Got two more correct…sorta.

The two teams I picked to win on Thursday did so. They just won by scores a wee bit different than I thought.

I picked Florida State to be victorious over Notre Dame in the Champs Sports Bowl by a comfortable 31-14. The Seminoles got shut out in the first half and trailed early in the third quarter 14-0 but came back to win 18-14.

I over estimated the Seminole offense which, due to injury, had to start a bunch of young guys on the O-line. You could see the nervousness of that young group as they faced the larger more experienced Irish D. It looked like that young group might just get their quarterback, E.J. Manuel killed with their missed blocks and fidgety play that allowed five sacks. But they settled down and proved competent in the second half allowing Manuel to complete a pair of TD passes. The Florida State defense did its part as it intercepted the Irish’s quarterbacks Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix three times—twice in the red zone— and had four sacks of their own.

Neither team amassed much offense on the night. The Seminoles ran 60 plays for a net of 290 yards and the Irish ran 70 for 280 yards. That's a total of just 570 yards of offense. Keep those numbers in mind when looking at the numbers for the Alamo Bowl.

******

In the Alamo Bowl I predicted Baylor to win over Washington 55-27 and they did prevail in a shootout 67-56.

I tuned in to watch a football game and got a basketball score. (Actually, I switched early to watch the end of the Rutgers-#10 Florida basketball game for a bit. That game was 66-66 at the end of regulation, 76-76 after the first OT and ended with RU on top 85-83. Go RU!)

When the smoke cleared in this one, it seems the Heisman Trophy winner ,, Robert Griffin, wasn’t the best quarterback in the Alamodome—just the one with the win. Keith Price put on one hell of a performance for the Huskies. He completed 23 of 37 passes for 438 yards and four TDs. Oh yeah, he ran for three TDs, too. In contrast, Griffin was 24 of 33 for 295 and one TD. RGIII also scored one on the ground on a nifty 24-yard scramble.

What Griffin did do well was pilot the Baylor juggernaut and hand off the ball to Terrance Ganaway (21 carries, 200 yards and five TDs), Jarred Salubi (5 carries for 101 yards and two TDs), and Tevin Reese (2 carries for 101 yards but no scores).

The combined point total of 123 was just two shy of the all-time bowl record set in the 2001 GMC Bowl by Marshall and East Carolina. That game was a double overtime affair that ended with 125 points being scored. They had just 102 in regulation.

Washington and Baylor had 1,397 yards in total offense between them. That shattered the old mark. The Huskies ran 74 plays for 620 yards and the Bears 85 plays for 777 yards. Baylor ran the ball 52 times for 482 yards and had three (3!) players with 100 or more yards rushing. (Remember, Florida State and Notre Dame had a combined 570 yards of offense.)

This was a fun game to watch--unless you’re a fan of defensive play. (I thought I heard the "Degüello" being played in the background.)

I think I noticed the kickoff men for both teams getting tired near the end of the game. Their kicks only managed to reach the 10 yard line the last few times.

*"Degüello" means "beheading" or, idiomatically, "no quarter" (as in "no surrender to be given or accepted--a fight to the death") in Spanish and was the title of a Moorish-origin bugle call used by the Mexican Army forces at the Battle of the Alamo, Texas, in 1836.