Even if you were the biggest Stanford backer out there, you probably weren't expecting THIS level of dominance in the Orange Bowl. It was more one-sided statistically than OU/Connecticut, and right up there with Alabama/Michigan State. Don't forget that Virginia Tech played a neutral field dead heat with Boise State to start the season. Stanford was so much better than Boise State that it's scary. Precision, physicality, brains, speed, a truly elite team. Oregon's chances in the BCS game just got better. Proxy's Alabama and Stanford may be signalling at an epic struggle next Monday.
STANFORD 40, VIRGINIA TECH 12
Total Yardage: Stanford 534, Virginia Tech 289
Yards-per-Play: Stanford 9.9, Virginia Tech 4.3
Rushing Yards: Stanford 247, Virginia Tech 67
Passing Lines: Stanford 18-23-1-287, Virginia Tech 16-33-1-222
Turnovers: Stanford 2, Virginia Tech 1
Sloppiness: Stanford 15, Virginia Tech 22
Stat Score: Stanford 35, Virginia Tech 16
Nine-point-nine on ypp for Stanford. Nobody's done that in a bowl game yet. Alabama was awesome at 8.1. Northern Illinois had some fun with 9.1. Virginia Tech's defense wasn't supposed to be innocent bystanders. They hung tough for a half, but couldn't keep up with the varied formations and weaponry. By the end of the game, Stanford was just showing off. They looked like a marching band sending players all over the place in formation. Harbaugh's a bully genius!
There's not much to say because it becomes piling superlatives on superlatives after you probably watched the game and marvelled on your own. You came here to see what it all looked like in numbers! 9.9 to 4.3 is +5.6, bigger than the +5.1 Alabama stuck on Michigan State. Though, given the intracacies of play, it was more like watching a piece of art being painted than anything else. Football as art.
Don't want to forget that Lou Holtz had some great stuff before the game about how badly the ACC has performed in big time bowls. You probably saw during the game that Frank Beamer has an awful straight up record vs. top five opponents. Some of that is loaded because his teams may not always have been great when he ran into top five opponents! But...Beamer-ball is about forcing mistakes, and top notch teams don't make any.
The ACC so far:
*Champion Virginia Tech was obliterated here.
*Runner-up Florida State beat South Carolina, but it was a turnover win with a 5-1 edge. YPP was 6.1 to 4.7 for South Carolina.
*Miami of Florida lost to Notre Dame (losing turnovers but winning ypp).
*Clemson lost to South Florida (statistical dead heat vs. an unimpressive Big East team).
*North Carolina was lucky to win in OT vs. Tennessee, an unimpressive SEC team.
*Maryland crushed East Carolina, suggesting clear superiority over lousy mid majors at least.
*NC State beat West Virginia with a 5-1 turnover edge, losing YPP 5.1 to 4.7.
*Georgia Tech lost to Air Force, winning ypp 4.5 to 4.0 but losing turnovers.
Sorry...nothing to write home about. 4-4 against the Vegas spreads, but 3-5 ATS at the end of regulation. Two of the covers were turnover wins with YPP losses. The only clean win/cover with impressive stats was Maryland over EC
The ACC still belongs above the Big East in the BCS conference pecking order. Their best teams aren't national powers.
Back tomorrow night after Ohio State/Arkansas...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment