College Football Playoff Semifinals at the Cotton Bowl
#8 Ohio State Buckeyes vs. #5 Texas Longhorns
Friday, January 10 | 6:30pm CT | ESPN | OSU -6 | O/U 53.5
AT&T Stadium (Arlington, TX)
MNW: They got something like 4” of snow in Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington, which is bullshit, because there are less than 2” on the ground here in Minneapolis-St. Paul right now.
Fun fact: these are two of the only four highways in the United States to have an auxiliary route on an interstate freeway with a suffix (an N, S, E, or W) rather than a loop-spur designation (an even or odd number in front of the highway number, i.e. “280” for a branch that touches I-80 twice, “180” for a branch that touches it once): I-35 splits into E and W branches for both Minneapolis (35W) and Saint Paul (35E), as well as again for Fort Worth (35W) and Dallas (35E).
Can you name the other two current, publicly-signed interstates? I’ll leave answers in the comments.
Oh right. Texas, 34-27. I will not be taking questions. (And I also don’t care.)
Kind of…: For the nineteenth straight year, the national title game will feature a team from either the B1G or the SEC. The last year both conferences were shut out? 2005, when it was USC (ha!) and…Texas (ugh). We all had our fun with the SEC’s (relative) postseason struggles this year, so, um, no pressure Ohio State.
The Buckeyes feel like strong favorites, and their performance the first two games sure supports that. But I can’t imagine Day is home free yet. Even though Texas needed to hit a 4th and 13 vs. Arizona freaking State, they’re good enough to win if Quinn Ewers is on his game (irony alert!) or the Texas D can force Will Howard into mistakes.
Still, Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs (and Jack Sawyer and Cody Simon and…) wear scarlet and gray and, for all the talent on Texas’s roster, they can’t match that. Then again, I felt the same way about Tyler Warren/Abdul Carter, and look at where we are. So…either Ohio State does the conference a solid, or I know what I WON’T be watching on January 20.
I think it’ll be the former: Ohio State 31-20.
WSR: When tOSU is clicking, they’re among the best teams I’ve seen in my lifetime. They fit in with 1994 PSU and 1995 Nebraska and 2001 Miami and 2019 LSU. BUT when tOSU is fucking around and being cute, they lose to Michigan. LOL tOSU.
I don’t think they’re fucking around right now. Chip Kelly is playing with his toys nicely, the defense is strangling people once they get a lead that forces opponents to pass, and the OL is healthy enough to get the job done. Texas? Texas had to hang on for dear life against Arizona State after they got off the script last week. Relying on the script to do just enough is what Kirk Ferentz can do against Minnesota, not what you can do to tOSU in the playoff right now.
Buckeyes 45-24. And that will be a flattering score.
BoilerUp89: Save us Texas. You’re our only hope. My prediction: OSU wins by 10.
AlmaOtter: I don’t really know what the hell Ohio State was doing through most of the season, but they’ve figured it out over the past two games. Was the loss to Michigan what they needed to wake the f up? Were they always biding their time until it counted? No idea. But Jeremiah Smith only needs a hand to make a TD grab and the RBs are hitting their stride. Something about an Ohio State/ND title feels foreordained.
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