NEW YEAR'S RECAP, PART ONE: WE EXPECT A RUN PASS OPTION. AGAIN.

by Orson on Jan 2, 2007 10:49 AM EST

We'll try to run these things down in no particular order, beginning with last night's insane, insane, insane Boise State/Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl.

Attempt to sift what didn't happen in the Fiesta Bowl last night from what did in the following paragraphs, and you lose. Boise won't compete for four quarters. Boise won't be able to stop Adrian Peterson. Boise would keep pace admirably with Oklahoma in almost serene fashion, running identical gameplans to the Sooners until the mad flurry of mistakes, trick plays, and outright madness that would end the game. Paul Thompson would turn in a maddening performance, doing as much harm as good by throwing three interceptions after posting a tidy 20 tds and 8 ints on the year. A walk-on wide receiver would throw the winning touchdown for the team just over a decade into their D-1 existence. The running back for Team Underdog would propose to his girlfriend immediately after the game and on camera, thus ensuring he would miss out on the most freewheeling and satisfying years of NFL/Arena League bonus-fueled sexual conquest he would know.

Fox could have thrown in anything and we would have believed. Jared Zabransky's alcoholic father cleaning up, working as the equipment manager, and then tearfully embracing him on the sidelines. An inspiring and hopelessly retarded ballboy. A walk-on whose whole dream had been to play Boise State football who finally got the chance to throw the winning TD (scratch that--actually happened.) We half-expected Zabransky to reveal that pregame, he and his crew of motley misfits had also exploded the planet-killing asteroid menacing earth, and that you were all very welcome, though Dan Hawkins had been killed in the process, and we should really, really think about that before the guitar solo takes us to the credits.

If Radio had showed up, we wouldn't have been surprised.

The most impressive thing about the improbable script--

which would have been rejected had you written it, something you would be sad about as you waited for the next order of calimari to come in from the kitchen for table 23--is that its opening acts were so prosaic when they were supposed to be anything but. This was supposed to be cute, possibly competitive fun, with Oklahoma muscling through via superior talent and execution in the end.

We don't stand a chance.

Yet Boise did not play with the calculated desperation of an underdog. For the better part of four quarters, they ran right at Oklahoma, capitalizing on a long play-action pass and a Thompson turnover before getting a bit stodgy in the second half with run-heavy play-calling. They could do this because Boise's defense, running what appeared to be the 5-2, stacked the line against Oklahoma and allowed no long runs to any of the Sooner backs, even slamming into them in the backfield at times.

They happily punted four times with the lead before the giddy, vertigo-inducing sequence ending the game, which really defies description, though we'll try:

1. Oklahoma alpha-rolls Boise. Thompson goes through a fit of efficiency, completing passes down the field until they score to bring the game to 28-26. Oklahoma goes for two three times, short-circuiting the first two with penalties--including a bizarre illegal shift where Oklahoma forgot that two men can't be in motion--before Thompson threw in traffic it hit Jauquin Iglesias.

2. Boise gets the ball back with around two minutes on the clock. Zabransky and wideout aren't on same page; Zabransky throws pick six, and OU leads 35-28. Zabransky looks like he's upset, but more like burnt-toast upset, and not the Oh my god I ran over the baby upset he should be.

3. Boise gets ball back with something like fifty seconds on the clock. Boise then calls the hook and ladder, converting 4th and 18 and scoring the equalizing TD to take it to overtime. Bob Stoops waits for stadium roof to collapse in on him. This won't happen for a few more plays.

4. OU gets the ball first. Peterson runs roughshod through the Boise defense for a score.

5. Boise matriculates to a 4th and 2. A stacked formation to the right with Zabransky under center. Vinny Peretta, walk-on tailback, lines up under center as Zabransky sprints wildly to the sideline in motion. Peretta runs right on a run fake, pulls up in a blink and heaves what appears to be a hopeless lob to the endzone that is caught by tight end Derek Schouman.

6. Petersen then just raises a fist to the heavens and says "fuck it," but in very polite Idaho kind of way, and goes for two. Same formation, no Zabransky motion. Ian Johnson in the backfield. At this point, as a viewer, the extremities are buzzing with endorphines. Zabransky appears to throw, but has pulled the Statue of Liberty play off to a degree of perfection unseen even in legendary flag football games. Left guard crushes whomever might think of tackling Johnson (pancaking them, actually) and Johnson runs straight to the sidelines. Boise wins.

The sensation swirling through the head after watching all this happen can only be described as narcotic. We scarcely noticed jumping up and down, though we were; or the screaming, which got the wife out of bed, since the late start and marathon finish had put her on the bench long before the delirious finish. Even Thom Brennaman's screed about the playoffs, begun just before the final play, couldn't ruin the fun; in fact, both Charles Davis and Barry Alvarez, who'd been wrong all night on potential play-calling, seemed to exult in being exotically wrong this time. (We're still waiting on that run/pass option, Charles.)

