Search This Blog

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Banshee Sports College Football Playoffs: Round 1

The first round is in the books.  The first round games were all played at the home fields of the higher seed.  That was done for ticket and travel purposes of filling the virtual stadiums.  I assigned game times for each game, and they were all simulated in the real life weather conditions.  Without further delay, here are the first round results ...

LSU 51, WVU 24.  This game was a rematch from an early season matchup in Morgantown.  LSU's defense was the story of this game.  The Tigers held the Mountaineers to just five yards on the ground.  Jordan Jefferson passed for four touchdown passes in the route.

Boise State 28, South Carolina 21.  The weather was surprisingly mild for December in Boise, ID.  The Broncos were sharp early and opened a 28-6 lead at the half.  South Carolina managed a comeback in the second half, but Boise was able to hold on for a seven-point victory.

Oregon 24, Michigan 6.  Michigan played surprisingly good defense in this game.  The Ducks powerful offense was, for the most part, held in check.  But Michigan was absolutely awful on offense.  The Wolverines only mustered two field goals in the second quarter.  That was it.  And Denard Robinson was picked off four times.  That killed any Michigan hopes of hanging with the Ducks.

Clemson 21, Stanford 15.  The first upset of the tournament happened in Palo Alto.  This was a weird game.  The teams combined to miss three extra points and failed to convert on another two-point conversion.  But, the story of the game was that the Tigers defense stuffed Andrew Luck and the Stanford offense.

Alabama 55, Virginia Tech 17.  Believe it or not, this was actually competitive into the second half.  The Hokie defense scored on a pick six at the end of the first half.  The Hokies then intercepted a pass to start the second half and scored on a short field to make the score 24-17.  Then the Crimson Tidal wave happened.  The Hokies finished with six turnovers, and the game ended in a route.

Arkansas 37, Michigan State 24.  Michigan State had enough offense to hang with the Hogs.  But, in the end, the Arkansas ground game was just too much.  Knile Davis ended up with 218 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

Oklahoma State 34, Kansas State 24.  This game was the second rematch of the first round.  At the end of October, OK State won a 52-45 shootout.  This time, the teams decided to play at least a semblance of defense.  However, Kansas State could not overcome their own miscues.  Five total turnovers by the Wildcats erased any hopes of an upset in Stillwater.

Georgia 35, Wisconsin 33.  This was the only game of the weekend where weather was even a slight factor.  The temperature was in the 20s, and there was a bit of wind in Madison.  Georgia's defense and Aaron Murray's four touchdown passes were the story of this game.  Wisconsin did run for over 300 yards, but the Bulldogs held the Badgers to field goals on three of four redzone trips.  The Badgers did have the ball with 1:00 to go and Georgia's defense stepped up to hold onto the win.

3 comments :

  1. I'm not familiar with PS3. Can you explain (briefly) how it decides who will win--perhaps put a better way, just how smart is this computer? I guess I'm amazed that Georgia beat Wisconsin in Madison....anyway, nice work.

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  2. For those of us in Big Ten country, this was a dismal first round. The redeeming factor can be found in the prior Banshee posting (vodka collins).

    ReplyDelete
  3. In response to Jim's question: The PS3 is pretty smart. They have the correct players with appropriate attributes on the teams. It's based on per-season opinions, so some freshmen aren't perfectly designed. I set the games up for the computer to play against itself at the highest skill level. I picked the weather and the time of day. I set the quarters to an appropriate length and started the games. I actually watched most of all of the games. That's how I actually had notes and stats to report. I was also surprised that Georgia beat Wisconsin in Madison. Wisconsin was rated higher by the computer. But Georgia's D played very well, and Aaron Murray played the game of his life.

    ReplyDelete