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RSS FeedFiesta Bowl follow-up |
Jan. 2, 2007
For those who regard discussions of football akin to Spanish-language television, feel free to skip this one. (Let's say goodbye to my wife.) We are going to deviate from the real estate theme for a day and devolve into sportswriter mode following last night's Fiesta Bowl.
I had watched the first half and then slowly faded as the cold medicine kicked in. A late call awakened me and I started working on the computer, where I saw Boise State was holding on by eight. I made it back to the television seconds after Oklahoma scored the second of their two touchdowns 20-odd seconds apart. It turns out, I made it back just in time.
That Boise State came back to tie the game wasn't as remarkable as they way in which they did it. Finally, there was a football coach who realized that with a minute to go and two timeouts, low-percentage deep passes weren't necessary. Instead, succession of medium routes helped the Broncos move down the field. And that left them in position for the hook and lateral play which tied the game.
Usually the play is run with a pair of wide receivers in the same general vicinity, essentially both running hook routes, one deeper than the other. The deep receiver makes the catch and pitches to the short receiver, where he has to evade not only his own man but whomever was covering the deep receiver. This is what makes this so-called misdirection played rarely successful (unless you're the Miami Dolphins.) But Boise State added what turned out to be the perfect wrinkle - throwing the pass to a receiver just shy of the first-down marker (still hard to believe that part was intentional, then having him turn in to seemingly stretch for the first down.)
Except he didn't stretch. As he curled to his right, he pitched the ball to a second receiver running right to left for a lateral and a remarkable easy score. Oklahoma's defense converged on the original receiver to try and prevent the first down and never had a chance to adjust.
It only got better in overtime. Let's skip past the first few gadget plays, even including the touchdown where the a receiver took a direct snap and threw to a wide open tight end on the right side of the end zone as the quarterback ran in motion to the left. We'll just go straight to the two-point conversion - the only choice possible, given the ease with which Oklahoma had scored on Adrian Peterson's 25-yard dash to open overtime.
I've watched the replay two dozen times. I know what's coming. And I still don't see the ball sitting in the quarterback's left hand until just before he hands the ball to Ian Johnson for the winning two-point conversion. It's enough to make me want to have my eyes checked. I KNOW IT'S COMING AND I STILL CAN'T SEE IT.
Unbelievable doesn't begin to describe it. And for those of us in the Valley, we get to do things all over again in six days when Ohio State plays Florida in the BCS Championship Game. Maybe Boise State should hang around and we can try and arrange an OSU-BSU meeting over at Cactus High School next Tuesday.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton\'s Arizona Homes
Technorati Tags: Boise State, college football, Fiesta Bowl
I had watched the first half and then slowly faded as the cold medicine kicked in. A late call awakened me and I started working on the computer, where I saw Boise State was holding on by eight. I made it back to the television seconds after Oklahoma scored the second of their two touchdowns 20-odd seconds apart. It turns out, I made it back just in time.
That Boise State came back to tie the game wasn't as remarkable as they way in which they did it. Finally, there was a football coach who realized that with a minute to go and two timeouts, low-percentage deep passes weren't necessary. Instead, succession of medium routes helped the Broncos move down the field. And that left them in position for the hook and lateral play which tied the game.
Usually the play is run with a pair of wide receivers in the same general vicinity, essentially both running hook routes, one deeper than the other. The deep receiver makes the catch and pitches to the short receiver, where he has to evade not only his own man but whomever was covering the deep receiver. This is what makes this so-called misdirection played rarely successful (unless you're the Miami Dolphins.) But Boise State added what turned out to be the perfect wrinkle - throwing the pass to a receiver just shy of the first-down marker (still hard to believe that part was intentional, then having him turn in to seemingly stretch for the first down.)
Except he didn't stretch. As he curled to his right, he pitched the ball to a second receiver running right to left for a lateral and a remarkable easy score. Oklahoma's defense converged on the original receiver to try and prevent the first down and never had a chance to adjust.
It only got better in overtime. Let's skip past the first few gadget plays, even including the touchdown where the a receiver took a direct snap and threw to a wide open tight end on the right side of the end zone as the quarterback ran in motion to the left. We'll just go straight to the two-point conversion - the only choice possible, given the ease with which Oklahoma had scored on Adrian Peterson's 25-yard dash to open overtime.
I've watched the replay two dozen times. I know what's coming. And I still don't see the ball sitting in the quarterback's left hand until just before he hands the ball to Ian Johnson for the winning two-point conversion. It's enough to make me want to have my eyes checked. I KNOW IT'S COMING AND I STILL CAN'T SEE IT.
Unbelievable doesn't begin to describe it. And for those of us in the Valley, we get to do things all over again in six days when Ohio State plays Florida in the BCS Championship Game. Maybe Boise State should hang around and we can try and arrange an OSU-BSU meeting over at Cactus High School next Tuesday.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton\'s Arizona Homes
Technorati Tags: Boise State, college football, Fiesta Bowl
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