Re: College Football 2016-17: Destination Tampa
Sounds like it was more her techs than her, but in any case OSU still shat the bed longer and harder.
I get that this is just locker room talk. Just don't start in with the grabbin'.
That said, if you're suggesting that OSU "choked" away the game, you're misreading the proceedings. 2016 Clemson was simply better than 2016 Ohio State, pretty much across the board. The Tigers are a talented, veteran team that took away most of the options the Buckeyes usually have on offense. The OSU defense actually played a decent game, until it became obvious that no help at all was coming from the offense.
Searching for signs of choking, I come up with:
1. Putting perimeter runs at that the top of the play list was admittedly dumb.
2. The two field goal misses (but note both were from 40 yards+; hardly entitlement range)
3. The lost Weber fumble.
But you know what? Even if we clean those items up, maybe we lose 27-13. More respectable, but same outcome. In hindsight, we were trying to pull an upset and weren't equipped for it.
Moving to the bigger picture, suppose Penn State or Oklahoma had been chosen for the #3 slot in our place. I'm guessing that if Clemson had brought the same "A Game" performance, the result would have been very much the same. The Tigers are a championship caliber team with a real shot at taking down Alabama. After Saturday, I can't honestly say that about any other team in the 2016 field, OSU included.
I sincerely wish Clemson the best of luck on January 9th.