Official MVPMods Fiesta Bowl Coverage

[Pirate]

Something never felt quite right about yesterday. To say I was disappointed by the outcome is an understatement. I truly believed that Notre Dame was superior to OSU. I am an extreme rarity - I am a non-Catholic kid from the Ohio country side who grew up rooting for ND. I hate Ohio State as much as anything on this earth. I love ND nearly as much as I love my wife and family, but there is a huge difference, I will elaborate later.

As I exited the Xterra with my father-in-law and wife I realized we were outnumbered. the entire OSU campus had traveled from Columbus to Tempe. The scarlet was shining bright and my 79 Cotton Bowl Joe Montana jersey just didn't make up for all the Archie Griffin and Andy Katzenmoyer jersies.

Something wasn't right here.

As we entered the stadium irealized I had been blessed with amazing tickets. I sat 14 rows off the field directly behind the UND endzone. I wathced the warmups and felt brazenly confident.

When Huston kicked off to ND and he fell down on his followthru I felt even better. Elation set in two minute later as Darius Walker ran over, through and past the famed OSU defense for a touchdown. The ecerything fell apart.

I looked at the OSU fan next to me and asked him if the defense was missing someone. He laughed and acknowledged that Carpenter was hurt. Not that it mattered.

A minute later I told him I was afraid of Ted Ginn Jr. I spent the past 25 years in Ohio and i knew Ginn was good. Twenty-two seconds later I knew ND was going to lose. I watched as Nwudke of ND played off Ginn by seven yards. The cushion provided Ginn enough room to tear apart the ND defense. Weiss and his staff never accomodated and the route was on.

The first touchdown woke up AJ Hawk and the rest of the OSU defense. It looked like OSU had 15 linebackers on the field on evey play. Quinn ran around like David Carr does on Sundays.

The outcome should have and could have been much worse. Two blocked fieldgoals assisted in keeping the score within reach.

When Zibikowski returned a possible fumble for a touchdown and pulled ND into a tie (I think), I din't cheer, Gonzalez clearly dropped the ball before he had possesiion. My wife was jumping up and down and I looked at her and shook my head, she had no clue. She says to me "Honey you still love Notre Dame though." It wasn't a question, but I answered, "I do, but Notre Dame doesn't always love me back and that is why I married you."

Just prior to kickoff we got word that her Grandfather, who ironically played at ND was in a car acciedent he is OK and so is everyone involved, but a shock like that made teh game that much more and less important. A win would brighten his day, but really the game matters little in the grand scheme of life.

The OSU defense was as good a defense as I have seen all season. The only reason UND scored three times was because OSU was in prevent defense.

After their respective wins over OSU, Texas and Penn State look that much better. USC and FSU are in trouble. After the game and several alcoholic beverages I made some observations.

OSU will be tough next year, even without Santonio Holmes. Maybe a rematch of ND and OSU here in Glendale at the BCS Championship game.

OSU's quaterback was good but is nothing without Ginn. He's just a kid who best get his head on his shoulders and act responsibly. Hopefully his troubled past is behind him.

Mo Clarett is a complete human failure.

Jim Tressel is a damn good football coach and seriously underated, undervalued and underpaid.

There is always next year. WE ARE ND!

[Filthy57]

[sarcasm]I watched the whole game, and I'd just like to say that I don't think they talked about Brady Quinn's sister being A.J. Hawk's girlfriend enough, and didn't show her nearly enough throughout the game.[/sarcasm]

All kidding aside, OSU looked really good and were definitely the superior team yesterday, A.J. Hawk is a beast, Troy Smith is a pretty underrated quarterback, I'm glad that OSU senior class went out with another Fiesta Bowl win, but it's disappointing that Bobby Carpenter had to watch it from the sideline.

[Pirate]

Quinn's sister was all over the field in her Irisheyes 17 jersey. Bah. She is very attractive and wants to work in the football production business on TV.

[Kriegz]