BCS Title Game: Notre Dame vs Alabama Jan 7, 2013

[tampajag]

I wonder if ND will break out their "lucky" green jerseys for this game? I think they are winless in every big game they've played wearing them.

Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk 2

They did knock the crap out of Florida that year in the Sugar Bowl when they wore the green uniforms. Granted, that was back in the Jerome Bettis days, but they did win then.

actually they wore white Jerseys with green numbers

[rkwittem]

BS, as others have pointed out.

BS- You don't think UT and USC ran up and down the field. There was 1130 yds of total offense in that game 41-38:
http://espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?id=260040030" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
So you think over 1100 yds of offense isn't running up and down the field. What is then? 1200 yds? 1300 yds?

Alabama avg about 439 yds of offense per game- 225 yds rushing and 214 yds passing. That is a pretty even offensive production. They also avg over 38 pts per game. That is pretty high scoring.
AJ McCarron is #1 in the nation in passing efficiency. In 13 games he has completed about 67% of his passes for 2669 yds, 26 TDs to only 3 INTs.
http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/natlRank.jsp?y ... =IA&dest=O" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You're clueless if you don't think Bama has a functional passing attack.

USC and Texas were 26th and 27th in offense that year. Texas was 27th in scoring defense, 22nd in yards allowed. USC was 13th in scoring defense, 23rd in yards allowed. The key was that they were both perfectly balanced teams. They could run to set up the pass or pass to set up the run. On defense, they could both stifle a passing game and a rushing attack. Both teams were LOADED with stars players. Hell, there were 3 top ten NFL Draft picks between the 22 offensive starters combined. Alabama and ND don't even have one. They certainly cannot claim to be totally balanced teams like Texas or USC were. Hypothetically, I bet both 2006 USC and 06 Texas would be favored over 2012 Alabama or 2012 Notre Dame by double digits. Alabama thought Johnny Manziel was brutal? Wait till they have to play against Vince Young? Notre Dame thought playing at Oklahoma and USC would be rough? Try playing against the Matt Leinart-Reggie Bush USC Trojans. Only Vince Young slowed them down. Hell, 2006 Ohio State with Troy Smith (the team that boatraced Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl) would give 2012 Alabama and Notre Dame fits.

Back on topic, could Alabama win a game by only throwing the ball? Let's say someone takes away their running game. Could they win with just McCarron? I doubt it. Same thing with Golson and Notre Dame. Take away their running game, and you've castrated their offenses. Sadly only one team has done that...but we're still stuck with this drudgery.
Remember how Johnny Manziel and TAMU came to Tuscaloosa and basically took away their ability to run by getting up 20 on them? How'd that turn out for McCarron?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGlIbpSWj7I[/youtube]




McCarron has inflated numbers because he plays for Alabama, has one of the best offensive lines in the country, a great 1-2 punch at RB, and only 286 passing attempts. The next 4 guys behind McCarron in passing efficiency have 353 (Aaron Murray), 408 (David Fales- SJSU), 377 (Tajh Boyd), and 312 (Mariota) attempts. He's the only guy in the top ten with under 300 passing attempts. The only guys in the top 20 with under 300 passing attemps besides McCarron are Collin Klein, Connor Shaw (who you know was injured for most of the year), and the immortal David Ash, who got benched at Texas.
McCarron isn't in the top 50 yards, top 18 in passing TD's, and has a YPA that's the same as Klein's, despite the fact that Klein throws even less than McCarron and doesn't have Alabama's offensive skill personnel around him. Sorry, but McCarron is an average talent made to look good by scheme and more talented teammates. Put him on Virginia, and he's basically another Michael Rocco.

