2009 Championship Weekend

December 5, 2009

Thursday night, the Oregon Ducks locked their spot in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl to face Big Ten champion Ohio State.
Friday night, Central Michigan took care of business against Ohio to win the MAC Championship for the third time in four years. CMU QB Dan LeFevour set the NCAA record for most career touchdowns with 147.

Let's take a look at the other conference championships on the line today.

Big East Conference: No. 5 Cincinnati at No. 15 Pittsburgh
12pm on ABC
In a de facto Big East Championship game, undefeated Cincinnati travels to Heinz Field in Pittsburgh with BCS dreams. Many experts believe that if Cincy decisively wins this game and Texas were to lose Nebraska tonight, Cincinnati would jump TCU in the BCS Standings for a shot at the national championship. Is that fair? No. If Cincy made it to the BCS title game, they would get blown out. I like Pittsburgh in this game with freshman runningback Dion Lewis. Dion averages about 136 yards per game and Cincy's defense gives up about 136 yards per game. So many people have raved about Cincinnati's football team, but they don't play defense and Pitt does. Cincy has an explosive offense so Pitt will have some problems but I like Greg Romeus to get after Tony Pike and force some turnovers. I still like Pitt to win this game and earn a BCS-bid which will then lead the debate whether Cincy should get an at-large BCS bid over Boise State and I say no.
Result: Cincinnati 45, Pittsburgh 44
First of all, how the hell does a good Pittsburgh defense blow a 21 point lead. And Pitt had 31 points on the Cincy D in the first half and all the offense disappeared in the 3rd quarter until Pitt got 2 touchdowns in the 4th but it wasn't enough. Dion Lewis had a heck of a day, but they barely gave him the ball in the 3rd quarter and that's why the offense died down in my opinion. Then botching the snap and hold on the extra point in the 4th quarter was crucial. They ended up having to scramble and try for the 2-point conversion while up 44-38, that was out of desperation and it cost them the game. That goes to show how much of a factor the weather was with a slick turf. You're able to kick the extra point and its a 7-point lead with a minute to go, then Cincy scores and you go to overtime, instead Cincy kicked the easy extra point to win. Ridiculous. Pittsburgh should have won the game, but in the end, they just didn't deserve to.

Conference-USA Championship Game: No. 21 Houston at East Carolina
12pm on ESPN2
East Carolina is back in the C-USA championship game but they don't have a chance against Houston. Houston's offense is too good and East Carolina won't be able to keep up, plain and simple. Houston wins big. Case Keenum for Heisman.
Result: East Carolina 38, Houston 32
Fuck. How do you lose to East Carolina, seriously? As a fan of Houston I am embarrassed. Couldn't get any kind of run game going, Keenum threw the ball 75 times and uncharacteristically threw three interceptions, but no one's perfect, you throw the ball that many times, you're bound to make a few mistakes. Turnovers really hurt Houston though, those fumbles too, and East Carolina capitalized against a Houston D that is terrible.

SEC Championship Game: No. 1 Florida vs. No. 2 Alabama
4pm on CBS
In a de facto national semifinal game, a spot in the BCS title game is on the line. These are the two best defensive teams in the country and among the best special teams in the country. Offensively, both teams have specific weapons but also glaring weaknesses. Florida needs to establish a consistent run game and a deep threat passing game while Alabama needs to establish a deep passing game. They have a stud in receiver Julio Jones who is capable of always winning one-on-one matchups deep, but because of QB Greg McElroy being more of a game manager, the Tide run Jones underneath a lot to try to get him in open space. Florida has Joe Haden at cornerback, who I rank as the No. 1 cornerback prospect for the 2010 NFL Draft. He'll be matched up with Jones in a great matchup. The linebackers and defensive lines of both teams are absolute studs, but I'm concerned with the safeties on both sides. Florida has the advantage there with Major Wright and Ahmad Black, while Alabama has Justin Woodall but a freshman on the other side.
If Florida can take away Mark Ingram and force Alabama to get in more passing situations, they win because Florida's pressure will get to McElroy even though the pass rush took a big hit with losing Carlos Dunlap to a DUI. Dunlap is suspended for this game.
Alabama lost this game in the 4th quarter last year, but Mark Ingram this year has been the ultimate closer by finishing games in the 4th quarter. Florida has Tim Tebow who is the Winner. Florida wins a very, very close game today.
Result: Alabama 32, Florida 13
TIM TEBOW. Oh wait, he didn't win. Alabama proved that they've been better than Florida all year long and they're headed to the national championship game to possibly face Texas. Alabama dominated this game right from the get-go. Florida made it close before halftime but couldn't hang on. Offensively, they couldn't get anything going against the No. 2 ranked defense of Alabama, while Alabama picked apart the No. 1 ranked defense of Florida. Florida got away from the run game early causing Tim Tebow to pass almost every down, something that he is not accustomed to and it showed. I don't know how many times I heard "that's a bad throw from Tebow."

