Dec 15 2008
College Football’s Playoff: Round 1 (part 3)
Finally we will get some closure to this first round! No more power outages. No more naked men streaming on my work laptop. Just the final 3 games of the first round.
(2) Oklahoma v. (15) Buffalo:
Fox did the right thing on paper making this the early game. Statistically, Oklahoma should’ve had Buffalo dead to rights. The Sooners, fresh off scoring 60 points in their last five games were going against one of, if not the weakest defense in the tournament. Everyone agreed that if the Bulls punted, or even failed to make the end zone even once, it would spell the end of the game.
Gill, a man of many miracles.
There’s a funny thing about teams like Buffalo, though: Teams that are just learning the joys of success are rarely eager to let it go.
Buffalo got the opening kick and proceeded to produce a long, methodical, drive with 4 to 5 yard runs and precision 7-1o yard passes to receivers Naaman Roosevelt and Brett Hamlin. The shocked Sooner defense found themselves on their heels and down 7-0 after a Drew Willy sneak from the 1-yard line.
To add to the headache, the Oklahoma’s video game offense came out flat. Perhaps it was a Heisman hangover. Maybe it was simply that the Sooners were looking past the Bulls. Either way, a holding penalty, a false start, and two dropped passes gave the ball back to Buffalo.
Oklahoma managed to keep Buffalo out of the end zone, but not off the scoreboard as UB managed a 27-yard field goal to close out the first quarter.
After a strong return, Sam Bradford began to gash the Bulls defense for large chunks of yardage. Just when the football universe was about to return to normal, Juaquin Iglesias lost a fumble at the 13 yard line.
With Turner Gill knowing that his defense simply would not stop Bradford and the Sooners much more on the evening, the Bulls pulled out every trick play in their book before James Starks made the score17-0 from 6 yards out.
Oklahoma did manage to get on the board before the half when Iglesias accounted for his blunder by scoring on a 60 yard strike from Bradford.
The second half began the same way the first half ended, with Bradford tearing the Buffalo defense apart. A DeMarco Murray touchdown brought Oklahoma within 3…
…But a funny thing happened on the way to Oklahoma’s dramatic comeback win: They couldn’t stop James Starks. Starks and the Bulls offense remained content to run the ball for 6-7 yards at a pop in an attempt to hang on for dear life. Drew Willy connected with Gary Rice to open the gap back up to 10.
The Sooners fired back with two unanswered touchdowns to take a 28-24 lead with only 1:05 remaining in the 4th quarter…
…But the Bulls had been here before this season and Drew Willy knew what to do. Willy drove the Bulls to their own 47 yard line to bring up a 4th and 2 with :38 remaining and one time out left.
The comparisons to Boise State ended when Buffalo won the game with no trickery at all. It was a draw play to Starks on that 4th and 2. Starks bounced to the outside and sprinted to the end zone.
Oklahoma’s last ditch effort fell short at the Buffalo 42 yard line. Driving easily, they simply ran out of time. Buffalo shocked the world, beating Oklahoma 31-28 in one of the largest upsets in college football history.
(Side note: Yes…I am biased…if you want Oklahoma to win, then get your own blog!)
(7) Penn State v. (10) Ohio State:
Once again, Big Ten fans were outraged when the all important Joe-Pa versus the Sweater Vest was relegated to FX only because one of the most incredible moments in all of college sports was taking place at the same time. They were even more upset when Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnson and Tony Siragusa just would not shut up about the Buffalo upset. It was hard to believe that another game was even happening!
This match up was completely different from the first that ended in a 13-6 win for the Nittany Lions. With Daryll Clark playing the whole game, Ohio State never stood a chance against a team on a mission to get that national title for Joe Paterno. It was 17-0 at the half.
Terrelle Pryor managed to make a few plays for Ohio State and to keep the game interesting into the 3rd quarter, but the Penn State defense proved to be too strong. Joe-Pa and the Nittany Lions held on to win 24-14.
(3) Texas v. (14) East Carolina:
If there was one team that nobody was willing to overlook, it was Skip Holtz’ Pirates. Not only was Colt McCoy pissed about losing the Heisman, but the entire team was a little miffed about being seeded below a team that just lost to Buffalo. Add to this that the win would grant the Longhorns another crack at Texas Tech, and you can see where this game is going.
McCoy performed surgery on ECU, going into the half with a 28-6 lead. McCoy threw for two and ran for one.
Patrick Pinkney was able to find Dwayne Harris on the opening drive of the second half, but ECU would get no closer than 28-13.
Texas closed out the first round games with a 35-16 win.
