The game is being won in the secondaries. 2 Penn St TDs on coverage blows, and a 3rd when a poor defensive call set up a great play. Meanwhile, Penn St, though they too gave up a TD on a total coverage fail, is showing the Broncos some things they have not seen before.
2 missed FGs that were well within distance range have not helped the Broncos.
Penn St has done a better job of making the differential plays happen away from Boise St's strengths than the Broncos have been able to make the differences happen where the Lions are most vulnerable.
Incredible. As in incredibly stupid. Washington had just demonstrated 6 times in a row they can not efficiently run a red zone play, and throw away a game that they could have gotten into OT, with a 7th bad play.
Someone will applaud stupid game management as being bold, but it fails far more often than it works, which is why a ~75% likelihood of failure is NOT a better option than a ~50% chance of success.
So does this mean ESPN will stop whining about Alabama being left out of the playoff? Seems pretty clear they would not have done much better than Indiana or SMU.
No, the narrative just changes to Alabama didn’t have anything to play for today so they didn’t try as hard so this loss doesn’t reflect poorly or badly on Alabama or the SEC.
Tennessee, who beat Alabama, getting run out of the state of Ohio, didn't help. Neither did losing to Vanderbilt when the Tide did have something to play for. Losing to Oklahoma, when they were in a win and your in situation, wasn't helpful either, especially after the Sooners lost to Navy.
South Carolina has scored all of 3 points on Illinois ! so far (well into the 3rd qtr) isn't building the SEC argument either.
As much as I struggle with the concept of Bret Bielema, and with Illinois, I much prefer defense prevailing, and especially over South Carolina. And Illinois will self-cancel themselves out soon enough.
You know that, I know that but it won’t stop the SEC propaganda machine that is espn from minimizing those losses and amplifying the losses of the ACC and Big12.
Yeah, but at least it will stave off the effect of lobbying for 4 auto bids for the SEC next month. The last thing anybody needed was evidence that supported that argument.
Yeah, Bama and SC losing today, coupled with Tennessee getting destroyed will help delay this. Georgia and Texas both losing tomorrow would also help as well.
John Canzano raised an interesting question in his column:
CFP quarterfinal head coaches... give me your top three when it comes to managing a big football game:
Danielson
Day
Dillingham
Franklin
Freeman
Lanning
Sarkisian
Smart
What is interesting is that we (fans and journalists) emphasize game management as being crucial, mostly because weekly we see where egregious errors have disastrous results.
But except for Kirby Smart, and maybe Spencer Danielson (limited result set but promising), no one on that list is on anybody's top 10 (20?). They got there by taking game management out of the equation better than most, not by being better at it than many.
ACC-Louisville vs B1G/Legacy Pac-Washington in the Sun Bowl. "Classic" bowl (one of the oldest, 2nd only to the Rose Bowl) with a matchup with more historic AND future relevance for other than the participants than it probably will for them. And yet a win would go a long way to jump starting a possibly pretty good 2025 for both Louisville (an ACC team actually can beat a P4 team?!) and Washington (the rebuilt Huskies actually can win when not playing withing sight of Montlake?).
Yeah, the Louisville game is the game I’ll be most interested in. Frankly, I have a crappy feeling in my stomach when it comes to the CFP. It just reminds me of how F&$#’ed up the SEC/B10 attempts to take over the sport are. They want to exclude the rest of the conferences (if the CFP is to expand further in their eyes it would be with the express purpose of just getting more of their own teams in) and I’m really not interested in watching their CFP teams because of this. That being said, of course I’d like to see Boise St. win.
As much as it bothers some fan bases, CFB is still a regional sport in media matters. Any win by a team from the west is good for every team in the west. Any loss by any team from the west, except to another team for the west, is bad for every team in the west.
Interesting ACC point for the WtFC analysts (much more scholarly than me) to contemplate.
Louisville beat the eventual conference champs, and a CFP AQ. Syracuse has the only ACC post-season win. The biggest reason neither played for the conference title, and very probable could have got a CFP berth, is that they both lost an important game...to Stanford. (!?)
It would be in everyone except the SEC's best interests if Michigan can beat Alabama, and Baylor besting LSU as well.
