Opinion-What was the single biggest play of the college football season?

selmaborntidefan

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A lot of people also believe that Alabama controlled the ball more in the 1st half, and that is also inaccurate. Alabama had 2 possessions in the entire game which lasted 2 minutes or more - one in the 1st half, and one in the second half. The harsh reality is that Alabama didn't change anything late in the game. You ran your offense. Sadly your offense simply didn't use any clock, even on scoring drives.
A lot of fans remember games as they were not.

Very few fans anywhere - including our own - realize that we actually OUTGAINED Ole Miss in that 2015 loss. We outgained them by seventy yards, had more passing AND rushing yards, and fewer penalty yards.

We literally won that game - as poorly as we played - everywhere except turnovers and the scoreboard. Most Ole Miss fans think they utterly blew us off the field and we got lucky to get back into it.

But it's hardly an Alabama thing. I've yet to meet a Red Sox fan who remembers that the game was TIED ALREADY when Buckner made the error that lost game six. I've seen fans insist Colorado won a national championship 'because' of a Fifth Down who don't know that the details make that scenario untrue. I've yet to ever talk to a St Louis Cardinals fan who doesn't blame Don Denkinger for 1985...never mind that their entire team fell apart and had a 20-game winner starting game seven (or their below the Mendoza line batting average for the series).


But folks don't THINK about ballgames that way. Scott Norwood gets the blame for wide right....but it wasn't Norwood who blew a 12-3 lead or surrendered a third and 13 that kept the Giants first drive of the second half going to a record 9:29 and netted a TD rather than a field goal.
 

pbearbryant

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If we're going to discuss why we lost vs Clemson I would have to say it boiled down to them running 90+ plays. We gave out down the stretch very similar to what happened to Atlanta in the SB. we couldn't sustain enough drives and as Selma pointed out earlier our scores were off of big plays so the defense was on the field an awful lot.

Roll Tide and I am still upset over the personal foul on the last drive, they wouldn't have had an opportunity for the pick play if it were not for that call I don't believe
 

selmaborntidefan

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If we're going to discuss why we lost vs Clemson I would have to say it boiled down to them running 90+ plays. We gave out down the stretch very similar to what happened to Atlanta in the SB. we couldn't sustain enough drives and as Selma pointed out earlier our scores were off of big plays so the defense was on the field an awful lot.

Roll Tide and I am still upset over the personal foul on the last drive, they wouldn't have had an opportunity for the pick play if it were not for that call I don't believe
Well, we DID have that thread but this is okay.

I can't really disagree with anything you said. By the same token, it's a group effort. The 1985 Bears couldn't have won games if they were on the field for 99 plays.
 

TiderMan

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But it's hardly an Alabama thing. I've yet to meet a Red Sox fan who remembers that the game was TIED ALREADY when Buckner made the error that lost game six. I've seen fans insist Colorado won a national championship 'because' of a Fifth Down who don't know that the details make that scenario untrue. I've yet to ever talk to a St Louis Cardinals fan who doesn't blame Don Denkinger for 1985...never mind that their entire team fell apart and had a 20-game winner starting game seven (or their below the Mendoza line batting average for the series).
Colorado did get a 5th down and it helped them win the game along with some other questionable calls in the last final seconds against Missouri. They still had to go on and win the rest of their games that season, but a loss to Missouri would have put their record at 3-2-1 at the time and they would not have shared the 1990 national title that year with Ga. Tech.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Colorado did get a 5th down
Yes

and it helped them win the game along with some other questionable calls in the last final seconds against Missouri.
1) 1990 was the first year of the new 'spike it' rule - prior to that a QB had to throw the ball out of bounds to stop the clock.
2) Colorado did this TWICE in the five plays. They only actually TRIED to score three times.
3) Colorado got confused as did everyone else including the officials, partly because of the new rule and partly because there was a guy behind the down marker folks dying of a heart attack. The officials did not catch the problem, but that's not Colorado's fault.
4) The biggest problem is that MISSOURI KNEW IT WAS FIFTH DOWN AND DID NOTHING ABOUT IT!!!! Missouri's assistants were telling head coach Bob Stull that the spike was on fourth down and he could have called timeout. He chose not to do so - the reasoning afterwards being the hope they could stop CU again.
5) After the Missouri game, Colorado dropped two spots in the polls despite winning. They were 14th in the poll of October 8, 1990, and nobody gave them a chance to win. They beat #22 Oklahoma at home and #3 Nebraska ON THE ROAD in back-to-back weeks. But on top of that they had to wait as Virginia lost TWICE, Miami lost, Notre Dame lost and so did Auburn and Michigan.

That CU team played the toughest schedule in the country and tied the SEC champs despite their best player (Eric Bienemy) not even playing, beat the Rose Bowl champs, the SWC champions, and two-loss Notre Dame.

The problem with "what if" arguments is that we're going to count a game in October due to a ref call against CU then why not call tying with the Vols without their Heisman Trophy candidate in their favor?

Note that I've come around on this issue because I used to say the same thing as many fans. It's true that if CU lost that game then it would matter but the flip side is that Colorado wouldn't have spiked the ball had they known it was fourth down, either.




They still had to go on and win the rest of their games that season, but a loss to Missouri would have put their record at 3-2-1 at the time and they would not have shared the 1990 national title that year with Ga. Tech.
Yes, a loss to Mizzou would have given them two losses BUT....what play do they call if they know it's fourth down when they spiked it? That's what makes the infamous Dartmouth-Cornell game different because Cornell tried to score on all five plays. CU center Jay Leuwenberg actually argued with Coach McCartney - when he was telling the backup QB what sequence to run - and told Mac that they didn't have enough plays to do what he was saying. Mac told him to shut up and play center so Leuwenberg decided he must have been that one to have gotten confused.