My standards of "functional" are clearly higher than yours. I'd expect any team that calls itself "functional" as a passing offense to be capable of winning games with solely their passing attack, if a game developed in such a way. If you need play-action to be functional, then I guess you're not as functional as you'd want us to believe.
Alabama's PPG is partially a reflection of their woeful schedule. Alabama played the 1st or 2nd-worst schedule in the SEC. They dodged, Florida, UGA, and South Carolina in the regular season, got TAMU and Mississippi State at home and only had to play UGA in the SEC CG. Toss in three more crappy teams in Missouri, Arkansas, and Auburn, and you've basically got an upper-tier ACC schedule.
The only top notch defense Alabama faced all year was LSU...and they pretty much squashed Alabama's "elite" offense. I haven't gotten into Alabama's absolutely unforgivably bad non-conference schedule. 4-loss Michigan, WKU, FAU, and FCS doormat Western Carolina. No wonder their offensive numbers look so good. Any mid-tier BCS team would look like 2008 Oklahoma with those teams on their schedule.

PS. Thank you for cherry-picking my argument. I notice you had no reply for the Miami-Ohio State game. Two decent offenses and two great defenses. Both QBs made their share of plays and the game was exceedingly entertaining...regardless of who you were cheering for. I can already hear people about to bitch about Craig Krenzel, but the guy won a handful of games for Ohio State without the help of Mo Clarett that season. I'd like to see McCarron beat Miami without his running game. (Krenzel was the leading rusher in the NCG that season.)

I know for a fact that most people (nationally) would rather watch a game like that instead of a repeat of LSU-Alabama. I don't care how trendy or cool it is to say "I love watching defensive football," I refuse to accept that a game with slop like McCarron and Golson at QB is going to be better than a game like the 2002 Fiesta Bowl, 2006 Rose Bowl, 2008 Orange Bowl (Bradford v. Tebow) or even that LSU-Oklahoma Sugar Bowl from 2003. That's the ideal goal. Sadly, neither Alabama nor Notre Dame have offenses that exceed the abilities of any of the offenses of the teams I just listed.

Like I already said, I want a game that will be entertaining no matter what team is on the field. I want a well-played game on each side. Watching a bunch of 3-and-outs and 2- and 3-yard rushing gains ain't my idea of well-played. It's certainly not the stuff of an instant classic. This won't be a game that leaves us saying, "We just saw one of the 5 greatest games in the history of the sport."

[rkwittem]

It's not ohio state...thus it sucks according to rw

Sent from the nexus of the universe

[clenz]

Back on topic, could Alabama win a game by only throwing the ball? Let's say someone takes away their running game. Could they win with just McCarron? I doubt it. Same thing with Golson and Notre Dame. Take away their running game, and you've castrated their offenses.

Dude...you could say that about litterally ANY team at ANY level...except Wofford, Georgia Southern, and a couple other very very select schools....I'd bet less than 20 across all levels of college ball.

[rkwittem]

Back on topic, could Alabama win a game by only throwing the ball? Let's say someone takes away their running game. Could they win with just McCarron? I doubt it. Same thing with Golson and Notre Dame. Take away their running game, and you've castrated their offenses.

Dude...you could say that about litterally ANY team at ANY level...except Wofford, Georgia Southern, and a couple other very very select schools....I'd bet less than 20 across all levels of college ball.

I'm sure there are more than 20 teams. Few teams are as dependent on their ability to run to set up the pass. Since Alabama and Notre Dame both figure to stifle their opponent's rushing game, this game has all the trappings of Alabama-LSU. As in no running or passing of substance. Will they top 300 yards combined? I doubt it. Does that sound fun to you?

[BDKJMU]

BS, as others have pointed out.

BS- You don't think UT and USC ran up and down the field. There was 1130 yds of total offense in that game 41-38:
http://espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?id=260040030" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
So you think over 1100 yds of offense isn't running up and down the field. What is then? 1200 yds? 1300 yds?

Alabama avg about 439 yds of offense per game- 225 yds rushing and 214 yds passing. That is a pretty even offensive production. They also avg over 38 pts per game. That is pretty high scoring.
AJ McCarron is #1 in the nation in passing efficiency. In 13 games he has completed about 67% of his passes for 2669 yds, 26 TDs to only 3 INTs.
http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/natlRank.jsp?y ... =IA&dest=O" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You're clueless if you don't think Bama has a functional passing attack.