It will be interesting to see what happens in James Franklin's world if Boise State's Fiesta Bowl magic can work for a 4th time. If it does, it will be interesting to see how much Spencer Danielson will be offered. Perhaps even by Penn State.
I don’t see Penn State firing Franklin if they lose today, it just won’t happen. I think of all the coaches in the CFB, Day is the one that has the most pressure to win. Day and Franklin will both be back if lose but would be on a warm seat next season if they don’t win the Big10 or make the playoffs.
It will be interesting to see who comes for Danielson. I imagine some schools will be preparing to make him an offer but I don’t see him leaving Boise State after this off season.
I suspect they will opt mostly for radio silence at least in the short term, vs self-destructing the credibility of anything said about anything. A more likely approach will be even more careful schedule crafting and outcome management to provide outcomes in line with the desired ones.
Boise State should not have been in this playoff tournament. No way can they compete with these teams from the BIG and SEC.
The game is being won in the secondaries. 2 Penn St TDs on coverage blows, and a 3rd when a poor defensive call set up a great play. Meanwhile, Penn St, though they too gave up a TD on a total coverage fail, is showing the Broncos some things they have not seen before.
2 missed FGs that were well within distance range have not helped the Broncos.
Penn St has done a better job of making the differential plays happen away from Boise St's strengths than the Broncos have been able to make the differences happen where the Lions are most vulnerable.
Special teams, and to a degree their secondary, are what bit the Broncos against Oregon, and that happened again tonight.
Boise has shot themselves in the foot at every inflection point
Seems like Boise runs Jeanty into the line time and time again; reminds of how Cal used Ott?
And, did their FG kicker take lessons from the Bears?
I just saw Penn state commit a very, very clear offensive P.I.
No flag.
I guess we know who the powers favor.
I cold not be more in Boise State's corner, right now.
SO sick of protected seeds and blue bloods.
That was so bad but Penn State got away with a similar non call OPI against West Virginia earlier in the season.
Protect the blue bloods.
Yep, I am about done with CFB. I just need one more 6-7 Wilcox season and him coming back to Cal for me to fully check out.
Sorry if already discussed, but thoughts?
https://scarletandgame.com/ohio-state-qb-in-the-transfer-portal-is-favored-to-land-at-this-acc-school
cant coach scared, I wouldve gone for that 4th down
So why is Boise St, the higher seed, assigned visitor status? A small nit in an actual semi-neutral site game, but still...
Bid more NIL $? (nothing would surprise me at this point.)
higher ranked team is home. Penn St was 4th in final rankings; Boise was 9th. But playoff gives top 4 seeds to conference champions.
Actually the lower seed is favored in 3 of the 4 quarterfinals.
Incredible. As in incredibly stupid. Washington had just demonstrated 6 times in a row they can not efficiently run a red zone play, and throw away a game that they could have gotten into OT, with a 7th bad play.
Someone will applaud stupid game management as being bold, but it fails far more often than it works, which is why a ~75% likelihood of failure is NOT a better option than a ~50% chance of success.
The refs bailed them out to even get that chance in the first place. That was a weak PI call on 4th down.
Agreed. And all the more reason to not squander the situation.
So does this mean ESPN will stop whining about Alabama being left out of the playoff? Seems pretty clear they would not have done much better than Indiana or SMU.
No, the narrative just changes to Alabama didn’t have anything to play for today so they didn’t try as hard so this loss doesn’t reflect poorly or badly on Alabama or the SEC.
The irony here is that Michigan had more of their regular starters out than Alabama, especially on defense. Bama still only put up 13 points.
Tennessee, who beat Alabama, getting run out of the state of Ohio, didn't help. Neither did losing to Vanderbilt when the Tide did have something to play for. Losing to Oklahoma, when they were in a win and your in situation, wasn't helpful either, especially after the Sooners lost to Navy.
South Carolina has scored all of 3 points on Illinois ! so far (well into the 3rd qtr) isn't building the SEC argument either.
Cocks also lose. They were another SEC team people were arguing for. I think the committee had it right.
As much as I struggle with the concept of Bret Bielema, and with Illinois, I much prefer defense prevailing, and especially over South Carolina. And Illinois will self-cancel themselves out soon enough.
