. Now I've changed my tune. It was good offenses against bad defenses. Texas' D is better than its rank of 50th in ypg, but not as much as I thought (same with the scoring offense rank of 20th). Going qualitatively (I'm not going to consider numbers at this point because they're obviously skewed), I think there may be 15-20 defenses as good or better than UT's this year. Same for offense- I don't think UT has the 9th best offense in the country (5th in scoring offense). There are probably 15 teams in the country with offenses as good or better than UT's.
3. Conference Superiority. Big 12 is NOT the best conference in the land. Neither is the Pac-10 with their perfect bowl record (I like to look at how a team did over their last few games to gauge how good they are AT THE MOMENT, but it's still hard to ignore all those OOC losses early in the season). Neither is the SEC. So I guess it may be a 3-way tie. At this point people who argue for one conference over another are splitting hairs.
4. All things considered, I would be totally happy with a 7 point win over tOSU in a what may be a back-and-forth game. I have no delusions of a blowout at this point.
Again, sorry for the dissertation.
Missouri- They struggled over the last few regular season games, and Daniel played poorly by his standards in each. I'm not sure what happened, but I think he got frustrated with the season and reverted back to his sophomore year when he tried to do too much. Still, I expected a comfortable 38-20 type of win for them. It was slightly disturbing seeing Northwestern slow them down as much as they did. Still, I didn't put too much stock in results.
Okie State- The whole year I thought Okie Lite was a damn good team. I kind of blew off their blowout loss to Tech as part of Tech's two weeks of home night game wad-blowing (more on that below). Other than that, they hung with UT and kept it close with OU until the last few minutes. I really thought they'd go in and put up 45 points on Oregon, and that Kendall Hunter would easily get 150 on the ground. I figured the Ducks would score some points, but seeing them run through the oSu defense like that was troubling, as was seeing oSu struggle to run the ball. But maybe the Ducks were just playing really well on both sides of the ball to close out the season, as they did average 60ppg over the last two games against Oreg St and Arizona. But I'm not gonna lie, this one hurt. I was pulling for the Pokes. They have a really good shot to win the South next year FWIW.
Kansas- The only game that went about as I expected, especially when you consider Minny's struggles over the last few games. KU gave up some yards and points as expected since their defense is pretty awful, but the offense more than made up for it. I really like Todd Reesing. Fun to watch. I didn't really care if KU won but I always want Reesing to do well since he's from Austin, has his head on straight, and he reminds me so much of Colt. Nothing really revealing about this game, at least as it pertains to the Fiesta Bowl, and especially since Minny was so awful to close out the year.
Nebraska- The only Big 12 bowl team that UT didn't play this year, so again, there's not a whole lot to take from it. It's also the only other team besides oSu that I was actively pulling for. I figured Clemson would slow down their offense a little, and they did it completely for a half. But their offense got on a bit of a roll (even though it kept stalling inside the 20) and Ganz showed why he's a good quarterback. The Nebraska D did a really good job in containing the Clemson offense to 200 yards of total offense. I realize underachieving with really good talent on offense is Clemson's M.O., but Clemson's O did perform a little better after Sweeney took over, including a nice 400 yard day against South Carolina to close the season. Also the only game that the offense did comparitively well against a decent defense.
Texas Tech- I talked about this in the Cotton Bowl thread, but I kind of expected that performance and I think it was hilarious. I really wanted Ole Miss to score another touchdown after the onside kick from the 7.5 yard line. To restate, Tech blows their wad every year against UT or OU in a big night home game, and can't really get it up against anyone else. It's like clockwork. The only difference this year is that Tech was able to keep it up for TWO night home games, the second one against oSu the week after they beat Texas. After the oSu game, they were done. A blowout loss to OU and a last minute win at home over Baylor tells you all you need to know about how TT closed out the season. Yes, it is embarrassing having lost to them, especially after seeing Ole Miss run all over them. It sucks, but that's the nature of playing teams with a moderate amount of talent and severe inferiority complexes. It also didn't help matters for TT that the officials actually called them on their systemic holding, which for some reason was not called much during Big 12 play, and NONE against UT despite doing shit like this all game:
And if you want some video evidence, check out the left tackle after he got beat grabbing Kindle's facemask to keep him away from Harrell.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxeP6aUjw_k"]YouTube - no call2[/ame]
If I'm coming across as a sore loser, it's because I am one with this one game. It's one of those losses that just sticks with you and eats at you. And I'm not trying to take EVERYTHING away from Tech in their win. Harrell played a really good game and didn't miss, and the Tech receivers had some great catches. But you want to know how to beat Tech? Make the first tackle, limit YAC, punish the receivers after they catch short passes, but most of all, GET TO HARRELL. Kinda hard to do though when they're getting away with this shit. They didn't get away with it against Ole Miss as I counted 3 holding penalties.
So after that rant/dissertation, what does this mean for the Fiesta Bowl?
1. I still think there are some very good offenses in the Big 12. In each bowl game except for Daniel, the QB's have played well. Even Robinson and to a lesser extent Harrell in their losses. But they're not putting up the type of offense I expected. especially oSu and Mizzou.
2. These defenses are pretty bad. Mizzou's is a joke and Tech's is still pretty pathetic. Again, I thought Okie State's was better than that. During the Big 12 season I thought it was mediocre defenses against really good offenses. Now I've changed my tune. It was good offenses against bad defenses. Texas' D is better than its rank of 50th in ypg, but not as much as I thought (same with the scoring offense rank of 20th). Going qualitatively (I'm not going to consider numbers at this point because they're obviously skewed), I think there may be 15-20 defenses as good or better than UT's this year. Same for offense- I don't think UT has the 9th best offense in the country (5th in scoring offense). There are probably 15 teams in the country with offenses as good or better than UT's.
3. Conference Superiority. Big 12 is NOT the best conference in the land. Neither is the Pac-10 with their perfect bowl record (I like to look at how a team did over their last few games to gauge how good they are AT THE MOMENT, but it's still hard to ignore all those OOC losses early in the season). Neither is the SEC. So I guess it may be a 3-way tie. At this point people who argue for one conference over another are splitting hairs.
4. All things considered, I would be totally happy with a 7 point win over tOSU in a what may be a back-and-forth game. I have no delusions of a blowout at this point.
Again, sorry for the dissertation.
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