Well, it’s hard to differentiate the top, but it was at least tied for the greatest. I know you have games like that Nebraska-Miami (or was it Oklahoma-Miami) back in the 80’s, but look at this one. . .
What did you have?
Two undefeated teams, with a combined 50+ game win streak.
The three top Heisman vote getters.
The last two Heisman trophy winners playing on the LOSING team.
A last minute TD on 4th + 5 with a 5 point deficit.
Controversial calls (always good).
A VERY difficult call by Pete Carroll on the 4th & 1 late in the game. This will be questioned, but I think it was the right call.
Absolutely STUNNING performances by the stars.
Some great hits, great catches, great runs.
Super play by offensive lines. I can’t remember the last time I saw two O-lines play so well.
Excellent. And now I’m kicking myself that I’ve stayed up late for the last two nights (PSU v. FSU on Tuesday night, Texas v. USC last night) and now I’m a zombie at work. But both my teams won, so I’m happy.
I can’t believe SC didn’t argue for the play to be reviewed when Young pitched the ball to his teammate after his knee hit the turf. He was clearly down, and I think they knew it because they scrambled to set up for the extra point, which they missed. They got a lot of momentum out of that TD.
But, you’re right. One of the greatest college games I’ve ever seen.
i disagree. it was not the best college football game ever.
witht hat being said, i can’t think of the best one ever right now, but there was no defense. blown coverage doesn’t equate to “Good passing” if it were the other way aroud with a defensive game, people wold say it was the worst game ever. the proles like offense because it requires less attention and dammit, sometimes offense is fun to watch. but i think the argument can be made that real football fans appreciate defense more.
and no, i don’t want to call people “real” football fans or “artificial” football fans.
i knew people were going to jump on the “best ever” label. they threw it around like ticker tape in times square and it’s like nails on a blackboard to me. it’s like when they list the 50 best basketball players ever and jordan is number one, which he clearly isn’t. he’s just the most recent top ten addition to the list, so we jump the gun.
That’s the number one game ever, according to them. A total of 61 points scored, a first quarter rife with interceptions, penalties, a failed conversion on a quarterback’s mistake to lose the game.
Find any game there and put it up against last nights.
You may be able to find a game as equally exciting (the Flutie game, e.g. which had less defense). You won’t find one with that much excitement with the side-bars and the stakes that last night’s game had.
Those side-bars? Both undefeated, 2 Heisman trophy winners, second in Heisman voting on the other side. Huge winning streaks.
The stakes? National Championship game. That makes a difference. No one is calling a 10 round blood bath between two light weight palookas from Omaha the greatest fight ever.
Bad defense? A bit.
But you’re talking about offenses filled with Heisman candidates.
These two teams had great offenses all year. It’s rare to build a college team today with great offense AND great defense.
I’m a defense fan. My favorite pro teams ever are probably the 2000 Ravens, The '01 Pats and the 84 Bears. But, that was still the best college football game I’ve ever watched.
Honestly, I thought it merely decent. I can’t see anyone outside of Texas fans thinking it a great game. It wasn’t even as good as the previous night’s game.
There were only a few good plays (no more than a highlight reel’s worth). The start was awful as both teams tried too hard, and the defense was absolutely terrible. Good offense is only worth watching if there’s something actually trying to stop it.
At the end, it would have been much smarter for USC to just let them score early (and give them the two points) and save their time out to take it to overtime.
I can’t see anyone outside of LA thinking it wasn’t.
What the hell do you guys need?
A FEW great plays? Vince Young ran for 200 yards on 20 carries. He was 30 for 40 for 250 yards.
White ran for 125 yards and 3 TDs. There’s about 2 other people in the history fo college football who would have scored Reggie Bush’s TD and they both played for USC.
Leinart threw for 360 yards.
What the hell were you watching?
Gimme another game.
The game the night before? The one with 5 missed field goals? The one for 3rd place? The one “coached” by two puppets? The one with about 2 players you can name? The one with two teams who would have lost to either of the teams from last night? Yeah, great game.
My mother was a department head at USC in the 1950s.
And I still think it was the best game I’ve seen.
Vince Young impressed the hell out of me. I’m keeping an eye open for him when he’s drafted, so I can grab him for my fantasy teams.
USC’s major problem was their defense. They just could not make the tackles when they had to. Almost like someone greased up those 'Horns so no one could grab hold.
