Bowl Week Wraps Up
Normally I would be writing this post on Monday morning, but there was just so much good stuff happening this past week that I couldn't wait! If you just getting caught up, this past week was "Bowl Week" for college football. We not only had teams playing in the National Champion Tournament, but we also have a lot of of other teams going head to head in specific bowl games.
This is honestly one of my favorite times of year. You get to see some underdogs rise to the occasion, or some teams that feel jilted for being left out of the playoff picture show why they should have been given a shot.
Before I talk about the playoff games, lets cover the remainder of the bowl games.
Things got started on New Year's Eve with Iowa taking on (19) Missouri in the Music City Bowl. It was actually a pretty exciting game if you forget about the first half of the game. Iowa was quite dominant jumping out to a 21 to 14 lead by halftime. Sadly for them, Missouri figured them out and came back in the second half and held them to just three more points. Missouri ruined the upset winning 27 to 24.
Speaking of upsets... Michigan had a huge one over (11) Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl winning 19 to 13. This was actually a quite interesting game to watch. Early in the game it was pouring rain and Alabama was doing everything they could to not hold onto the ball. Every possession resulted in a turnover to benefit of Michigan. Eventually, things dried out a bit and the sun came out, but by then it was a little too late for Alabama to come back. The morale had already been deflated.
In different conditions, I think Alabama would have won this game. Despite some big wins lately, I don't think Michigan is that good. Plus I just don't like them.
Louisville had a tight game against Washington in the Sun Bowl but came out on top 35 to 34. (20) Illinois beat (15) South Carolina 21 to 17 in the Citrus Bowl, and LSU smacked down Baylor 44 to 31 in the Texas Bowl.
Finally, Tuesday night we had the first game of the playoffs with (4) Penn State taking on (9) Boise State. It wasn't really even a contest and Penn State won 31 to 14.
New Years Day, we got things started with (3) Texas taking on (12) Arizona State. With (1) Oregon and (6) Ohio State slated later in the day, I don't think anyone would have guessed the Texas/ASU game would be the most exciting one of the day.
Texas had some big plays early in the game that made it look like it was going to go all their way, but ASU came back in the second half and forced the game into two overtimes before falling to Texas 39 to 31. It was a heart breaker for sure.
Then we had the OSU/Oregon game that everyone thought was going to be a thrilling shootout of their previous match up in the regular season. It was certainly a shoot out, but more of the firing squad variety. Ohio State quickly took the lead by over 30 points in the first half and though Oregon tried to come back in the second half, Ohio State handed them their first loss of the season and knocked them out of the playoffs 41 to 21. It's shocking to think this is the same team that lost to Michigan just a few short weeks ago.
As you probably know, there was another game that was supposed to be played on Wednesday night. That game was pushed to Thursday night after the terror attack that happened in New Orleans. While the attack didn't happen at the stadium where the game was being held, a modicum of caution is definitely understandable.
The Sugar Bowl did did not disappoint after the day delay. (5) Notre Dame upset (2) Georgia 23 to 10 in a hard fought game. This means that every team who had a bye in the first round of the playoffs has been eliminated.
Duke and (14) Ole Miss faced off last night in the Gator Bowl as well. Duke got destroyed by Ole Miss 52 to 20. Better stick to basketball Blue Devils!
Finally, over the weekend, we have just a few more games to be played. Minnesota takes on Virginia Tech in the Duke's Mayo Bowl, and Buffalo faces Liberty in the Bahamas Bowl.
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