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Sunday, November 18, 2012

The fraudulent Ducks, Klein throws it away, Johnny Football hauls it in, and SOMEONE will win the national championship

Oregon finally faced a stiff run defense and scored 14 points on 15 possessions. Based on what I've heard from those criticizing me for saying that Kansas State had a better offense, I can only assume Oregon benched its starters before the game even started. Except (former) Heisman candidate Kenjon Barner managed 66 yards on 21 carries, so he must have been playing.

But I can't really brag because Kansas State scored 24 points on the worst defense in the world. (Former) Heisman candidate Collin Klein racked up 2.3 yards per carry and 286 passing yards on 50 attempts. Three of those passes were caught by Baylor defenders. Sam Houston State is significantly better on defense than Baylor. Really. No lie. I'm not even joking. And Manziel put up Klein's numbers, except more rushing yards, more touchdowns and fewer interceptions, in a half and a play.

What does this all mean? First, it means that if Johnny Manziel does not win the Heisman the award needs to be discontinued. His only bad game of the season (Ole Miss) he led the Aggies to a come-from-behind win. His mediocre game (LSU) was against one of the best defenses in the country. Klein just laid an egg against Baylor. I could score 40 on Baylor. And Barner just got 3.1 yards per attempt in a loss that might have cost his team a chance at the national championship, the Pac-12 championship and even the Pac-12 North. The rest of the pack is welcome to make the trip to New York, but the trophy belongs to Johnny.

Second, the MNC game picture is as muddled as ever. Alabama has gone from only mostly dead to living mostly dead. Alabama and Georgia are playing a semifinal in Atlanta. Notre Dame has a play-in game against USC. If Notre Dame loses, Kansas State should take the lead for the second MNC game spot.  But Oregon should slide past Kansas State if they beat Oregon State and UCLA, but Oregon will need Stanford to lose to UCLA or we will have a Stanford/UCLA rematch while Oregon watches. If Kansas State and Notre Dame lose but Stanford does not, we could have a second non-division winner playing for the MNC. If Notre Dame, Kansas State and Oregon all lose, and Florida beats Florida State, we will have another SEC-only MNC.

Third, we learned (again) that assuming currently undefeated teams will stay that way going forward is a big, big mistake. Even if a team will be the better team on the field in every game, they will still probably lose at some point. That goes for Oregon, Alabama, and even Johnny Football.

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