The Best of Big-Time College Football

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Can you top what we just saw?  I don’t know, but we’ll find out a week from Monday night in the National championship game in Dallas.
 
Oregon outgunned Florida State.  Ohio State overran Alabama.  
 
It was a draining Thursday of college football in the Ducks win in the Rose Bowl and the Buckeyes stunning win in the Sugar Bowl.
 
Talk about a wealth of riches, a treasure trove of talent, have you ever seen so much firepower than the four teams brought to the first ever final four of college football playoffs?
 
Marcus Mariota and the Oregon offense did its job, but it was the Ducks defense that did something, no one thought possible.  Not just holding up on defense, but taking the ball away from the Seminoles.
 
Oregon’s defense had four fumble recovering and an interception in a six series sequence, swiping away everything FSU quarterback Jameis Winston had to offer.  Four turnovers in the third quarter alone led to 27-Oregon points, forcing the Seminoles to play catch-up.  And early on, Oregon had kept Florida State from scoring touchdowns on 3-possessions is the red zone.
 
There would be no comebacks this time, FSU did just that, rallying from 16-17 and 21 point deficits during the regular season.  But they were not playing Wake Forest or Virginia, this was Oregon, who made them pay everytime they turned the ball over.
 
Mariota wound up with 338-yards passing; his running backs combined for 301-yards rushing, and young WR-Darren Carrington, son of the ex-Chargers DB, broke their back with two long catch and run TDs.  When they were done, Oregon put 639-yards of offense up on the board, and Jameis Winston’s (24-0) career record in Tallahassee, ended in a defeat.
 
The Sugar Bowl would not be easy, nor sweet for Alabama.  Speaking of a wealth of talent, the Tide offense had it, with a dynamic quarterback, the best receiver in the country, two big running backs, a massive offensive line, and a bigger and deeper defensive front.  What the Tide did not have was a secondary capable of holding up.  They lost (42-35) despite having numerous chances to put scores on the board..
 
Ohio State’s young quarterback Cardale Jones, their third string guy on the depth chart, replaced the injured JT Barrett, who had replaced the regular starter Braxton Miller.  Jones kept going down the field, and OSU made catches and got yards after the catch for scores.  Urban Meyers offense had 348-yards alone in the first half, staggering stats considering this was Alabama you were playing. 
 
Lane Kiffin’s offense struggled after early scores, and Nick Saban’s defense, which had given up 40-pass plays of plus 20-yards this year, was exposed time and time again as the Buckeyes rallied.
 
The Buckeyes survived bad field position to hit enough big plays, including huge runs from Ezekiel Elliott (54-85Y) to break the Tide’s back.  But it was an unsung OSU defense that really turned the tide, with 3-interceptions of Sims, and hold Bama to (1-11) on third downs.
 
All that talent in Tuscaloosa, and they will all be together next Monday night, watching somebody else play in the title game many people they would be an automatic to get to.
 
Can Oregon or Ohio State top what we saw on January lst?  Anything is possible when both teams have all this firepower.  Some New Year’s Day to remember if you love college football.

Bolts Coach – No BS

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Disappointed? Everyone is, another non-playoff season, as Philip Rivers career ticks away.
 
And for only the second time in a decade, the health of the Chargers quarterback becomes an off-season question, with possible surgery coming on an ailing back, for a bulging disc, or a herniated disc.  He has not had a major injury since the knee surgery scope prior to the playoffs some 7-years ago.
 
If that happens, it would be the exclamation point to just an awful season in San Diego, a season ravaged by injuries.
 
No one wants to hear about injuries, calling them excuses.  I call them explanations.  But tell me, when you looked at the Chargers depth chart on opening day, if I had told you they would lose two veteran offensive lineman, their top three running backs, and go thru five centers, lose a number of defensive players for a chunk of the season, do you think we would have been talking about a 9-win season?
 
This is what Mike McCoy had to deal with right from the get-go, and it got worse.
 