USC and Texas were 26th and 27th in offense that year. Texas was 27th in scoring defense, 22nd in yards allowed. USC was 13th in scoring defense, 23rd in yards allowed. The key was that they were both perfectly balanced teams. They could run to set up the pass or pass to set up the run. On defense, they could both stifle a passing game and a rushing attack. Both teams were LOADED with stars players. Hell, there were 3 top ten NFL Draft picks between the 22 offensive starters combined. Alabama and ND don't even have one. They certainly cannot claim to be totally balanced teams like Texas or USC were. Hypothetically, I bet both 2006 USC and 06 Texas would be favored over 2012 Alabama or 2012 Notre Dame by double digits. Alabama thought Johnny Manziel was brutal? Wait till they have to play against Vince Young? Notre Dame thought playing at Oklahoma and USC would be rough? Try playing against the Matt Leinart-Reggie Bush USC Trojans. Only Vince Young slowed them down. Hell, 2006 Ohio State with Troy Smith (the team that boatraced Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl) would give 2012 Alabama and Notre Dame fits.

Back on topic, could Alabama win a game by only throwing the ball? Let's say someone takes away their running game. Could they win with just McCarron? I doubt it. Same thing with Golson and Notre Dame. Take away their running game, and you've castrated their offenses. Sadly only one team has done that...but we're still stuck with this drudgery.
Remember how Johnny Manziel and TAMU came to Tuscaloosa and basically took away their ability to run by getting up 20 on them? How'd that turn out for McCarron?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGlIbpSWj7I[/youtube]




McCarron has inflated numbers because he plays for Alabama, has one of the best offensive lines in the country, a great 1-2 punch at RB, and only 286 passing attempts. The next 4 guys behind McCarron in passing efficiency have 353 (Aaron Murray), 408 (David Fales- SJSU), 377 (Tajh Boyd), and 312 (Mariota) attempts. He's the only guy in the top ten with under 300 passing attempts. The only guys in the top 20 with under 300 passing attemps besides McCarron are Collin Klein, Connor Shaw (who you know was injured for most of the year), and the immortal David Ash, who got benched at Texas.
McCarron isn't in the top 50 yards, top 18 in passing TD's, and has a YPA that's the same as Klein's, despite the fact that Klein throws even less than McCarron and doesn't have Alabama's offensive skill personnel around him. Sorry, but McCarron is an average talent made to look good by scheme and more talented teammates. Put him on Virginia, and he's basically another Michael Rocco.

My standards of "functional" are clearly higher than yours. I'd expect any team that calls itself "functional" as a passing offense to be capable of winning games with solely their passing attack, if a game developed in such a way. If you need play-action to be functional, then I guess you're not as functional as you'd want us to believe.
Alabama's PPG is partially a reflection of their woeful schedule. Alabama played the 1st or 2nd-worst schedule in the SEC. They dodged, Florida, UGA, and South Carolina in the regular season, got TAMU and Mississippi State at home and only had to play UGA in the SEC CG. Toss in three more crappy teams in Missouri, Arkansas, and Auburn, and you've basically got an upper-tier ACC schedule.
The only top notch defense Alabama faced all year was LSU...and they pretty much squashed Alabama's "elite" offense. I haven't gotten into Alabama's absolutely unforgivably bad non-conference schedule. 4-loss Michigan, WKU, FAU, and FCS doormat Western Carolina. No wonder their offensive numbers look so good. Any mid-tier BCS team would look like 2008 Oklahoma with those teams on their schedule.

PS. Thank you for cherry-picking my argument. I notice you had no reply for the Miami-Ohio State game. Two decent offenses and two great defenses. Both QBs made their share of plays and the game was exceedingly entertaining...regardless of who you were cheering for. I can already hear people about to bitch about Craig Krenzel, but the guy won a handful of games for Ohio State without the help of Mo Clarett that season. I'd like to see McCarron beat Miami without his running game. (Krenzel was the leading rusher in the NCG that season.)

