Just watched a replay of 2009 Sugar Bowl on Pac-12 channel. 12-0 Utah, a 10 pt underdog coached by Wittingham beat an undefeated Bama with Saban 31-17. Utah did it by jumping out 21-0 in the 1st qtr and then pressuring the Bama qb. ND needs to do the same thing with Clem and Bama or Okl. Go Irish!
There is always hope.
- Thread starter Leahylads
- Start date
Except that Bama had been one win, the SECCG against Florida, away from playing for a national championship, and then faced the letdown of playing Utah in a meaningless Sugar Bowl game. Utah was flying high with their opportunity, Bama was going through the motions. Very similar to Auburn against UCF last year.
I get so sick of that crap. Excuses excuses.
Quit with the condescending excuses.
Those teams played, got beat, end of discussion.
How dare somebody beat a mighty sec team without excuses.
Hell we might as well not even play the games anymore. Just spin a ten team wheel of Bama having Six spots, Georgia two, Florida and Auburn have one. Then whoever it lands on is the champ.
Everyone else can play for the ROY trophy.
ESPN would love it so it must be a good idea.
Not excuses, REALITY. It happens in all sports. Depending on circumstances there are games where one team has a much better attitude, better edge, about the game than the other team does.
Emotions and let downs are a part of any competitive activity. Yes it's a very real thing.
Having said that there is still one winner and one loser.
And I promise you until the end of time they won't have in any record book an asterisk saying *the result of this game was due to Alabama being in a piss poor mood from a game that was a month prior.
They lost. Auburn lost.
Period.
Whether it happens or not is debatable, but it is maddening when a team can cry that they didn’t care about their bowl game when they lose. Once you get hit a few times, a lot of that “not wanting to be there” is long forgotten too. I’m of the opinion that it’s a bullshit built-in excuse for the favorite, but that’s just me.
What the other team does also dictates what you can do. Syracuse is a decent team that's competitive and good in some areas.
Clemson is a dominant team with both a very good offense and defense. It’s not as simple as “play like the Syr game.”
I think it's bogus when the team involved or its fans play that card. Pretty pathetic to use that as an excuse for losing. But a non-involved third party can surely look at the circumstances and say so and so team just didn't show up, or was flat, or played like they'd rather have been somewhere else. If you look at bowl games especially. If you have an 8-3 team who was projected to go below .500 and exceded all expectations, that team is going to jacked up to play and it's fans will be the same. If you have an 8-3 team who was projected to be a playoff team and under achieved, they won't have much of an edge and their fans will be pretty disinterested. In both cases that will usually show up in how they look on the field.
While hope is probably not a good game strategy for the coaching staff, for us fans it is sometimes the one thing in the end that we can cling to and keep us going. To quote one of my favorite lines from the Shawshank Redemption: "Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
Just watched ND games - SC, PITT, NW
Southern Cal has the 83 rd ranked offense in the country. They COULD have beaten Notre Dame by holding on to the ball. Fumbled on the Notre Dame 20 and the Notre Dame 12 and lost by 7, 24-17. Pitt lost 19-14,(96th ranked offense), and Northwestern lost 31-21 with the 105th ranked offense and the 63rd ranked defense(Plus they may have had a couple of zebras.They got some spots in that game that were incredible).
So, I just don't see ND winning. Those teams are slow. Their QB's are pedestrian. I don't see how ND defense is going to Clemson. The SoCal qb lobbed it to the sideline,and they still picked up big yards. No sir, they are not going to Clemson, unless they just turn it over.
Clemson by 2 TDs+
Of course they lost, everyone understands that. to just dismiss some of the underlying circumstances as to why teams win or lose is simple hard headedness. we've seen it many,many times over the years in every sport. the best team doesn't always win.
and if you watch both teams against Syracuse ? anyone can spin things to fit their narrative. i do think clemson wins but well within the number.
Wow...some real bona fide addition.
The best team on that day wins.
The rest is nothing but condescending window dressing.
As usual barely pedestrian knowledge at best about the game.
Knew your good old immature self wouldn't take long to show up.
The subject is making excuses for a team that is "disinterested" ... Or the like.
And I simply say...having been in the game at many levels and angles...at the end of the game it's one winner and one loser. The excuses are for the weak and they don't ever asterisk those games because somebody is whining they didn't win a game one month prior.
They show up, lace em up, snap it up ..play for 60 mins and the results are the results.
You can twist and turn whatever excuse you want but at the end of the game there's a winner and a loser.
Period.
Yawn. Nothing new here, just more uneducated gibberish. I bet if you put all your vast football knowledge into a nice tidy pile it would fit comfortably on the head of a straightpin.
Offensive and defensive efficiency that looks at every down played against all level of competition tells us that Clemson is a dominant team both offensively and defensively. It will take everything to beat them. I can’t help you if you’re stuck in 1987 looking at “which team did Clemson dominate.”
Which translates to you cant name a single quality top 25 team that Clem dominated. Stats are for losers.
Bama laid 2 eggs in the Sugar Bowl, once to Utah in 2008 and once to OU in 2014.
2008 Bama got beat by UF and Tebow in the SEC TItle Game the prior game, costing them a shot at the National Title.
2014 Bama got beat by Auburn and the "Kick Six" the prior game, costing them a shot at the National Title.
IMO that had a lot to do with those performances vs Utah & OU
2008 Bama got beat by UF and Tebow in the SEC TItle Game the prior game, costing them a shot at the National Title.
2014 Bama got beat by Auburn and the "Kick Six" the prior game, costing them a shot at the National Title.
IMO that had a lot to do with those performances vs Utah & OU
