Why Florida Won the BCS Championship Game

For a Gator fan, this was almost a perfect game. Although a blowout would have been more satisfying, consider this: Tebow played well enough to win, but cost himself so much money in the NFL draft with his poor passing that he probably has to come back to Florida for another year.

As Marv Albert would say: Yesssss!!

Oklahoma won the toss and elected to receive. On the second play from scrimmage, the reason was clear. Sam Bradford dropped back and lofted a perfect 40 yard spiral down the left sideline, right on the hands of his streaking wide receiver, Manuel Johnson.

In the Big 12, that's an easy touchdown and the beginning of a 54 to 24 rout. But here's what happens to plays like that when Major Wright's patrolling the deep zone:




OK, so he got there a little bit before the ball. Nobody's perfect (how good is the Florida defense going to be next year, by the way?).

From that play on, the game went according to script, at least when Oklahoma had the ball. This was a close game for two reasons:

1) Oklahoma's defense SHOWED UP with an absolutely awesome performance that is being almost completely overlooked in all the post game analysis. They held one of the top scoring offenses in the country to 20 points under their season average. Also, they gave up seven points less than their own season scored upon average.

TWO Tim Tebow interceptions? Sunspots occur more frequently.

2) Flawless special teams play. Yes, they gave up a blocked field goal, but in a much bigger play, they forced a roughing the kicker penalty. They also completely shut down Brandon James.

Can you believe Florida's defense stopped Oklahoma from scoring when they had a first down inside the Florida five yard line...TWICE?!!

There's your ball game.

TV coverage: Oh, the agony. Did Fox pay so much for the rights to this thing that they didn't have any money left over to pay real announcers? What'd they do, pick these guys out of a day laborer crowd on Alvarodo Street by the Pioneer Chicken stand?

And I know Florida's not a primo traditional college program like Oklahoma, but we could we have a little respect in the studio? Barry Switzer AND Jimmy Johnson? Why not play the Oklahoma fight song in the background?

And after the game, Switzer was as baffled as Porky Pig: "...ahdeee, ahdee, ahdee there's no way to stop these guys, they option this way, then that way,then shovel pass this way, ahdee, ahdee, ahdee..."

Hey, Barry, THEY STOPPED THEM!! YOUR OFFENSE WAS SUPPOSED TO SCORE MORE THAN 24 POINTS!