Chaos Reigns. Again. Once And For All.

And, at this point is it really any surprise at all?

Interlude:

This is what is happening in Columbus Ohio (rough approximation) 

And In The What The Hell Department

Like everyone else, I sort of had a feeling that an Oklahoma victory over Missouri was inherently possible, if not probable. That being said, I still picked Missouri to win the game, because I sensed some sort of tangible improvement last week over the team that took the field in Norman. As it turns out I was wrong about that. It is not entirely surprising. What was surprising, if not downright shocking, was Pitt knocking off West Virginia. But more on that later on.

Big 12 Championship

The game in San Antonio was the least interesting game of the “major” games of the day. The game played out, by and large, in much the same way that the first match up did. Oklahoma seized control early on, and they never really relinquished it. That is not to say that Missouri wasn’t in the game because they were, especially in the first half. They traded barbs early and often, the poise and control of Chase Daniel was evident from the onset, but Missouri was never able to completely seize anything more than a partial share of the momentum in the first half.

The second half was a completely different animal. Oklahoma made some adjustments to what Mizzou was trying to do, the Tigers did not do anything in anticipation for the adjustments the Sooners brought to the table. It was as if Pinkle and company, dipped as far into their bag of tricks as they could in the first half just to match OU. When the second half came around and OU showed some fresh looks, Mizzou had nothing to fall back on. Ponder this stat for proof, Mizzou had two second half drives that were not 3 and outs. One resulted in a punt, the other a field goal.

Backyard Brawl

Did not see this one coming, no one did. Honestly, who would, not even Pitt fans I dare say. First thing out the gate. Pat White going down was a problem, a massive, team crippling, upset rendering problem. There can be no doubt about that, but WVU was in serious, serious trouble long before he went down late in the second quarter. The bigger problem, the problem that manifested itself very early in the game was the play of the suddenly porous WVU defensive line. On the first play from scrimmage LeSean “Shady” McCoy busted a 12 yard gain. A harbinger of things to come. Pitt just wanted the game more up front, on both sides of the line. The Pitt defensive line, which has been very disruptive all year long took it to another level tonight. Pitt basically applied to same game plan that Cincinnati used against WVU, but with much better results.  If you watched the Cincinnati game, UC was constantly in position to make plays for loss or no gain, but they weren’t able to make the tackles. What was the most shocking element, and thing that should be particularly galling to WVU fans is the fact that Pitt won despite never being able to attack where the Neers were most vulnerable, in the secondary. Instead they just pounded McCoy into the teeth of the defense again and again with surprisingly good results. The game is tough to define, quantify, or even comprehend, especially given the way Pat Slaton has been able to shred much more talented Panther defenses the past two years. Mystifying on a USC Stanford, and Michigan App State scale. For those keeping track of this sort of thing, Pitt is 3-4 in the Big East, the two wins coming against the two best teams in the conference.

SEC Championship

All of the talk coming into this game has been about Les Miles. Originally he was announced as  hired at Michigan, at roughly 10:30. Two hours later it was announced that he had “agreed in principal” to a contract. With LSU? WTF indeed. Then, approximately one hour later, Les Miles unleashed the second instant classic Press Conference of the year.

While it certainly lacks the duration, and classic comedic effect of the epic Mike Gundy presser, it made up for it with Miles calling Kirk Herbstreit, more or less, a hack. Miles address was his 300, to Mike Gundy’s Troy. All in all, awesome. But there was a game to be played, an SEC championship to be won, and, though he surely did not know it, a statement to be made about the national championship. LSU went out, without Matt Flynn, and with a still hobbled and ineffectual Glenn Dorsey and took care of business in a very efficient, very methodical effort though, still lacking the sadistic streak that has come to be associated with this Tigers this year. though It’s been missing since the Auburn game, which coincides with the health Glenn Dorsey, consider that insinuation made.

ACC Championship

Did you notice that Virginia Tech won the ACC for the second time in four seasons? Did you care? Did you watch? I’ll admit it. I didn’t, I was too consumed with the UCF Tulsa game, and Kevan Smith’s breathtaking performance. So yeah, go Hokies.