First it was on the offensive side of the ball, then he saw both inside linebackers exit, and an outside backer get hurt, and lost his best athletic corner (lst round pick), and still made his team competitive.
 
It may have been schemes or scams, smoke and mirrors, chewing gum and wire, but his leadership held the roster together.
 
Credit the quarterback for willing his team to nine victories.
 
Credit the coach for keeping the team emotionally in gear, never letting them feel sorry for themselves, never letting doubt creep into meetings rooms, never letting them cave in anywhere during a 60-minute game.  
 
He brought accountability and a degree of toughness to the Fortress not seen since the early days of Martyball, or the Boss-Ross era. 
 
Mike McCoy was the sales pitch guy, who found a way to game plan around whomever was standing up to play Sunday-by-Sunday.
 
When healthy, with lots of bullets in the gun, the offense was very dangerous.  When key players went down, when they could not run, when they could not pass protect, they went to max protection packages and found a way to move the ball.
 
When they were falling apart in the secondary because of hurt players, they used every exotic blitz package possible to stem the tide, and create chaos with quarterbacks, and found a way to get tougher in the red zone..  
 
They took guys off the street, taught them the system, fought with an outmanned defensive line, and coached them up to compete..
 
You may not like Mike McCoy’s condescending attitude “in the best interest of the team”.  I don’t like the generic lies about about injuries.  He and his first year coordinator Frank Reich may have made mistakes in clock management and conservative play calls in down and distance situations.  But all that is second guessing more than anything else.  But look at the big picture, what they dealt with, what they accomplished. 
 
Just compare the plight of the injury ravaged Bolts to other teams, who got badly hurt.  Atlanta lost virtually its entire offensive line and secondary, and their coach got fired.  Tennessee lost its quarterback, much of its OL, and went (2-14). It went sour in Chicago, the quarterback went south, and the coach and GM are gone.
 
The trauma in San Diego was worse in terms of the numbers of key guys hurt, and they won 9-and were in the playoff race till the final Sunday of the season.  Credit McCoy for preventing the ship from going down. 
 
What you have to like is his ability to get his players to believe; you have to like his resourcefulness to use whatever he had on game day, to make the team compete; and you have to like his ability to create packages that are productive.
 
Think McCoy and all the horrors around him, and remind yourself this is the coach who devised something to make Tim Tebow dangerous in Denver, to get the the playoffs and win a game.  Yes, that Tim Tebow, out of football since, unable to find a job because of limited passing skills.  That’s the quarterback McCoy found pages in the playbook that played to whatever strengths he had.
 
His two year record is (10-8) and (9-7) came in a tough division, with a battered roster two years in a row.  (19-17) does not seem impressive, but look beyond the record, look at the rosters and understand the situations, and realize what he accomplished..
 
McCoy did not allow the Chargers to become the Bears or Saints or Jets, and that is an accomplishment of the coach and the man.

Holiday Bowl Salute – Tuesday

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It’s one of the best things about San Diego.
 
What? The weather, the beaches, the Pacific breezes, Balboa Park, Petco Park, UCSD, the Zoo, the Chargers?  Yes, all that, and the Holiday Bowl.
 
The first time I paid attention to our Bowl Game, was sitting at home, snowed in on Long Island, freezing outside, warm inside, watching the shootout, seeing sunshine, the skyline, palm trees, and footballs flying everywhere.  
 
It was Brigham Young-SMU, Jim McMahon-vs-Craig James, the 46-45 Cougars win over the Mustangs and its Pony Express offense.  McMahon threw for 446-yards and God answered a Hail Mary call from him.  James ran for 225-yards in a dazzling back and forth display.
 
It would set the trend for what this bowl game would be for fans nationwide.  We’d see Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, Ty Detmer, Barry Sanders and other Heisman candidates.  We’d see wild offenses and college football’s 1-year wonders like ,Eric Crouch, Joey Harrington, Sonny Cumbie and more.
 
You could circle the date right around Christmas, to open gifts and see wide open offenses when the Holiday Bowl was played.
 
