Thoughts on the National Championship

Regardless of the last post, I would like to congratulate the Alabama Crimson Tide on winning the National Championship.

Here are my 5 thoughts on the game.

Number 5: How sad was it to see Marquis Maze go down with an injury? He's been a mainstay in their receiving corps for years, and had to play second fiddle to Julio Jones for most of his career. He finally gets his team to the National Championship and goes down with a hammy. Then the shot of him crying on the sideline? I can't imagine. Thoughts are with him, as well as C.J. Mosley, who looks like he went down with a broken leg.

Number 4: I've got to give my props to A.J. McCarron, he played really well. He moved his team into field goal range seven (SEVEN!) times on that incredible LSU defense. 23/34 for 234 yards is incredible against the Tigers.

Number 3: Where was Tyrann Mathieu? 1 punt return for 1 yard (on 3 punts) and no tackles that I know of. I saw a post on facebook that explained it best: "Maybe the Honey Badger gave a sh*t tonight."

Number 2: Trent Richardson is an absolute man. When Mark Ingram was there, I considered him the "speed back" of the duo, but tonight is the first time I've really seen him play. The dude is a punisher, and every time he touched the ball it seemed like his goal was to knock out one of the tacklers.

Number 1: I said it way back when Jordan Jefferson got all charges cleared from his bar fight. I said that the downfall of LSU will be if Les Miles tries to share Jefferson and Jarrett Lee's time at quarterback. Jarrett Lee had led the team through a treacherous early-season schedule (Knocking off 3 ranked teams in his first 4 games), yet Les Miles still felt like Jordan Jefferson presented just as good of a threat at quarterback. Les Miles trying to get Jordan Jefferson going instead of sticking with Jarrett Lee is the reason he doesn't have a 2012 National Championship trophy in his arms right now.

A closer look

What a thriller.

Ya know... I'm sorry. I won't let the sarcasm go past there.

I mean, the "Good Hands Play of the Game" was the holder spinning the laces away from the kicker.

Really?

Obviously, this whole thing comes down to the simple fact that Oklahoma State should have beaten Iowa State. I get that. I accept that. Whatever.

But let's look at it this way: Alabama got a shot at avenging their only loss of the year, why couldn't Oklahoma State?

If you were to tell the OSU football team "You have to go to Iowa State and win this time, and if you do that you get to go to the National Championship" I guarantee that they would take that deal 10 out of 10 times, and win the football game 10 out of 10 times.

But it didn't happen that way, and once again, I'm okay with that.

What I'm not okay with is what I see on Facebook and Twitter:

Alabama and LSU would've shut Oklahoma State's offense down.

Bama and LSU have the #1 and #2 defenses in the nation, respectively.

We'll pick on Alabama.

The Crimson Tide were the top-ranked defense in the nation, but lets look past that. The best offenses they faced were Arkansas (13th ranked passing offense) and LSU (17th ranked rushing offense).

They allowed 185 yards and 2 TD's to Arkansas' passing offense, which when you look at it from the view of talent and overall scheme, is nothing to Oklahoma State's passing attack.

The Tide allowed 148 rushing yards to LSU in the first game, and a stunning 39 yards in the National Championship. Oklahoma State was the 58th ranked rushing attack in the nation while calling a rushing play about 40% of the time.

Now that you have seen that, does it really make sense to say that Alabama would have "shut down" Oklahoma State's offense? Especially passing.

If they allowed Arkansas' quarterback Tyler Wilson to go 22/35 for 185 and 2 TD's with his best receiver being Jarius Wright (1117 yds, 12 TD's) and Joe Adams (652 yds, 3 TD's), what kind of damage would Brandon Weeden had done with Justin Blackmon (1522 yds, 18 TD's), Josh Cooper (715 yds, 3 TD's) and Tracy Moore (672 yds, 4 TD's)?

Add in RB's Joseph Randle (1216 yds, 24 TD's) and Jeremy Smith (646 yds, 9 TD's)?

Well, let's just say the final wouldn't have been 21-0.

In the words of Mike Gundy: "I just think we could score."

The No. 1 Pick

It seems like it's been decided since the beginning of time.

I can remember sitting in Mr. Wellman's fourth-grade class at Bear Creek Elementary when I heard it for the first time.

"Andrew Luck will be the #1 pick in the 2012 NFL draft."

Alright, maybe I exaggerated a little bit, but that's what it seems like. Andrew Luck has been the media's first pick this year since he announced he'd be returning for the 2011 season.

But now we're hearing otherwise?

After a surprising explosion of offense from a man from Waco some call RG3, some people are beginning to not be so sure about Luck being a member of the Indianapolis Colts next year.

Including their former head coach, Tony Dungy, who won a super bowl with the franchise. He went on the Dan Patrick radio show today and said he'd take Robert Griffin over Luck, citing Griffin's added dimension of being able to rush along with his Top 3 arm.

In case you live under a rock, some of the best quarterbacks in the league have that added dimension: Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton and Drew Brees (Though he doesn't do it much) to name a few.

But why would the Colts pass on what's regarded as "The safest pick to come through the draft since Peyton Manning"?

The answer to that, I'm not really sure of.

In fact, I think it makes no sense at all.

Let's take a trip back in time. Tony Dungy gained his head-coachmanship in Tampa Bay and instantly began revolutionizing the defensive side of the ball (Google "Tampa Two", you may have heard of it). He was eventually hired as the coach of the Indianapolis Colts.

In-between there somewhere, Peyton Manning was the quarterback for the Tennessee Volunteers, racking up a 50-9 record in his four years there. The Volunteers had a high-ranked offense, and a low ranked defense. Sound familiar?

Manning graduated left after the 1997 season, and a weird thing happened. The Vols won a national championship in 1998, led by a Top-5 in the nation defense.

Go back to Dungy. He came to Indianapolis and led the Colts to a championship in 2006-07.

Remember when he revolutionized the Tampa defense? Well, this Indy squad, led by Peyton Manning, had the 21st (out of 32) total defense in the league.

Just like in Tennessee.

The problem with the Colts, and Colin Cowherd said something close to this a few weeks ago, is that Peyton Manning's presence is so overwhelming and overpowering that the team takes it on as their own. i.e. Peyton Manning is finesse, so his defense becomes finesse. That's why the Volunteers became a smash-mouth defense as soon as he graduated.

Now, back-track to the draft conversation. Who do you take?

Andrew Luck, who has glimpses of Peyton Manning but is more of an Aaron Rodgers in that he plays smash-mouth, wear you down football? Or do you take the finesse Robert Griffin 3?

Given that Luck will willingly hold a clipboard for Peyton Manning's final years, as he deserves to have, then I would take Luck 10 out of 10 times.

And if they don't? They'll most likely have to watch as Luck dominates the NFL for the next 10-15 years, all while looking at each other repeatedly saying "What were we thinking?"

RG3 will be a good quarterback, but Andrew Luck will be a franchise changing quarterback with the mentality that he brings to the football field.

He basically says "I'm gonna run it through you, then throw it over you. Try and stop me", while Peyton says "Where are you lining up? Alright... Hang on just a second."

I'll have the Luck please, side of Reggie Wayne.