It was eyeball crack from start to finish. If there's a better game on the horizon, we may not live through it.

Save the cheerleader, save the world. Ian Johnson did.

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Out here on the West Coast, I was watching the game with the girlfriend in an upscale bar. Every male in the place was huddled together in the bar area intently watching the game and going absolutely ballistic.

I half-expected Fox to cut to celebrations of Boise State fans back home, lift up an injured teammate and carry him off the field, and then culminate with a bounding chorus of Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”

by Whohah on Jan 2, 2007 11:19 AM EST reply actions

Vinny Peretta out-Rudy’ed Rudy on that play.

by 4chickens-and-a-coke on Jan 2, 2007 11:22 AM EST reply actions

Truly a great game from kids who “were not good enough” for PAC-10 schools.

Looks like Stoops deal with Satan has come full circle this year. A debt is owed Bob, and the dark lord has collected.

by tzubear on Jan 2, 2007 11:23 AM EST reply actions

You really captured the moment, Orson. And all without a Fulmer fat joke. Well done.

by Bill on Jan 2, 2007 11:34 AM EST reply actions

The only way that could have been any better was if Fox’s Chris Myers hadn’t been a dick and given away the surprise proposal to the cheerleader and the audience.

I bet when Myers was in college, he was the wanna-be wingman that got all his friends cockblocked.

Petersen looked like he’d been absolutely dying to call the Statue of Liberty for eons; he was smiling so wide when he knew he had his play.

by Signal to Noise on Jan 2, 2007 11:39 AM EST reply actions

I went to bed at halftime. I vow never to sleep again.

by Mosby on Jan 2, 2007 11:40 AM EST reply actions

The AP poll needs to vote Boise as #1 in their final poll.

(Sorry Florida fans)

by George P. Budell on Jan 2, 2007 11:55 AM EST reply actions

Meanwhile in Starkville, Mississippi, Sylvester Croom, in the middle of his 10 year rebuilding plan, has yet to run a single trick play. He is heard to be muttering, “We will win the RIGHT WAY! WE WILL WIN THE RIGHT WAY!”

by Travis Swenson on Jan 2, 2007 12:08 PM EST reply actions

They won a BCS bowl twelve years after the jump. That’s just astonishing.

by Orson Swindle on Jan 2, 2007 12:19 PM EST reply actions

Was at the game, left early in the 4th in order to beat the horrendous traffic at U of P stadium.

Now I know I’m being punished for something I did, but I’m not sure what it was…

by Bob Gomez for Presidint on Jan 2, 2007 12:34 PM EST reply actions

Was anyone else surprised at how well Boise State fans traveled? I saw quite a bit of orange in the stadium. I’m guessing that will help them as much in the future as far as bowl matchups go as their win did.

by MJCM on Jan 2, 2007 12:35 PM EST reply actions

One good reason a team in the West can travel well: SW Airlines’ hub is in Phoenix.

by Schloop on Jan 2, 2007 1:12 PM EST reply actions

I’m a Buckeye fan through and through, so it’s not like I don’t have a favorite team, but I was screaming for Boise St. What a dream season and what an experience for those coaches, players, and fans. Now I know why I watch games like these and stay up so late. Boise St. is the George Mason of college football this year. What a story!

by Bluegrass Buckeye on Jan 2, 2007 1:17 PM EST reply actions

Bob Gomez — I live in Scottsdale and haven’t been to the Pink Taco yet, but seriously — how passe do you have to be about college football to leave a BCS game early to beat the traffic? Ye gods.

I actually had a buddy who is on the Fiesta Bowl board call at the last minute (45 minutes before kickoff) and offer me a ticket to the game and I turned him down due to family obligations. He said that if he gets extras for the BCS title game I will be first on the list to go. I’m hoping that this comes through as payback for missing the festivities last night.

by Mark on Jan 2, 2007 1:23 PM EST reply actions

Thirty thousand Idaho residents decamped for Arizona in the middle of the winter? That’s not a traveling fan base; that’s a refuge problem.

by DevilGrad on Jan 2, 2007 1:26 PM EST reply actions

Great. Just like last year, all of the “good sports moment” karma went straight into this one game (the Rose Bowl last year), and now every other championship game is going to suck by comparison again. Think about it – how exciting was the Super Bowl or the NCAA Finals or the NBA Championship game last year after the Rose Bowl? Welcome to 2006 part deux.

by BB on Jan 2, 2007 1:47 PM EST reply actions

+2, Devil Grad.

by Orson Swindle on Jan 2, 2007 1:55 PM EST reply actions

Two of the coolest play you’ll ever see. Hook n Ladder sounds better than Hook and Lateral.

