Washington fans long will remember the Alamo Bowl, but at least the Huskies have been rescued from the record book.
Less than a week after they allowed Baylor to score 67 points – the most points ever surrendered in a bowl game – Clemson showed up in the Orange Bowl on Wednesday and gave up 70 to West Virginia.
The scoring binge included a 99-yard touchdown return of a Clemson fumble, so the Tigers’ defense wasn’t entirely responsible for the carnage. But, still, when century-old records are proving to have a shorter shelf life than a carton of milk, it’s an indication we’re watching a kind of video-game football that would have disgusted former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes to the point he’d have punched a player from the opposing team.
Oh, wait, Hayes really did that. Late in the fourth quarter of the 1978 Gator Bowl, he slugged Clemson’s Charlie Bauman after the nose guard’s interception of an Art Schlichter pass all but guaranteed the Buckeyes’ 17-15 defeat.
Woody, rest his soul, never embraced the concept of the forward pass, saying: “Three things can happen when you throw, and two of them are bad.” Come to think of it, four things can happen when you throw, and three of them are bad – if you factor in punching the guy who intercepts the ball.
I doubt Hayes would recognize the sport that’s turned the typical bowl game into an offensive conflagration with a basketball-like score. That’s not an exaggeration: Ten teams have put up at least 41 points, or as many as the Butler Bulldogs managed last season in their NCAA tournament championship game defeat to Connecticut.
During the Orange Bowl, West Virginia scored its 42nd point with enough time remaining in the second quarter – 1:13 – to walk off the field at halftime with 49 points.
We had a suspicion Boise State would roll over an Arizona State team that quit on lame-duck coach Dennis Erickson midway through the season. And roll the Broncos did – they scored 56 points in the MAACO Bowl, and might have scored 70 if not for the rare off night of quarterback Kellen Moore.
More of a revelation was the touchdown spree between Toledo (42) and Air Force (41) in the Military Bowl. Air Force, by the way, owns the distinction of being one of only two teams in this bowl-game season to score more than 40 points and lose. (I take it you know which other team did that.)
Remember when the Holiday Bowl used to market itself as a version of football on a high wire? Remember how those dizzying shootouts usually presaged a wild finish?
While the MAACO, Military, Rose, Fiesta and Orange Bowls were surpassing 70 combined points, the Holiday Bowl was won by a Texas team that stressed an antiquated concept called “defense.” The Longhorns beat California, 21-10, notable because Cal’s 10 points represent the bowl season’s lowest output.
Like a lot of my press-box colleagues, I wasn’t thrilled about the announcement of an LSU-Alabama rematch in the BCS title game. The regular-season game, touted as the “Game of the Century,” didn’t even rank as the Game of the Week: Four field goals in regulation, and another field goal in overtime, constituted all the scoring in LSU’s 9-6 victory.
But now that I’ve had a few weeks to process the premise of a slow-paced slugfest – LSU attempted only 19 passes, or 26 passes fewer than Houston quarterback Case Keenum completed in the TicketCity Bowl – I am looking at the prospect of a rematch with some anticipation.
It’s fun to watch spread attacks march up and down the field without wasting any time to huddle – as a neutral observer, I’d rather see touchdowns than field goals – but I think I’ve reached the saturation point: Too much offense is as unsatisfying as too little offense.
On Jan. 2, as I watching the likes of Oregon (45 points against Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl) and Oklahoma State (41 points against Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl) and South Carolina (30 points against Nebraska in the Gator Bowl) I had to wonder: Does anybody wearing pads and a helmet recall how to make a tackle on a college-football field?
For that matter, does anybody wearing a headset recall how to teach tackling?
Another question: Why do offenses use the month or so between the conclusion of the regular season and the bowl season to fine-tune themselves, while defenses seem to regress?
In any case, I’m almost anxious – and I never thought I’d say that – to watch LSU exchange punts with Alabama on Monday night. The over-under line is 40, which suggests a score in the low 20s could be enough to win.
I’ll settle for 17-15, and the possibility somebody on the sidelines will be as captivated by such a back-to-basics battle as Woody Hayes once was.
john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com
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