ACC Championship Game: No. 10 Georgia Tech vs. Clemson
8pm on ESPN
A rematch from September 15 should be another great game. Clemson lost 30-27 after making a huge comeback when these two teams met earlier. Watching that game though Clemson should have won, and will win today. The key on Sept. 15 was turnovers. GT QB Josh Nesbitt threw two interceptions while Kyle Parker also threw two for Clemson. Parker is much more mature now and GT's defense has proven to be bad, real bad. Clemson has a top ten defense despite their 31 points to South Carolina last week. They need to rebound. They stopped Georgia Tech's option offense in the second half by making adjustments. I think today, Clemson starts with those adjustments. Clemson Tigers upset the No. 10 team in the country tonight.
Result: Georgia Tech 39, Clemson 34
CJ Spiller had a big day for Clemson rushing for 233 yards on 20 carries and 4 TD's, but it wasn't enough as Clemson's defense couldn't make its adjustments against the triple-option that it did back in September. Turnovers were again the story as Kyle Parker threw two key interceptions that cost Clemson the game and an ACC Title.

Big 12 Championship Game: No. 3 Texas vs. No. 22 Nebraska
8pm on ABC
Texas has one simple thing in mind: win and you're in. All they need is a win and they secure their spot in the national championship game. Texas is looking for revenge after being snubbed by the BCS last year and not being able to play in this game. With a chip on their shoulder, Texas wins this game. It will be a close one though. When Oklahoma played Nebraska earlier this year, Nebraska won 10-3. They shut down that OU offense. The Nebraska defense is something I am worried about for Texas. Ndamukong Suh is a Heisman candidate and I think he will occasionally break through Texas's O-Line and Colt McCoy will have to scramble and make plays. But that's something that Colt is very good at. He ran for a career high 175 yards last week, so Nebraska had to prepare for him to run the ball. The run game has always been a problem for the Texas offense. If they can established a run game, it will make the play-action much more effective. Another thing I see Nebraska's defense struggling with is the zone-read if Texas runs it, but again they need a run game to be able to run the zone-read.
Everyone thinks this is a game of Texas's offense vs. Nebraska's defense, but we can't forget about Texas's defense that matches up with Nebraska and the Cornhuskers' offense might not be able to get anything going against the Longhorns defense. Two touchdowns for Texas might be enough to win the game tonight.
*Texas offense: 43 points per game, Nebraska defense: 11 points per game allowed
Result: TEXAS 13, Nebraska 12
WHAT A GAME. My heart dropped when Nebraska kicked the go-ahead field goal to go up 12-10 with under a minute to go. I thought it was over. I had nothing left after all the energy I put out in my living room. But Nebraska didn't want the championship in the end. Crucial mistakes in the end gave the game to Texas with a little help from the refs. Nebraska kicked the kickoff out of bounds to start Texas at the 40, and then had a horse collar tackle on Jordan Shipley called for an extra 15 yards to put my Horns in field goal range, and Hunter Lawrence, my new hero, ripped the 46 yard game winner through the left upright with 1 second on the clock at the time of the snap and time expired and I could breathe again and my body stopped shaking and my heart came back to life.