I though it was pretty awesome and lived up to the hype. But then I enjoyed Tuesday’s game too… and two of Monday’s games… and two of Sunday’s games… and the game Saturday…
Penn State is my alma mater, and I enjoyed the game because they won, but it certainly wasn’t an exciting game. Three downs, punt; repeat for 2 hours. Miss 4 FG in triple-OT. (OK, 1 in the 4th Q, and 3 in OT) Sneak one just inside the upright, win game. Seriously- not exciting, but I was on the edge of my seat until 1 a.m. because I wanted to see my team win.
Last night was truly exciting, and I had nothing- not even the prospect of bragging rights- riding on the game.
Who can say if this was the greatest game ever, as played on the field? There have been a number of thrilling one-pointers throughout history.
But; given that these were the only two undefeated teams, Heisman winners/candidates were all over the place and the National Championship was on the line, I think it was the greatest ever. At least it lived up to and even surpassed the hype, which few games of this magnitude do.
I’m a fan of defense too, but these two teams were built on offense. I based my pre-game pick (Texas 42, USC 35) on the thought that Texas’ defense was a little better than USC’s. I think that in the end, Texas did do a better job of stopping Bush than USC did of stopping Young, and therein was the difference.
Yes, all things considered, I’ll call it the greatest game ever.
Had USC saved a timeout and managed to kick a FG to send it to OT it would have been the undisputed GOAT, regardless of who won in overtime.
As it happened, I’d put it in he top ten for sure. I think that the Miami-OSU game from 2003 was at least this game’s equal on the field and was probably better considering the 2OTs, though the side plots for this one were better, but not by a lot.
The Miami-Nebraska game in '84 was the game that made me fall in love with college football and certainly is in the discussion, though I was a little too young to really assess it objectively.
The 0-0 tie between Army and Notre Dame would probably be in the equation too. Incredible game, awesome side plots, and the two teams had combined for something like a 50-0-2 run in that era.
If I were to rank these, I think it’d be like this:
#1 U of M vs OSU #2 U of M vs NU #3 ND vs. Army #4 UT vs. USC
I guess I should say I didn’t like it as much as the previous night’s game. I suppose I am a fan of games where scoring is difficult (the comedy of kicking errors in the Orange Bowl was a bit much). I just didn’t feel much tension in this Rose Bowl.
And I bear no love at all for USC. I would have preferred to see them never make it there. They do have some undeniably great players right now (though I don’t see how having heard of the players makes a game better or worse). Perhaps my distaste for the teams involved made it harder for me to like the game.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
What?
He “clearly isn’t?” Who is? Where does Jordan rank, if “clearly” not number one? I’ll wait for your response before I begin to ramble.
Relevant to thread:
I think the Ohio State - Miami game was better, for one. Last night was probably the greatest individual performance by a football player that I’ve seen in an important game, and it was very entertaining on the whole, but the first half, especially if you take Young out of the equation, was pretty loose and ordinary. Too many stupid decisions and bad penalties, and I didn’t feel like either defense made any plays. Don’t get me wrong, now… I’m splitting some serious hairs. It was a hell of a game and more than half of the people on the field at any given time were probably NFL-caliber, but I think there have probably been a few better.
Plus, and I’m not sure how to describe this because it’s just sort of a vague feeling, but every time I’ve ever seen USC play they’ve seemed like they were controlled by somebody playing a video game, like it didn’t really matter what happened. Wide receivers throwing passes, crazy formation shifts, Reggie Bush going entire drives without getting the ball and then pitching it 50 yards downfield when he did; I just have this sense that USC should have been better but were too interested in style to just step on people’s throats. That stretch in the second half was a ridiculous offensive display, admittedly, and it was a perfect example of the kind of personnel advantage they had. It always seemed to me that despite that advantage they kept teams in games by being too cutesy, when if they just ran it straight ahead and then ripped apart the secondary, they’d get 60 on anybody. How many times did this year’s team get into a tight game in the first half, then blow it open in the second half by just running the ball? They almost did it again last night, but (even though I don’t even like USC) I feel like I was cheated by the goofiness of their playcalling.
Omniscient, I’m glad to say I finally agree with everything you wrote in your post.
This year’s game was incredible, except that there was not a period in the game of defensive dominance. There were plays of great defense, but you never got the feeling that one defense was going to step up and win the game by shutting the other team down for a period of time. The two fourth down stands by Texas come close, but they were three quarters apart.
OSU vs U of M is the best in my opinion. Miami was supposed to kill the Buckeyes and continue their undefeated streak. There were big names on both sides of the ball, especially Miami’s team–but don’t forget that OSU set a record in the following NFL draft for most players taken from one college team in one draft. Controversy, close calls, and two overtimes is tough to beat. And let’s not forget about that crazy OSU running back–Maurice Clarret.