Honorable mention of cool plays is the one in the West by God Virginia game when the O line stayed in their stance after the snap. The center falls over ala Arte Johnson and still doesn’t flinch.

by Drogue on Jan 2, 2007 2:08 PM EST reply actions

i’m sorry, but ian johnson should get no credit for proposing like that. he was just making sure that his girlfriend would have to say yes.

also, can we pause for a moment to reflect on how hot BSU’s coach is?

by adam on Jan 2, 2007 2:58 PM EST reply actions

Did you mean hot in the “Mal Moore is circling his house in a helicopter dropping bags of hundreds” sense or in the “might even get Mrs. DG to watch football” sense?

by DevilGrad on Jan 2, 2007 3:18 PM EST reply actions

One thing to remember about Boise – he doesn’t get mentioned a lot, and might not have the legacy in the program that Koetter or Hawkins had, but who was the Head Coach for one year there just after they moved up to 1-A?

Houston Nutt. I’m just saying.

by Devin McCullen on Jan 2, 2007 3:46 PM EST reply actions

hot as in physically attractive. though the other one works as well.

by adam on Jan 2, 2007 3:48 PM EST reply actions

That’s Hansel. He’s so hot right now.

by 4chickens-and-a-coke on Jan 2, 2007 4:35 PM EST reply actions

This game was awesome, but I’ve got a bit of a problem with all the post-game “see, THIS is why we HAVE TO HAVE a PLAYYYYOOFFFF!!!!” talk. Don’t get me wrong, I want a playoff, BUT…

Do any of you remember a single first round NFL game? The only one I can remember is the one Tennessee won on the flea-flicker kick-off return. Why do I remember it? Because they went to the Super Bowl that year. This was an amazing game, worthy of celebration on it’s own. If this is a first round playoff game and Boise St. goes out against Ohio State in the semis and gets rolled 42-14, no one outside of Idaho would remember it. It’d be a footnote. (Come on, 5 years from now how many people will remember George Mason in the Final Four when not bombarded by it during March Madness?)

Congratulations Boise St., you deserve all sorts of credit. Let’s not forget, they dominated the game until a furious 4th quarter Sooner comeback—they played great all game, it wasn’t just some last-second fluke. And congrats to Oklahoma—you showed some balls yourself, coming back like that. There’s no shame in losing on the ballsiest play call in history.

by Nate on Jan 2, 2007 5:52 PM EST reply actions

I wouldn’t say BSU dominated in the 3rd quarter. As I recall they gave away more turnovers than they got first downs. They did get a big interception but they did nothing on offense in the second half till the last minute.

by oc phil on Jan 2, 2007 6:30 PM EST reply actions

Chris Petersen is the WAC Daddy AND the Daddy WAC.

Recognize!

by SeaTrojan on Jan 2, 2007 7:11 PM EST reply actions

Signal to Noise #5,

Chris Meyers’ garbled gibberish has been a pet peeve of mine for years. Your comment is gold.

by SeaTrojan on Jan 2, 2007 7:15 PM EST reply actions

I’m an Oklahoma fan and I remember being the underdog in 2000 so I couldn’t help but enjoy an incredible game and found myself not really caring who won by the start of overtime.

I wish BSU hadn’t been as arrogant as they were after the game…a little grace goes a long way considering they were ranked higher than OU and were only a 7 pt underdog.

Either way…I think OU had a lot of courage fighting back the way they did and they certainly made it a memorable game themselves. Too bad anybody has to lose this kind of game, but BSU was gutsy and definitely earned the win. Like someone else mentioned – no shame in losing to a team in an incredible finish like that.

by Erick on Jan 2, 2007 7:34 PM EST reply actions

1 addition: the TD pass that brought it to 26-28 was deflected 2 times by a BSU defender before it was caught.

They won a BCS bowl twelve years after the jump. That’s just astonishing. I used to think UConn would be the next power in D1A, what with Terry Caulley and Dan Orlovsky, but Boise’s been consistently excellent over the past 5 or so years. Like I said earlier, as a Big-XII fan (and a victim of BSU in the Humanitarian bowl ‘02) I was rooting for OU most of the game. I still get flashbacks when I see the smurf turf, but I can’t ever root against Boise again.

by J.J. on Jan 2, 2007 9:23 PM EST reply actions

Taking nothing away from BSU’s underdog role and their big win but speaking of wedgies what is Mr. Stoops recent record in bowl games?

Off my head the three that jump to my mind is losses to USC, LSU, and now BSU. I believe they were favorites in each of those games. Erosion.

by Jenkins on Jan 2, 2007 9:39 PM EST reply actions

Piss on 20th Century Fox for taking all the videos off of YouTube! I found the last 2 minutes plus OT on Google video. They even have that dick Meyers ruining the proposal at the end.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4290184382815369007&q=Boise+State&hl=en

by Russ on Jan 5, 2007 12:40 AM EST reply actions