After 15 games of the 35 game college football bowl season, I would like to give a brief recap of the games so far. Only 5 of the 15 games were decided by 7 points or less. In fact, the best game so far, was the first bowl game, the Gildan New Mexico Bowl. Although both teams barely even qualified for a bowl game, you never know how good the game will be. The 6-6 Washington State (WSU) Cougars faced the 7-6 Colorado State (CSU) Rams
The Cougars jumped out to an early 21-10 lead in the first quarter, on 3 touchdown passes from quarterback Connor Halliday. The Rams had little trouble scoring also, but couldn’t close the gap, and trailed 35-23 at halftime. Early in the 3rd quarter, the Rams cut the deficit to 38-30 on a 75-yard touchdown run by running back Kapri Bibbs. The score remained that way going into the final quarter.
The first score of the 4th quarter was a 22-yard touchdown reception by Isiah Myers with 9:35 remaining. This was Halliday’s 6th touchdown pass of the game, to go along with his 410 yards passing. To say that WSU was gaining all their yards in the air would be an understatement. Counting the yards lost on the 7 sacks of Halliday, the Cougars rushed for a grand total of -10 yards in the game. But they still held a 45-30 lead with a few minutes remaining in the game.
CSU started to make the game interesting, with a 12-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Garrett Grayson to Jordon Vayden to cut the lead to 8 points with 2:52 left in the game. On the next possession Halliday appeared to have lost a fumble, but his knee was down. Then on the next play, CSU linebacker Shaquil Barrett, who forced the overruled fumble on the previous play, forced a lost fumble by running back Jeremiah Laufasa at the WSU 22 yard line.
This fumble resulted in a 1-yard touchdown run by Bibbs with 33 seconds remaining, who ended the day with 169 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns. The 2-point conversion to tie the game was converted on a run by Donnell Alexander, which was initially ruled to be out of bounds before crossing the goal line. Alexander dove for the left pylon and clearly made it on further review. It looked like the game was headed for overtime, until the ensuing kickoff was fumbled by the Cougars. CSU kicker Jared Roberts kicked a 41-yard field goal as time expired to give the Rams an unbelievable 48-45 victory.
CSU had scored 18 points in the last 2:52 to win this game. I was sure glad I turned back to see the end of this game. The first game of the college football bowl season has been the best so far. I hope several of the remaining games are even close to as good as the Gildan New Mexico Bowl turned out to be.
The only teams ranked in the Top 25 , that have lost their bowl game so far, are #20 Fresno State, and #23 Northern Illinois. Interestingly, both of these teams were underdogs. Fresno State was mauled by #25 University of Southern California (USC) 45-20 in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl, and Northern Illinois was beaten by unranked Utah State 21-14 in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. Say that bowl name 3 times as fast as you can.
20 bowl games remain, beginning on Monday, December 30th. The last Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games start on New Year’s Day, and end with the National Championship game on January 6th. Next year the 4-team playoff begins. I can’t wait to hear people complain then, not about the BCS, but about which teams should be included in this inaugural playoff system.
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Sports With Frank Thomas
