Conference Championship Week Open

Conference Championship Week is now open.  I will advance the week on Monday (11/18).

The two games involving users are:

SEC Championship: Alabama vs Missouri
B1G Championship: Iowa vs Maryland

Good luck you three.
I want the underdogs to win, but I need the validation of being beat by the national champion, so c'mon Pitt, and c'mon Mustard, show the SEC that the old Big 12 members are total BA's. haha.

Iowa Soars To B1G Championship Game Victory



Coach Steel Pitt stated his intentions were to turn around the Iowa Hawkeyes program and make them National Title contenders after taking over a team that had finished 4-8 in 2012.  After going 11-2 in 2013 with a Rose Bowl victory, the 2014 Iowa Hawkeyes all but clinched a spot in the BCS National Title Game as they finish the regular season 13-0 and B1G Champions.



The Hawkeyes passing game continued to struggle and starting QB Nic Shimonek was benched in the second quarter following his second INT of the game which set Maryland up in Iowa territory eventually leading to the game tying score.  In came true freshmen Jason Wade who gave the offense the spark it needed as he led the Hawkeyes to three consecutive TD drives to give Iowa a 35-17 lead midway through the third quarter.  The Terps were resilient and eventually clawed to within 5 at 35-30 but the combination of Wade and Bullock was too much for the Terps to handle as the two combined for 248 yards rushing and 4 scores as they pounded the Maryland defenses and thwarted any hopes of a comeback.

Unless something really outrageous occurs, the Hawkeyes should find themselves playing for the National Title against either Alabama or Texas (depending on the outcome of the SEC Championship Game).

FINAL SCORE

Maryland Terps 30
Iowa Hawkeyes 42

Congrats Pitt. Hope you can find the hot hand at QB in the title game before it's too late. Seems like all three QBs have inconsistency issues.

wow..................WOW..........................That's all I could say for about 10 minutes. 

I think I aged 10 years in the course of the hour and ten minutes it took to play this game. Mustard came with his A game and almost pulled off the upset. Here's the recap. 

Things started off terribly as our QB Morris threw an INT on the very first series and Mizzou went ahead and drove the ball down the field to score the first touchdown of the game. We came right back threw another interception! Missouri drives the ball right down to our 1 yard line and on fourth and goal they go for it. Gutsy call by Missouri but sometimes it's better to take your points. They go for it off tackle and we get a stop. This was a huge momentum shift as we went from possibly being down 14 to only being down 7, especially with the fact that Missouri gets the ball at half. 

So we're backed up into our end zone we need to get some breathing room. We hit Yeldon on a short route and then hit Amari Cooper on a curl route. After making 2 DBs miss with a great spin move, Cooper takes the ball 96 yards to the house. Huge play. 

Missouri does a good job of moving the ball down the field but Sylvie comes up with a great INT in the red zone. So now we have a chance to take the lead, but Morris throws ANOTHER INT, this time right outside the red zone. So we go into the half tied. 

After a couple of punts back and forth Mauk hits Reese for at TD and Missouri's back on top. We can't get our offense going and to top it off TJ Yeldon is hurt and out for the rest of the game. When it rains it pours.  Heading into the 4th quarter we get a little drive going but it stalls and we punt. Our defense holds, gets a three and out, but we end up punting on our next series. Defense gets another three and out again. 

So with 3:33 left in the 4th it's make or break time. We start out with an incompletion, and a 7 yard sack, so now it's 3rd and 17. We hit Drake on a 15 yard pass so now it's 4th and 2. Gotta go for it, and we hit Drake again this time for 13 yards. Six plays later Fowler dives in from 4 yards out and we're all tied up. Drake did a great job filling in for Yeldon on the drive with 58 yards receiving on that drive. 

One problem. We left 50 seconds on the clock and Missouri just needs a FG to win. Missouri comes out five wide and is just dotting us up through the air. Sasser for 11 yards. Sasser for 17 yards. 7 yard rush by Mauk. All this and there's 40 seconds still on the clock. A couple more plays and Missouri is in chip shot FG range. 

On the very next play though, sensing that Missouri would go with an out route or corner route to the sideline to make a catch and stop the clock, we put our DE Fanning in flat zone to that side, user him and wouldn't you know it the ball hawk actually worked!! After our DBs had dropped at least 2-3 INTs during the game it was a DE how makes the play. 

So we're on the 37 of Missouri with two timeouts and 34 seconds to go. We hit Christian Jones for 20 yards which puts us in Missouri territory, we then hit Amari Cooper for 10 yards and we're in business. We get a 11 yard rush by Morris and we're on the Missouri 24 with 22 seconds left. We run the clock down to 5 seconds and after getting iced by the Missouri coach we kick a 41 yard FG right down the middle for the win!

What a game and we knew it was going to be a battle against Missouri and Coach Mustard. Like I said earlier, what happened in the last game didn't matter and I was right. If you told me we would through three first half INTs, lose Yeldon at the start of the third quarter, that Yeldon wouldn't score in the game, and we would only have 44 yards rushing, I would have told you we lost. 

It wasn't pretty, it was conventional, it wasn't how we usually win, but a win is a win and we'll take it. 

Now it's time to prepare for Iowa. Roll Tide!

******I've posted highlights to the EA Sports Highlights**************

Wow, sounds like an awesome game.

dre1479 wrote:

INSTANT CLASSIC IN THE SEC CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!!

wow..................WOW..........................That's all I could say for about 10 minutes. 

I think I aged 10 years in the course of the hour and ten minutes it took to play this game. Mustard came with his A game and almost pulled off the upset.

Great game, man. Seriously one of the most intense games I've ever played. I think my heart was pounding from the second quarter on. Would've never expected a defensive struggle coming into this one after what happened last game.

That INT, though... Devastating.