Man, I really screwed up when I tried to project the winner of the Rose Bowl this year. And I did it by making the same mistake I criticize others for making: being too provincial.
We sit around in our own little corner of the world and don’t pay enough attention to what’s going on elsewhere. And along the way, we begin to value what we see closest to us more so than what we see from afar. Because we know it best. It’s only natural.
After the Civil War, I really couldn’t see the Ducks losing to Ohio State. In fact, at that time I thought it would be a fairly easy win. With the limited footage I’d seen of the Buckeyes, I just didn’t think they could get up and down the field with the Ducks.
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
But worse yet, once I got close enough to see some bad signs, I didn’t change my choice. Again, real dumb.
But if you were listening to my contributions last week on the MSP over 95.5 The Game, you heard my concern about my pick after attending the media-day gatherings for the two teams. In fact, I know some of you heard it – either there or on one of the two Comcast Sportsnet shows I did from Pasadena.
I know some of you heard it because you gave me a bad time about it in the comment section of this blog. But I know what I saw and should have paid even more attention to it.
The Ducks wandered into their media session looking as if they’d just rolled out of bed. They were disheveled and frankly, a little sloppy. They didn’t appear interested, motivated or disciplined.
At least compared to what I saw out of Ohio State a little later. The Buckeyes came into the room looking sharp, attentive, businesslike and serious – yet they projected personality and charm in their interviews. They were very impressive in every way. Even though each team wore sweats, Ohio State wore them sharply and with a degree of comportment that Oregon players didn’t have.
Yeah, I’m old school. But I’m going to tell you something – football is a unique game. It’s the only game where so many players have to perform in perfect synchronization with each other. When the ball is snapped, the team moves as one. Everything has to be perfect. Every move has to be practiced and honed.
You can get away with less than perfection in basketball. You don’t have to run perfect plays if you have one player who can just take the ball and go. In football, no matter how great that quarterback or running back is, you have to have everyone around him working in concert or bad things will happen.
Sorry, but I think there’s a tiny little discipline piece missing with the Ducks. And you see it in the mistakes here and there that killed them New Year’s Day. Really bad penalties – after you have stopped a third-down play. A critical fumble on an exchange that ruined a chance for a go-ahead touchdown. An interception that leads to a cheap three points prior to halftime.
Those are the kinds of things great teams – and you must be a great team to win a BCS bowl – don’t do. Ohio State doesn’t often beat itself.
The game actually worked out the way I expected in many ways. The Ducks really had trouble springing Jeremiah Masoli on the option. The Buckeyes’ discipline and talent kept them from running themselves into defensive mistakes.
As I expected, Oregon needed to throw to win. So did the Buckeyes. What I didn’t expect was Terrelle Pryor to out-throw Masoli. But Coach Jim Tressell kept it pretty simple. A lot of slants, dumpoffs and short passes – allowing Pryor to get himself going early. It was if he already knew what Oregon was going to give his team and set about taking it early.
I will always believe the Ducks’ first mistake of the day came not on the first play, when a possible interception was dropped, but on the opening coin toss. If you’re the offensive juggernaut that everyone says you are and you win the coin toss, why would you defer, thus giving the other team the ball to open the game?
Man, Oregon’s strength is its offense. Get that group on the field at the start of the game and try to get a lead and put Pryor behind the 8 ball immediately! Make him play from behind and also give your defense a chance to settle into the game.
But that was a minor quibble. It wasn’t nearly as important as the decision on the Oregon sideline by the little riverboat gambler, who suddenly turned Nervous Nelly and attempted a field goal on the fourth-and-one instead of going for it. Man, you go on fourth and seven or eight and you won’t go on fourth and one? Everyone knows how much easier it is to get that field goal in the waning seconds when you’re out of timeouts than to get a touchdown, don’t they?
But most of all, I’m still upset with myself for ignoring all the evidence that indicated an Oregon loss. On Comcast Sportsnet’s pre-game show, we broke the game analysis into nine categories and I actually picked the Buckeyes to have an edge in six of them. But I still stubbornly hung on to my pick of the Ducks.
My morning pal on 95.5, CIP, had the game pegged correctly from the start. “Ohio State has the better players,” he said to me. “Their worst recruiting year over the last 10 years is probably better than the Ducks’ best recruiting year.”
Not much doubt about it.
Better players. More discipline. That’s usually going to get you a win. Not always – because the ball bounces funny ways. But I was a fool to ignore the evidence. Oh well, at least I didn’t expect Oregon to score 50 points or win by 30.
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