And such was the case Saturday night, as USC and Nebraska, two legendary powers, put on a fireworks football show, with the Trojans winning (45-42).  
 
The scoreboard lit up with a record 38-points in the 3rd quarter.  There was a 50-yard kickoff returns on the opening play, a 98-kick return for a TD on the very next kickoff, and a myriad of big plays like 42-yard runs and 72-yard TD catches.
 
When they were done, there were (1,040-Y) of offense, big sacks, big penalties, big time taunts, and bands that put on a splashy display too.  Nebraska had 8-drives that started from their own 42-yard line or further out, and yet the Trojans defense, on the field all night long, still had more stops than TDs scored against them.  And to think, USC returns 20 of its top 22-starters next year, and Nebraska gets its quarterback, wide receivers and most of its offensive line back.
 
There was AD-Pat Haden of Southern Cal on the sidelines, leading his school off the grossly unfair NCAA sanctions, free-at-last.  There was the ever popular Mike Riley wearing Nebraska red, rather than Oregon State Orange-Black, as he prepares to take over the Cornnhuskers.
 
There was Executive Director Emeritus John Reid, who helped found and run the bowl in its maiden voyage great years, and his current leaders, the Bowl Boys, Bruce Binkowski and Mark Neville, putting on two bowls, the Poinsettia and Holiday within a 5-day span.  And there were all those volunteers, wearing Red Coats, and their tireless effort to serve the football fans, the visiting schools and our city.
 
There were 55,000-plus carrying on the tradition of watching the scoreboard lights blow out there was so much offense on that given night.
 
There are many great things about San Diego, and the Holiday Bowl is one of them, a Chamber of Commerce advertisement to snowbound football fans across the nation, about our city and the heritage of this special game.
 

Chargers Season in a Snapshot

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The game plan said run the ball with Branden Oliver, wear out the defense, so you won’t have to hope your pass blocking holds up.  But the chunk yardage plays went away in the 2nd quarter, and it really became a one dimension game.  Rivers drops to pass, gets hit, gets flushed, throws some, gets picked off some, gets sacked alot.
 
Kansas City’s conservative play calling robbed them of a bunch of points.  They settled for field goal attempts after getting the ball to the Chargers 3-6-9-20-23, five trips in-no touchdowns.  Andy Reid’s team won, but his play calling in the red zone left lots to be critiqued.
 
San Diego, in desperation mode got it to the Chiefs 3-10-21 late in the game, but drives died on 4th downs and interceptions.
 
Cairo Santos kicked four field goals in the win, Nick Novak missed another, especially important when points were so hard to come by.  The kick cover units leaked oil too, allowing D’Anthony Thomas to take punts back 41 and 20-yards, and Matt McBriar hurt them with a short line drive punt.
 
The Chargers offensive line gave up sacks, two by journeyman backup Willie Smith, one each by DJ Fluker, the two rookies at center and guard, and a terrible one by veteran running back Ronnie Brown-who blew a blitz assignment.
 
Whatever big play possibilities existed, San Diego had 15-chunk plays in the game, were negated by the 7-sacks, penalties, incompletion, and the 3-turnovers.  And of course it wouldn’t be a San Diego Sunday without guys getting hurt, Fluker, Marcus Gilchrist, Shareece Wright and more.
 
Coach Mike McCoy will hold his press conference today, and will utter the tired phrase, ‘we didn’t do a good enough job’.  He’s right, the coaching staff (missing the no huddle attack and a flawed game plan), and the front office, for the inability to keep some key veterans, or find better backup players when the siege of injuries hit.
 
The Chargers lost 3-of their last four games; they went (3-7) vs teams with winning records; they finish (2-6) vs teams going to the post season.  They finish with an empty (9-7) record against the second easiest schedule in the league.  They didn’t punch their ticket to the post-season, they got punched out instead.
 