I know for a fact that most people (nationally) would rather watch a game like that instead of a repeat of LSU-Alabama. I don't care how trendy or cool it is to say "I love watching defensive football," I refuse to accept that a game with slop like McCarron and Golson at QB is going to be better than a game like the 2002 Fiesta Bowl, 2006 Rose Bowl, 2008 Orange Bowl (Bradford v. Tebow) or even that LSU-Oklahoma Sugar Bowl from 2003. That's the ideal goal. Sadly, neither Alabama nor Notre Dame have offenses that exceed the abilities of any of the offenses of the teams I just listed.

Like I already said, I want a game that will be entertaining no matter what team is on the field. I want a well-played game on each side. Watching a bunch of 3-and-outs and 2- and 3-yard rushing gains ain't my idea of well-played. It's certainly not the stuff of an instant classic. This won't be a game that leaves us saying, "We just saw one of the 5 greatest games in the history of the sport."

JSO, do you expect anyone to read that novel you just wrote? I'm didn't What did you just say? The cliff notes version, with 8-10 lines instead of 8-10 paragraphs.

[BDKJMU]

Dude...you could say that about litterally ANY team at ANY level...except Wofford, Georgia Southern, and a couple other very very select schools....I'd bet less than 20 across all levels of college ball.

I'm sure there are more than 20 teams. Few teams are as dependent on their ability to run to set up the pass. Since Alabama and Notre Dame both figure to stifle their opponent's rushing game, this game has all the trappings of Alabama-LSU. As in no running or passing of substance. Will they top 300 yards combined? I doubt it. Does that sound fun to you?

Want to make a bet on that?

[BlueHen86]

USC and Texas were 26th and 27th in offense that year. Texas was 27th in scoring defense, 22nd in yards allowed. USC was 13th in scoring defense, 23rd in yards allowed. The key was that they were both perfectly balanced teams. They could run to set up the pass or pass to set up the run. On defense, they could both stifle a passing game and a rushing attack. Both teams were LOADED with stars players. Hell, there were 3 top ten NFL Draft picks between the 22 offensive starters combined. Alabama and ND don't even have one. They certainly cannot claim to be totally balanced teams like Texas or USC were. Hypothetically, I bet both 2006 USC and 06 Texas would be favored over 2012 Alabama or 2012 Notre Dame by double digits. Alabama thought Johnny Manziel was brutal? Wait till they have to play against Vince Young? Notre Dame thought playing at Oklahoma and USC would be rough? Try playing against the Matt Leinart-Reggie Bush USC Trojans. Only Vince Young slowed them down. Hell, 2006 Ohio State with Troy Smith (the team that boatraced Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl) would give 2012 Alabama and Notre Dame fits.

Back on topic, could Alabama win a game by only throwing the ball? Let's say someone takes away their running game. Could they win with just McCarron? I doubt it. Same thing with Golson and Notre Dame. Take away their running game, and you've castrated their offenses. Sadly only one team has done that...but we're still stuck with this drudgery.
Remember how Johnny Manziel and TAMU came to Tuscaloosa and basically took away their ability to run by getting up 20 on them? How'd that turn out for McCarron?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGlIbpSWj7I[/youtube]




McCarron has inflated numbers because he plays for Alabama, has one of the best offensive lines in the country, a great 1-2 punch at RB, and only 286 passing attempts. The next 4 guys behind McCarron in passing efficiency have 353 (Aaron Murray), 408 (David Fales- SJSU), 377 (Tajh Boyd), and 312 (Mariota) attempts. He's the only guy in the top ten with under 300 passing attempts. The only guys in the top 20 with under 300 passing attemps besides McCarron are Collin Klein, Connor Shaw (who you know was injured for most of the year), and the immortal David Ash, who got benched at Texas.
McCarron isn't in the top 50 yards, top 18 in passing TD's, and has a YPA that's the same as Klein's, despite the fact that Klein throws even less than McCarron and doesn't have Alabama's offensive skill personnel around him. Sorry, but McCarron is an average talent made to look good by scheme and more talented teammates. Put him on Virginia, and he's basically another Michael Rocco.