And speaking of that - does anyone seriously think that if Darian Hagan, the CU starter, had actually played the game that there ever would have been a Fifth Down? Colorado isn't given credit for beating the Alabama of that time frame (Notre Dame) with a backup QB in the Orange Bowl. Sure, Colorado got some breaks - Washington should have beaten them and blew themselves up and Notre Dame missed a PAT and had a Rocket Ismail return nullified by penalty.

But other teams had bad breaks that year, too. UVA was number one and their best players got hurt in the Tech game. 1990 is one of those weird years like 1984 and 2007 where nobody was really sure at the end if the champion was deserving but....they were still the champions.
 

TiderMan

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Yes



1) 1990 was the first year of the new 'spike it' rule - prior to that a QB had to throw the ball out of bounds to stop the clock.
2) Colorado did this TWICE in the five plays. They only actually TRIED to score three times.
3) Colorado got confused as did everyone else including the officials, partly because of the new rule and partly because there was a guy behind the down marker folks dying of a heart attack. The officials did not catch the problem, but that's not Colorado's fault.
4) The biggest problem is that MISSOURI KNEW IT WAS FIFTH DOWN AND DID NOTHING ABOUT IT!!!! Missouri's assistants were telling head coach Bob Stull that the spike was on fourth down and he could have called timeout. He chose not to do so - the reasoning afterwards being the hope they could stop CU again.
5) After the Missouri game, Colorado dropped two spots in the polls despite winning. They were 14th in the poll of October 8, 1990, and nobody gave them a chance to win. They beat #22 Oklahoma at home and #3 Nebraska ON THE ROAD in back-to-back weeks. But on top of that they had to wait as Virginia lost TWICE, Miami lost, Notre Dame lost and so did Auburn and Michigan.

That CU team played the toughest schedule in the country and tied the SEC champs despite their best player (Eric Bienemy) not even playing, beat the Rose Bowl champs, the SWC champions, and two-loss Notre Dame.

The problem with "what if" arguments is that we're going to count a game in October due to a ref call against CU then why not call tying with the Vols without their Heisman Trophy candidate in their favor?

Note that I've come around on this issue because I used to say the same thing as many fans. It's true that if CU lost that game then it would matter but the flip side is that Colorado wouldn't have spiked the ball had they known it was fourth down, either.

.
I am very familiar with the situation and the plays but you failed to mention two important points:

1. The officials stopped the clock for about 5 seconds after the 2nd down play (which was actually the 3rd down play). This gave Colorado enough time to get lined up and stop the clock with a spike on 3rd down (which was actually 4th down).

2. On the 4th down play (which was actually the 5th down), the Colorado QB was ruled to be across the goal line before being down but he could have easily been ruled short of the goal line.

Just terrible officiating. Just fortunate that we now have replay and these sort of major blunders don't happen anymore.
 

selmaborntidefan

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I am very familiar with the situation and the plays but you failed to mention two important points:

1. The officials stopped the clock for about 5 seconds after the 2nd down play (which was actually the 3rd down play). This gave Colorado enough time to get lined up and stop the clock with a spike on 3rd down (which was actually 4th down).

2. On the 4th down play (which was actually the 5th down), the Colorado QB was ruled to be across the goal line before being down but he could have easily been ruled short of the goal line.

Just terrible officiating. Just fortunate that we now have replay and these sort of major blunders don't happen anymore.
I'm not disagreeing that the officiating was poor, particularly when you take into account the insanely ironic fact the head official was....a math teacher.

The second thing you cite is a judgment call like a pass interference and doesn't even enter into the discussion. The first is more relevant except for the fact that McCartney had already suspected that Mizzou may try to 'get up slowly' from the pile and run clock. He brought it to their attention like a good coach would do, and they responded. They could have let it pass like happened in an infamous UGA-Auburn game several years ago but they didn't.

Ultimately, Missouri knew it was the fifth down but chose not to call the timeout. You cannot blame Colorado for something most of their offensive players - and for that matter coaches - didn't know.

But more relevant to the entire thing is that the claim "Colorado won the national championship because the officials screwed up" is simply wrong. That's my only point.

And strangely enough if Mizzou doesn't have a ridiculous home field advantage with their newly installed Omni Turf, we aren't even remembering that game nowadays.
 

TiderMan

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Ultimately, Missouri knew it was the fifth down but chose not to call the timeout. You cannot blame Colorado for something most of their offensive players - and for that matter coaches - didn't know.

But more relevant to the entire thing is that the claim "Colorado won the national championship because the officials screwed up" is simply wrong. That's my only point.

And strangely enough if Mizzou doesn't have a ridiculous home field advantage with their newly installed Omni Turf, we aren't even remembering that game nowadays.
It is true that Colorado didn't win the NC because the official screwed up but without the screw ups, they would not have the opportunity to win it.

Also the slippery field conditions were the same for both teams.
 

selmaborntidefan

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It is true that Colorado didn't win the NC because the official screwed up but without the screw ups, they would not have the opportunity to win it.

Also the slippery field conditions were the same for both teams.
Missouri did not run an option offense dependent on fast cutting, which is why they weren't slipping like CU was.

And once again - MISSOURI chose to not call time out and tell the officials. If they had, they would have won.

And we say this couldn't happen today but it happened two years ago in the Illinois-Nebraska game.
 

RollinTider1335

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the? ohio st apparently only needs 9.5 yards for a first down against meechigan. osu should have lost that one if not for a lot of home cooking in that game.


Also we lost the BCSCG only because we didnt have a sustainable offense in that game; especially in the second half. The defense ALMOST won that one for us.


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