USC

This is a team that is finally becoming what we all thought that they would be at the beginning of the season, and this is a team that no one wants to play right now. Not when they are healthy and firing on all cylinders up front and JD Booty is as efficient as he has been the past two games. I am very secretly wishing for a Georgia vs Southern California Rose Bowl, that would be an absolute slug fest.

Peace, I’ll post something when the bowls are announced Sunday afternoon.

Big 12, It’s Championship Time.

Missouri and Oklahoma. Raise your hand if you thought that this would be the match up in San Antonio back in August. I came close to tabbing this game, very close, but I forgot to trust my logic and, as a result, I picked Nebraska to represent the North. Whoops, can I get a retroactive mulligan? No? Oh well.

This is a desperately interesting game, because these two programs are in places they are not accustomed to being in. For the majority of this Millennium, Oklahoma has been the undisputed Titan of the conference. While far from a perfect overlord, what with those occasional big game meltdowns and National Championship game blowouts, the Sooners have been the most consistent team in the conference. Oklahoma hasn’t worn the underdog cape in a very long time, not since the 2005 Red River Shootout (Fuck Political Correctness) at least, and that did not turn out well for the Sooners. No more mister nice guy indeed.

Missouri on the other hand has been the reciprocal to the Sooners, consistently underwhelming, consistently having good talent, good enough to place them on the brink of the first tier of the Big 12 hierarchy, but consistently underachieving, and as a result staying planted firmly in the second tier. There was the 2004 road trip to Troy (something of a Big 12 graveyard, see Oklahoma State for reference) just before the athletic department was going to launch the Brad Smith for Heisman website. The 51-28 blowout loss to Bowling Green in 2002 (Just take a guess about who coached the Falcons), the 45-35 loss to the Lobo’s of New Mexico. In short the Tigers have been the definition of an underachiever since Gary Pinkel took the job in 2001.

But in this game, the roles are reversed. Oklahoma has been the one who has underachieved, losing a pair of games to teams that they frankly had no business losing to, Colorado and Texas Tech. Because of those performances the Sooners find themselves in a new role, that of the opportunist, with the ability to knock one of their conference foes from the National title. A role that others have a adapted against the Sooners, with truly devastating effects. Missouri meanwhile swaggers into the game fresh off the biggest Boarder War (Fuck political correctness) in history, with a good chance to play in the National Championship game.

When you look back at the first match up, it really was a tight contest. The difference was that Missouri couldn’t cope with being in control. it was something that they couldn’t handle, and in the end their lack of experience in that environment was their ultimate undoing. The lack of experience for Chase Daniel was huge. He turned the ball over three times, one pick on a drive that had just entered Oklahoma territory, one fumble on his own 12 that was subsequently returned for a TD, and another in the 4th quarter intercepted at the Missouri 24 yard line. Those three turnovers were the difference, because Missouri moved the ball effectively all night long, through the air at the very least, but the turnovers were their undoing.

Since that game however, things have changed. Missouri is not the team that it was back on October 13th. They are better, more focused and a terribly efficient team. There has been a marked improvement on the side of the Tigers in the 6 weeks since the last match up. On the flip side of that, when looking at Oklahoma, I don’t see the same type of improvement. They are, by and large, the same team now that they were then. Keep in mind that my observations of the Sooners have been relatively limited by my location in Ohio. But even looking at box scores they just seem, kind of consistent, admitted that is a horrible way to gather information on a team but it is all I have. The secondary of Oklahoma is going to be the defining issue of the game. Was the Texas Tech game a one game aberration of second level defensive breakdowns? The evidence says that it is not, and I have to think in the same vein. The match ups are slanted in the favor of Missouri, and the bottom line is that Oklahoma’s secondary, while populated by Greek gods of statuesque quality, do not defend the pass very well. Against a QB the caliber of Chase Daniel, with the weapons that he has around him, that is a bad thing. Oklahoma needs mistakes from Daniel to win, it will be a shootout to be sure, but in the end I think that the improved Missouri defense will get enough stops to pull it out.

I Say: Missouri 38 – Oklahoma 31

WOW

WOW!