My standards of "functional" are clearly higher than yours. I'd expect any team that calls itself "functional" as a passing offense to be capable of winning games with solely their passing attack, if a game developed in such a way. If you need play-action to be functional, then I guess you're not as functional as you'd want us to believe.
Alabama's PPG is partially a reflection of their woeful schedule. Alabama played the 1st or 2nd-worst schedule in the SEC. They dodged, Florida, UGA, and South Carolina in the regular season, got TAMU and Mississippi State at home and only had to play UGA in the SEC CG. Toss in three more crappy teams in Missouri, Arkansas, and Auburn, and you've basically got an upper-tier ACC schedule.
The only top notch defense Alabama faced all year was LSU...and they pretty much squashed Alabama's "elite" offense. I haven't gotten into Alabama's absolutely unforgivably bad non-conference schedule. 4-loss Michigan, WKU, FAU, and FCS doormat Western Carolina. No wonder their offensive numbers look so good. Any mid-tier BCS team would look like 2008 Oklahoma with those teams on their schedule.

PS. Thank you for cherry-picking my argument. I notice you had no reply for the Miami-Ohio State game. Two decent offenses and two great defenses. Both QBs made their share of plays and the game was exceedingly entertaining...regardless of who you were cheering for. I can already hear people about to bitch about Craig Krenzel, but the guy won a handful of games for Ohio State without the help of Mo Clarett that season. I'd like to see McCarron beat Miami without his running game. (Krenzel was the leading rusher in the NCG that season.)

I know for a fact that most people (nationally) would rather watch a game like that instead of a repeat of LSU-Alabama. I don't care how trendy or cool it is to say "I love watching defensive football," I refuse to accept that a game with slop like McCarron and Golson at QB is going to be better than a game like the 2002 Fiesta Bowl, 2006 Rose Bowl, 2008 Orange Bowl (Bradford v. Tebow) or even that LSU-Oklahoma Sugar Bowl from 2003. That's the ideal goal. Sadly, neither Alabama nor Notre Dame have offenses that exceed the abilities of any of the offenses of the teams I just listed.

Like I already said, I want a game that will be entertaining no matter what team is on the field. I want a well-played game on each side. Watching a bunch of 3-and-outs and 2- and 3-yard rushing gains ain't my idea of well-played. It's certainly not the stuff of an instant classic. This won't be a game that leaves us saying, "We just saw one of the 5 greatest games in the history of the sport."

JSO, do you expect anyone to read that novel you just wrote? I'm didn't What did you just say? The cliff notes version, with 8-10 lines instead of 8-10 paragraphs.

I started to read it, but then I saw there was a picture.

[BDKJMU]

It's not ohio state...thus it sucks according to rw

Sent from the nexus of the universe

Oh, I didn't know that. That certainly explains it. A disgruntled Ohio State fans with a hair up his arse that the Buckeyes are sitting at home instead of playing in the NC game.

[rkwittem]

It's not ohio state...thus it sucks according to rw

Sent from the nexus of the universe

Oh, I didn't know that. That certainly explains it. A disgruntled Ohio State fans with a hair up his arse that the Buckeyes are sitting at home instead of playing in the NC game.

My Ohio State fandom has nothing to do with it. I'm merely disgruntled because quite simply, Alabama and Notre Dame aren't good enough on offense to make this game worth watching. I tolerated LSU-Bama 3 times over the past year. I'm not putting it with its doppelganger for another year.

The real fun for Ohio State starts next year (or right after this eyesore of a game is over). 2012 was merely the prelude.