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In a game that features two great offenses it’ll be the defenses that steal the show. We’ve both quarterbacks throwing two touchdowns, Minnesota stuffing the New Orleans rushing attack and the difference being a Saints field goal.
The team that “let up” in their regular season match-up allowing the Jets to make the playoffs will suffer the wrath of their own creation when the New York defense puts a halt to the Indy offense. Not! Indianapolis will struggle against a stout Jets defense but in the end Peyton Manning will have too many weapons at his disposal and despite a great effort of ball control offense and strong defense the Colts sneak out with a six point win.
The Dallas Cowboys should be embarrassed about their playoff performance against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday afternoon but if you were to listen to Dallas linebacker Keith Brooking its the Vikings who should be ashamed. Brooking says that Minnesota ran the score up on Dallas in their 34-3 divisional playoff win.
"I thought it was totally classless and disrespectful," Brooking said. "This is the NFL, that's not what this is about. I don't think there's a place for that ... I was looking for Childress. I didn't think it was right."
Brett Favre did throw late touchdowns with the game already in hand but before we feel sorry for Mr. Brooking let's remember a few things. First, this is the NFL. It isn't college, high school or junior high. These guys actually get paid to play football and that changes the dynamics of the situation. Don't get mad at the other team when you're the one who failed to do his job, Mr. Brooking. Second, the last I checked it was the Dallas defense's job to stop the Minnesota offense and not the Vikings job to shut themselves down. This is the playoffs and playoff teams are supposed to be the cream of the crop playing at their peak. If you don't like the other team scoring on you then stop them from doing so. Finally, I'm pretty sure that on that last drive the Dallas defense was trying to tackle Brett Favre so why would the not expect Favre to try to complete passes and score.
Last week we saw Alabama knock off Texas in the BCS championship game and now this week we’re ready to crown the Crimson Tide as our 2009-10 NCAA Football Pretend Playoff Champions. While the BCS agreed with our champion the runner-up was a different story. We had a team from the state of Texas in the championship game but it was the one from Ft.Worth and not Austin. Granted TCU’s real life loss to BoiseState hurts our formula here but we still have to finish the process.
In our system TCU reached the championship game by knocking off Florida in the Rose Bowl and then sneaking past the Longhorns in an Austin upset. Bama reached the championship game virtually unchallenged after crushing OhioState in the Sugar Bowl and then BoiseState in the semis. Now we’ve reached the championship game and we find the Tide still driving on cruise control.
Teams Remaining #4 TCU #1 Alabama #2 Texas #6 Boise State
The four teams to survive our first round of the pretend college football playoffs were #1 Alabama, #2 Texas, #4 TCU and #6 Boise State. The playoffs now move to the home sites of the two remaining top seeded teams which means #6 Boise State will travel to Tuscaloosa to take on the top seeded Crimson Tide while #4 TCU travels to Austin for an instate showdown with the Longhorns. Who doesn’t think that would be fun?
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Total
#6 Boise State Broncos
0
16
3
0
19
#1 Alabama Crimson Tide
7
17
10
16
50
Boise began their season with a major upset over the eventual Pac 10 champion Oregon Ducks but they'd be no match for the SEC champions at the end of the season. Mark Ingram runs wild through the Broncos' defense in leading Bama to a rout and punching a ticket to Pasadena for the college football championship game.
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Total
#4 TCU Horned Frogs
7
0
6
0
13
#2 Texas Longhorns
0
7
0
3
10
Austin becomes upset city as the Horned Frogs kick their way to Pasadena to face the Tide. After playing to a draw in the first half TCU kicks two third quarter field goals to stun the Longhorns and the college football world.
We’re ready to start our pretend college football playoffs and you may find a few surprises in the results. All first round games are played on neutral fields using the BCS Bowl System starting with the Rose Bowl between #4 TCU and #5 Florida.
Rose Bowl
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Total
#5 Florida Gators
9
3
0
6
18
#4 TCU Horned Frogs
0
10
10
6
26
Florida gets off to a quick start by actually taking a 12-0 lead in the second quarter but then TCU’s Joseph Turner takes over. Finishing with 187 rushing yards and two touchdowns Turner leads the Frogs to a 26-18 upset.
Sugar Bowl
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Total
#8 Ohio State Buckeyes
0
6
0
3
9
#1 Alabama Crimson Tide
17
7
3
6
33
OhioState has no answer for Bama’s defense and the Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram, has a banner day rushing for 142 yards and a score. Tide marches on.
Fiesta Bowl
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Total
#7 Oregon Ducks
0
0
0
7
7
#2 Texas Longhorns
10
7
3
10
30
The Longhorns hold Oregon to 151 total offensive yards while Colt McCoy passes for 230 yards and a score.
Orange Bowl
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Total
#6 Boise State Broncos
7
7
7
17
38
#3 Cincinnati Bearcats
7
14
7
7
35
In another BCS miracle the Boise State Broncos outscore Cincinnati 17-7 in the fourth quarter to end the most exciting game of the first round with a 38-35 upset win over the Bearcats.
The way it looks now it will literally take an act of congress to get a college football playoff and with a little more than a week remaining until Texas and Alabama face off in the BCS Championship Game we’re still left wondering what if. What if teams like Cincinnati and TCU were given opportunities to play for all the marbles? Would they get trampled over by a champion from a BCS or would they actually have a punchers chance at providing a March Madness like shocking moment? Unfortunately we’ll never know and instead we have a series of bowl games that look like this;
Rose Bowl – Ohio State/Oregon
Sugar Bowl – Florida/Cincinnati
Fiesta Bowl – Boise State/TCU
Orange Bowl – Iowa/Georgia Tech
BCS Championship – Texas/Alabama
Honestly, unless you’re a fan of one of those teams which game are you just nuts about watching? The Texas/Bama game should be fun for a championship but we’ve got to deal with Boise State/TCU before we get there. Really?
I’ve always argued that you could use the current BCS formula to select the top eight teams for a playoff and things would be much more exciting during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. How about this for the first round?
Rose Bowl - #4 TCU/#5 Florida
Sugar Bowl - #1 Alabama/#8 OhioState
Fiesta Bowl - #2 Texas/#7 Oregon
Orange Bowl - #3 Cincinnati/#6 BoiseState
Come on, you can’t tell me that doesn’t look like a better BCS Bowl lineup. Can you imagine the ratings for these match-ups? Advertising revenue would be through the roof with excitement and anticipation off the chart. The next round would move to the home sites of the two remaining top seeded teams and then finally a BCS Championship game that rotates sites as normal. It would be a lot of fun but we’ll never see it. So in the meantime we’re going to use imagination and computer simulation over the next week to play through our pretend playoffs.
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