You know that, I know that but it won’t stop the SEC propaganda machine that is espn from minimizing those losses and amplifying the losses of the ACC and Big12.
Actual results successfully silenced that silliness.
until next year, when it will happen again
Yeah, but at least it will stave off the effect of lobbying for 4 auto bids for the SEC next month. The last thing anybody needed was evidence that supported that argument.
Yeah, Bama and SC losing today, coupled with Tennessee getting destroyed will help delay this. Georgia and Texas both losing tomorrow would also help as well.
John Canzano raised an interesting question in his column:
CFP quarterfinal head coaches... give me your top three when it comes to managing a big football game:
Danielson
Day
Dillingham
Franklin
Freeman
Lanning
Sarkisian
Smart
What is interesting is that we (fans and journalists) emphasize game management as being crucial, mostly because weekly we see where egregious errors have disastrous results.
But except for Kirby Smart, and maybe Spencer Danielson (limited result set but promising), no one on that list is on anybody's top 10 (20?). They got there by taking game management out of the equation better than most, not by being better at it than many.
I would put Lanning and Franklin at the bottom of that list.
Tow is misspelled...We are talking about being pulled along, or did he stub something along the way?
Okay, look at the photo, all I can think is:
"Take off that red shirt..
Take off that red shirt.."
Yes, I am for whoever is playing the SEC. They want to play King of the Hill, fine, let's see how that plays out once the rest of the CFB wakes up.
Hey, I thought we were restricted to “Fire Wilcox” from now on…
ACC-Louisville vs B1G/Legacy Pac-Washington in the Sun Bowl. "Classic" bowl (one of the oldest, 2nd only to the Rose Bowl) with a matchup with more historic AND future relevance for other than the participants than it probably will for them. And yet a win would go a long way to jump starting a possibly pretty good 2025 for both Louisville (an ACC team actually can beat a P4 team?!) and Washington (the rebuilt Huskies actually can win when not playing withing sight of Montlake?).
Yeah, the Louisville game is the game I’ll be most interested in. Frankly, I have a crappy feeling in my stomach when it comes to the CFP. It just reminds me of how F&$#’ed up the SEC/B10 attempts to take over the sport are. They want to exclude the rest of the conferences (if the CFP is to expand further in their eyes it would be with the express purpose of just getting more of their own teams in) and I’m really not interested in watching their CFP teams because of this. That being said, of course I’d like to see Boise St. win.
root for Boise, ASU, Oregon and Notre Dame - no legacy SEC or B10 in the final four
As much as it bothers some fan bases, CFB is still a regional sport in media matters. Any win by a team from the west is good for every team in the west. Any loss by any team from the west, except to another team for the west, is bad for every team in the west.
Yep, exactly this.
Interesting ACC point for the WtFC analysts (much more scholarly than me) to contemplate.
Louisville beat the eventual conference champs, and a CFP AQ. Syracuse has the only ACC post-season win. The biggest reason neither played for the conference title, and very probable could have got a CFP berth, is that they both lost an important game...to Stanford. (!?)
It would be in everyone except the SEC's best interests if Michigan can beat Alabama, and Baylor besting LSU as well.
It will be interesting to see what happens in James Franklin's world if Boise State's Fiesta Bowl magic can work for a 4th time. If it does, it will be interesting to see how much Spencer Danielson will be offered. Perhaps even by Penn State.
I don’t see Penn State firing Franklin if they lose today, it just won’t happen. I think of all the coaches in the CFB, Day is the one that has the most pressure to win. Day and Franklin will both be back if lose but would be on a warm seat next season if they don’t win the Big10 or make the playoffs.
It will be interesting to see who comes for Danielson. I imagine some schools will be preparing to make him an offer but I don’t see him leaving Boise State after this off season.
Michigan has beat Bama 19-13. Interesting how actual results were the best tool to stifle the "Alabama should be in the CFP" blather.
ESPN PR team will work hard to spin this loss as not a big deal or indictment for Bama and SEC.
I suspect they will opt mostly for radio silence at least in the short term, vs self-destructing the credibility of anything said about anything. A more likely approach will be even more careful schedule crafting and outcome management to provide outcomes in line with the desired ones.