What a Day For the Messenger to Die

[donovan]

A great day of Football. Amazing games....and the board died......ugh...we'll catch up tomorrow.

[Eric]

Yeah I noticed. All is well though. That was some day of football

I couldn't cheer for either Ohio State or Alabama, but at least Ohio State put a dent in the SEC mythos today. Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, TCU, Notre Dame, and Ohio State all beat the top five teams in the SEC West, the division that was trumped up as being "the ninth division of the NFL." It's good, but it ain't that good.

The B1G really needed today though. Three huge, huge wins against top 20 teams. I don't remember the last year that the Big 10 had a winning record on New Year's. They've usually been getting swept or going a game under the .500 mark as of late.

Florida State's score suggested they didn't belong on the same field, but you could have two evenly matched teams and if you get drilled by the turnover bug, the problem just compounds on itself. Florida State has had issues with turnovers all season long. I thought they were moving the ball fine all game, but they had too many drives stalled to keep pace. FSU's defense was on the field for too long over the course of the game and the body language took a dump after Winston's fumble that might enter the Mark Sanchez echelon in embarrassing turnovers. I really thought Florida State would start out hot from the get-go.

In fact, today was a weird day in a lot of ways because three bizarre things happened in the Oregon/FSU first half: FSU was only down 5 to the #2 team in the country at halftime instead of multiple scores, Augyayo missed a FG, and Mariota threw an INT. And to cap it off, Ohio State improves on their 1-10 all-time record vs. the SEC in bowl games to beat Nick Saban with their third-string QB. Ah, bowl season

[Dossenator]

Great day of bowl games. As a a Razorback fan it was nice watching Bama and Auburn go down in flames. A&M and Arkansas finished 6th and 7th in SEC West and they were the only two to win their bowl games.

Bama's play calling gave that game away. Kiffen did a terrible job. OSU could not stop the running attack so what do you do...pass the ball on every down. Moron. OSU was forced to punt, late, up by 6, and the punt was terrible. Bama got the ball around the OSU 20 and Kiffen again calls up a pass (int). I was equally as shocked with OSU passing on 1st down, up by 14 late. That stupid play almost allowed Bama enough time to come back.

I think Oregon throttles Ohio State. I don't think it mattered who won the a Sugar Bowl.

After watching Florida St showing today (they allowed Oregon to score 41 points in a span of 12 min game clock time) I think Baylor has a beef not being in the 4 team playoff. I think Baylor and TCU have offenses to keep up with Oregon.

I think Jimbo will be glad Winston is gone. He got fed up during the game with Winston back talking/attitude. He told him: "Calm the @&$@ down or your going to the bench": http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/01/01/florida-state-head-coach-caught-on-video-apparently-threatening-to-bench-his-star-player-during-rose-bowl/

Glad the board is up and running again. I kept trying to sign on all day during the games to discuss but until now it did not work.

Congrats to OSU and Oregon. Sorry for the loss Billybud.

[Spence]

I think the server must have went down.

I didn't see anything that happened today happen. I thought MSU might when and Wisky may give Auburn a game. I sure didn't see Ohio State winning with the 3rd string QB. He spent half the game looking like the 3rd string QB and half looking like it's his job to lose. I thought after we spotted them the two TD's on turnovers we were done. Elliott had a great game. The defense played well enough, even though we couldn't handle the 240lb back. I think Ohio State may have run away with this game had the punter for Alabama not been so good.

Most games I have an feeling Ohio State might give a team a game. Even if I think we may lose. I didn't see any way the Buckeyes would win this game. It was sure fun being that wrong, though.

[Eric]

I was stunned at the opening kickoff. I don't know how those two Ohio State players didn't make a play for the ball. My mouth stood open for about a minute because I couldn't believe nobody even mentioned it or seemed to know what was going on. The Alabama player touched it and left it there for dead. To my knowledge, that's a live ball. Nessler and Blackledge didn't say anything the moment it occurred, but brought it up on replay in the 2nd quarter saying that it was a live ball. I thought OSU lost the game on the first play because I didn't think they could survive by spotting Alabama 7 points. If you play on special teams, you have to know the rules; or if they knew the rules and didn't see the tip, they should be paying more attention.

[Eric]

Maybe the biggest thing that amazed me the entire game was the lack of Amari Cooper. Ohio State basically shut him down, even with the two scores, one of which was against soft coverage late in the game. They didn't even do anything special to neutralize him with double coverage that I noticed, they just pressured Sims and did well one-on-one with him. I thought he would go for 200+.

Ohio State's running game was awesome from the opening kickoff. It went mysteriously absent in the third quarter and most of the fourth, I thought they should have leaned more on Elliot when Jones started to look spotty. He is probably the best third-string QB in the country, but he is still a third-string QB. I'm wowed that Meyer has gotten his team this far. Meyer is pretty much an all-timer at this point. The stats even back it up, ESPN ran a stat today saying that he is basically the winningest coach percentagewise in the post-60's era.

[Spence]

Maybe the biggest thing that amazed me the entire game was the lack of Amari Cooper. Ohio State basically shut him down, even with the two scores, one of which was against soft coverage late in the game. They didn't even do anything special to neutralize him with double coverage that I noticed, they just pressured Sims and did well one-on-one with him. I thought he would go for 200+.

Ohio State's running game was awesome from the opening kickoff. It went mysteriously absent in the third quarter and most of the fourth, I thought they should have leaned more on Elliot when Jones started to look spotty. He is probably the best third-string QB in the country, but he is still a third-string QB. I'm wowed that Meyer has gotten his team this far. Meyer is pretty much an all-timer at this point. The stats even back it up, ESPN ran a stat today saying that he is basically the winningest coach percentagewise in the post-60's era.

Dorian Grant and Eli Apple handled Cooper. They frustrated him so much he was pushing and shoving after plays - which is out of character for him. I didn't think we could man up with him and win the battle. While we didn't do it the whole game, we did it enough that Sims quit looking.

[Dossenator]

He was super frustrated. Much like he was in Ark: Ark held him to two catches, 21 yards, and 0 TD's. Sims is not the best decision maker. He often tries to force it to Cooper when nothing is there.

I loved watching Bama lose, and Auburn, and Miss St, and Ole Miss, and LSU. Typing that made me smile. Only thing that could of made it better is if A&M would have lost.

[Spence]

He was super frustrated. Much like he was in Ark: Ark held him to two catches, 21 yards, and 0 TD's. Sims is not the best decision maker. He often tries to force it to Cooper when nothing is there.

I loved watching Bama lose, and Auburn, and Miss St, and Ole Miss, and LSU. Typing that made me smile. Only thing that could of made it better is if A&M would have lost.

Arkansas defensive scheme for Alabama was the model Ohio State used to game plan for Alabama. Auburn's offense was the model on the other side of the ball.