The college football regular season has ended. It seems like it lasted for an eternity, even if the teams could only play 12 games maximum.
I watched very little this weekend, although I saw the very tantalizing and bizarre end to the Alabama-Auburn hostilities. Auburn held a 24-20 lead in the final minute of play. Alabama was set at first and goal on the Tigers seven yard line. A bad snap and a penalty for an illegal forward pass left the Crimson Tide with a fourth and goal at the Auburn 31 yard line. Alabama QB Jalen Milroe had loads of time behind his offensive line and somehow found Isaiah Bond in the left corner of the end zone where Bond made a leaping grab for miraculous touchdown to put the Tide ahead. Auburn subsequently had its own miscues, which landed the Tigers at their own 2 yard line with one second left to play. A subsequent game-ending interception by Alabama was later overturned, resulting in a 27-24 final score in a wild ending, akin to the wild ending at Jordan-Hare Stadium ten years ago and the four overtime thriller the last time these two bitter rivals met on the Plains two years ago.
Nothing has really been decided as to the College Football Playoffs, nor have bowl game matchups been etched in stone. When the CFP rankings come out for this penultimate week, the only real movement will be for Ohio State and how far the Buckeyes drop after the loss at Michigan. The Wolverines will assume the second spot behind Georgia, which had a more difficult time at Georgia Tech than expected. Washington, another top team, struggled against in-state arch rival Washington State in the Apple Cup, winning on a late field goal by a kicker who was rewarded for his heroics with a scholarship. And unbeaten Florida State, minus its starting quarterback who was lost last week due to injury, managed to survive the Florida Gators in Gainesville.
So now most of the college football world waits while conference playoffs begin. In the Southeastern Conference, Georgia and Alabama clash in a battle of the titans. A rematch in the last Pac 12 championship looms when Washington and Oregon clash again. Texas draws troublesome Oklahoma State, victorious over BYU with some luck on Saturday. Louisville, a loser to Kentucky, will face Florida State in the ACC finale. And Michigan draws Iowa, a good defensive team in the Big Ten title game.
Improbable losses for the top teams could create havoc for the CFP committee. It could conceivably open the door for Alabama, which has consistently been underrated and penalized for its loss to future SEC foe and Big 12 powerhouse Texas in week 2. Beating Georgia in Atlanta with a probable hostile crowd on hand would be a big boost to the Tide’s resume. To reach the Final Four, Michigan, Washington, Florida State and Texas need to lose, and even then, the question remains whether the Tide would have enough quality points with a win over the Bulldogs to overcome Oregon, too. It’s going to be interesting this coming weekend.
Meanwhile, a whole lot of teams which achieved at least six victories over the course of the season await their bowl eligibility fate. Some teams, like fast-fading Rutgers, which has gone from 6-2 to 6-6 with its home loss to Maryland, should not even be in a bowl game. RU’s first week conquest, Northwestern, managed to win seven games after the off season turmoil, and has righted the ship and led to the interim tag being removed from David Braun’s title. Deservedly so. Rutgers may have attained the prerequisite to play in a bowl game, but the program still has a long, long way to go before it can be considered respectable.
For those following the Division III football playoffs, tiny Alma College out of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, pulled off a shocker on Saturday when it defeated perennial power #2 Mount Union in Ohio. Alma College is a private Presbyterian liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,288 full-time undergraduate students.
Alma has won two straight outright MIAA football titles. The team is a veteran group and it needed all its noise to overcome a 10-0 deficit on the road entering the fourth quarter. The final score was 24-20, just like Alabama-Auburn, and the Scots needed some last minute scoring to overcome the Purple Raiders. Next up for Alma is a home game against SUNY Cortland.
The rest of the DIII field is this: Centennial Conference champion Johns Hopkins rolled over Union College and hosts Randolph-Macon, which has steamrolled all its opponents this season; Wisconsin-La Crosse and North Central tangle—both high-powered offenses have put up whopping scores in their two playoff games, with La Crosse having dropped 71 points on Trinity (TX); Wartburg and Wisconsin-Whitewater also meet in the quarterfinals.
Notice that I haven’t gone with the NFL as my lead. While the Kansas City Chiefs did themselves in with a fumble by Travis Kelce in the red zone and bad drops of Patrick Mahomes passes, the San Francisco 49’ers and Dallas Cowboys looked good in their Thanksgiving Day wins, while Detroit stumbled over themselves in a loss to suddenly surging Green Bay on Turkey Day.
Call it a gimmick. Amazon, left out of the NFL Thursday spotlight, paid a whopping sum to the league for the rights to the first Black Friday telecast. In return, the match was a good one when the schedule was announced. Miami, with its lethal offense, would take on Aaron Rodgers and the tough New York Jets defense. A potential ratings bonanza.
Except that Rodgers remains on the sidelines, recovering from his Achilles tendon surgery (he still crazily hopes to come back for the December 24 Washington game—which I have tickets for) and former QB starter Zach Wilson was replaced by Tim Boyle, a former Green Bay back up to Rodgers.
The Jets fared no better with Boyle at quarterback. In fact, on a Hail Mary pass to end the first half, Boyle’s throw was intercepted and returned the length of the field for a touchdown. This may have outdone the Butt Fumble which so ignominiously defended the Mark Sanchez era not so long ago.
Both New York franchises are bad. At least rookie Tommy De Vito, living at his childhood home in Cedar Grove to save expenses, showed up on Sunday and led the Giants to a road victory over the Commanders.
The team with its headquarters in Florham Park, New Jersey is in free fall. Fingers are being pointed everywhere. So many are blameworthy. Most of all, my astute wife pointed out, there has been absolute silence from team owner Woody Johnson, who does not normally shy away from the spotlight. Does this mean heads are going to roll? Or is he waiting to see whether Rodgers plays and what happens then?
There is so much wrong with this team that even a full remake next year might not be enough. As I conclude my 47th year as a season ticket holder, my angst grows stronger, especially when the promise at the outset, including watching the HBO show Hard Knocks gave me reason to falsely believe that this would be the year the franchise turned things around.
I was only fooling myself. The plight of the New York Jets is a sad one. Being a fan of this team is even a sadder scenario. It is likely that the Christmas stockings for the team will once more be filled with coal.
As the NFL season winds down, I will have to be content to watch the Eagles, Chiefs, Niners, Cowboys, Lions and others head to the post-season. Fans in those cities must be having fun.
I guess it is time to have the last slice of pumpkin pie and wait for next Thanksgiving to see if the Jets are any better. Or if, once more, they remain a proverbial turkey.
No comments:
Post a Comment