The truth is San Diego doesn’t have enough talent around the talents of Philip Rivers.  Hard to believe this franchise will miss the playoffs for the 4th time in the last 5-years with that guy at quarterback.  
 
It’s always easy to say Rivers isn’t the equal to the elite quarterbacks, the likes of Brady-Manning-Roethlisberger.
 
We must also say Tom Telesco, John Spanos, Mike McCoy, Frank Reich, the key decision makers, and others,  aren’t equal either.  A deficient roster.  Losing to who you lost to, struggles against bad teams, losses to bad quarterbacks and non playoff teams, shows the franchise is a long way from being elite too.
 
An awful game finishes off another disappointing season.
 
Remember that snapshot of that 4th down play and of your quarterback.  The offseason should be about fixing what the Chargers allowed to deteoriate.  Just look at the photos will you.

Showdown Sunday/Black Monday

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It’s the final weekend of the NFL football season, and ‘Showdown Sunday’ will be followed quickly by ‘Black Monday’.
 
If you are the coach of a losing franchise, you are likely in trouble.  So are your assistants, and possibly even a GM or too.
 
Here’s a list of who is on the hot-seat, and who might be on chopping block.
 
JETS…Rex Ryan had it all, strong defense, young QB with upside, and then it all changed.  His OL got old, his running backs got hurt, his quarterback fell apart.  The post-Mark Sanchez era has been a mess, and though the Jets defense can always be tough under Ryan, the offense has been inept, and his lst round draft pick QB-Geno Smith, might not be the guy.  The Jets are (17-30) over the last three years.
 
GIANTS…Tough call here on Tom Coughlin, and possibly GM-Jerry Reese.  They tried to rent a bunch of vets this year, and most everyone got hurt, but Eli Manning rallied team in final third of season.  Might (7-9) give Coughlin another year?  The emergence RB-Andre Williams and WR-Odell Beckham means there is talent now in place around the QB and they get WR-Victor Cruz back next year off IR.
 
49ers…Jim Harbaugh put together three pretty impressive seasons in San Francisco, but while winning games, he may have lost the lockeroom and the relationship with the front office.  You always felt he was high maintenance, and even a (43-19) record heading into this weekend might not save him.  Age and injury to both front lines and losing three LBs doomed the team.  That, and trying to make Colin Kaeperneck a pocket passer took away his dynamics.
 
FALCONS…Mike Smith’s era might be over as the team spirals towards a possible (6-10) finish after last year’s disappointment and the playoff ouster of the year prior.  Atlanta football does not seem headed in the right direction.  Injuries wiped out the offensive line, the defense just didn’t have much on the back seven, and Matt Ryan never had a consistent lineup around him.  Smith is (11-23) standing there pleading his case to owner Arthur Blank.
 
RAIDERS…Leadership change, culture change, roster change.  How about ownership change.  The Raiders are bottoming out despite yeoman’s work the last two years cleaning up bad contracts and cleaning out bad attitudes.  But Raleigh McKenzie’s coaching choices haven’t work, so Oakland will have its third different head coach when the season opens next fall.  John Gruden, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Holmgren?  They have a quarterback, they have linebacker, but they need lots more.  They have not had a winning season since 2002 and since they played in the Super Bowl in San Diego, they are (56-136).
 
BEARS…They have lots of money tied up with QB-Jay Cutler (24-turnovers), Brandon Marshall and other free agents, and they are headed in the wrong direction.  Coach Marc Trestman may have ambushed the league with his offense last year, but NFL teams look at video and the CFL stuff he was running a year ago, is being packaged and sent back to Canada now.  Nothing is right, not the roster, not the attitudes, not the future.
 
TITANS…It would not be the first time a coach was blown out after just 1-year on the job, but there is a real disturbing trend here with Ken Whisenhunt.  It ended badly for him in Arizona, and this is worse than anyone could imagine in Nashville (2-13).  He inherited a bad quarterback situation, and it got worse, as did the injuries.  But he is (7-24) over the last 3-years in the NFL as head coach.