Thursday, January 05, 2006

Old-school, big-time football

I got to see small stretches of the first half of Texas-USC, and all of the second so far. This is one of the greatest college football games ever, certainly the best I've ever seen. Vince Young just wrote his own ticket, even if USC hangs on for the win. He's like some Bizarro Randall Cunningham, where his arm and legs are matched by savvy and field vision.

It's official, now. 41-38, Texas. USC was in trouble from the moment Skip Bayless wrote that they were going to crush the Longhorns. (Seeing that almost made me fly to Vegas on the spot to put down a c-note on Texas.) Look at this boxscore. Believe it or not, there was some great defense in this game, too. Texas stoned USC on fourth and short from the Texas 44. (The right call, by the way.) These offenses earned every yard, and there were torrents of them.

Folks, when this rolls around on ESPN Classic tomorrow (and it will) watch it. It was that good. I wish I'd taped the durned thing, and I never tape stuff like this. Final numbers for Mighty Vince Young: 30-40, 267 yds; 20 rushes, 200 yards, 3 TD (the game winner on fourth down from the nine, 19 seconds left); a 2-point conversion; no sacks. Stupid good. Matt Leinert, who didn't disgrace himself during the game, just said on TV that he thinks the Trojans are a better team. To quote Philip J Fry, "The scoreboard kind of says something different."

Not incidentally, I loved Keith Jackson during this broadcast. He has the right tone of enthusiasm without hyperbole. One small example - instead of saying "timeouts" he said "times out", as in "They have two times out remaining." God bless you, sir. Just class and skill all the way.

I can't stop raving. This was some kind of game. Holy cow. Grandaddy of them All, indeed.

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