In the 100th Rose Bowl, the Michigan State Spartans beat the Stanford Cardinal 24-20. Like usual, the Rose Bowl matched the Big 10 Champion (Michigan State) against the Pacific 12 Champion (Stanford). Although the 4-team playoff starting next year will certainly throw a wrench in that conference history going forward. Stanford came into the game with an 11-2 record, with surprising losses to Utah and USC, while Michigan State’s only loss in their previous 13 games was back in September to Notre Dame.
Stanford jumped to a 10-0 lead before Michigan State finally scored in the 2nd quarter, with a Jeremy Langford 2-yard touchdown run. The Cardinal added to the lead just before the 2 minute warning on a 40-yard interception return by Kevin Anderson of a pass by quarterback Connor Cook. The Spartans did come back with a touchdown pass to Trevon Pendleton from Cook, with 28 seconds left in the first half, to cut the deficit to 17-14.
Michigan State tied the game with the only score in the 3rd quarter on a 31-yard field goal by Michael Geiger. The Spartans took their first lead of the game in the 4th quarter on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Cook to Tony Lippett. The Spartan passing game proved to be too much for Stanford to contend with. Cook threw for a career-high 332 yards, compared to just 143 yards for Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan.
Stanford added a 39-yard field goal by Jordan Williamson with 4:15 remaining in the game, to cut the lead to 24-20. But the Spartans stopped them on a 4th down on their last possession to preserve the win for Michigan State. Stanford came into the game ranked #5, and Michigan State was #4. The Spartans could end the season ranked as high as #2, with the winner of the Florida State-Auburn BCS National Championship Game obviously finishing at #1. But #2 doesn’t mean much. If you’re not the Champion, then you’re just among the rest of the teams.
In the Fiesta Bowl, the University of Central Florida (UCF) Knights scored a shocking 52-42 upset of the Baylor Bears. Both teams came in 11-1, but Baylor was ranked #6 and UCF was #15. Baylor was favored by 17 points. UCF scored on touchdown runs by Storm Johnson to take an early 14-0 lead. Baylor kept coming back, even tying the game at 28 in the 3rd quarter, but they never led.
If you like offense, you loved this game. UCF had 556 yards of total offense, and Baylor had 550. This game featured 2 of the best quarterbacks in the country, with Blake Bortles of UCF and Bryce Petty of Baylor. Both of them threw for over 300 yards in the game. But UCF made the best of their opportunities, even losing the turnover battle 3-1. When UCF took a 52-35 lead on a Shawn Moffitt 36-yard field goal, with only 4:44 remaining, the game was all but over. Even Baylor, the top scoring team in the nation couldn’t overcome that deficit, especially the way their defense played.
Michigan State winning the Rose Bowl wasn’t a big surprise to me, but having that much success passing against Stanford was impressive. The Spartan defense was the best in the country this year, so holding down the Cardinal offense was just par for the course. UCF’s win over Baylor was stunning to me. Even though I saw the end of the game in which they upset Louisville, I didn’t think they could stay with Baylor. In both of Baylor’s losses their defense got hammered. Oklahoma State beat them in November 49-17.
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Sports With Frank Thomas
