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In the house that Peyton built (Lucas Oil Stadium) on a cold night in Indy…2 Ohio State came up short against the Spartans of Michigan State (#11), losing for the first time since 2011 , 34 – 24. The Buckeye trailed early, 20 – 0 and with the tough, aggressive defense of MSU, things looked bad for Ohio State’s bid to make it to the National Title game in Pasadena. They did come back and tie the game 17 – 17 and also took the lead which after that swung back and forth, 24 – 20. Then Michigan State went up 27 – 24 and eventually 34 – 24 to find itself “coming up roses” ie., a trip to Pasadena in store for them to play in the Rose Bowl against 7 Stanford, who won the Pac 12 with a decisive victory over 11 Arizona State (at Sun Devil Stadium in Arizona). For Ohio State, both Miller and Hyde rushed each for 100+ yards. But the defense of Michigan State, led bv All America CB Dennard, was all it has been hyped to be. The broken up pass play in the endzone by Dennard was a thing of beauty and kept Ohio State at bay once they had fallen behind again. So…with their bid to go undefeated for the second time under Urban Meyer failing to happen, thus likely no trip to Pasadena for the Buckeyes to face FSU in the National Title game. The door just swung open after this loss and one would have to expect SEC Champion Auburn is ready to run right on through it and head to Pasadena as well.
7 Stanford traveled to play 11 Arizona State on the road and scored three TD’s on their first three possessions. They were up 21 – 7, 28 – 7, 38 – 14 and eventually 38 – 14 for the win. Disappointing performance by Arizona State. Tremendous performance by the Cardinals, especially Hogan at QB and Tyler Gaffney at RB. Stanford wins it’s second consecutive Pac 12 Championship and will play in the Rose Bowl for the second straight year.
That other team expected to play in the National Title game, 1 FSU, had very little trouble with 20 Duke in the ACC Championship game, winning 45 – 7. All credit to Duke for coming in at 10 – 2, winning the Coastal Division outright, and kudos to Coach David Cutcliffe, the National Coach of the Year Award winner. But the explosiveness of FSU was too much for Duke after an early fumble by the Noles led to a missed field goal attempt by the Dukies. After that it was all FSU. Winston finished with over 300 yards passing, 4 TD’s and 2 interceptions. (One knock on Winston, he does throw a lot of interceptions?) Oh well, that is the only knock, he and the Noles were outstanding!
So, perhaps a SEC – ACC matchup in the National Title game in the 16th and FINAL year of the BCS? Looks that way, the polls tomorrow should be interesting. I can’t wait to see how far Stanford moves up (gee, that loss at USC was costly!) Bowl Selection will be on ESPN Sunday night! I am going to say I think Auburn jumps Ohio State in the BCS and plays FSU for the BCS Championship! What do you thing?
