First, a movie note: Seriously, “One Battle After Another” is gonna win every award. Here’s Alex, starting us off with the latest news on two things that … call to mind that title.
Heading into college football’s two mega-blockbuster games last night, these two truths were self-evident:
*That is a load-bearing “pretty much,” as Georgia won a literal national championship game against Alabama not even four years ago. But the Tide otherwise hadn’t lost to the Dawgs since 2007, much as Penn State hadn’t won a marquee regular-season game since 2016.
In front of a white-out home crowd, Penn State trailed by 14 in the fourth quarter before getting a quick score, making a stop and then mounting an all-timer of a 15-play, 62-yard touchdown drive. QB Drew Allar, Franklin’s partner in several of these losses, morphed from helpless into a world-beater late in this game. Penn State even scored first in overtime. But then the Ducks answered, and then they went ahead. Finally, the senior Allar made the throw that may define his college career: an ugly interception on a sideline throw on first down, pulled down by Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman, a Purdue transfer.
One could select any number of stats to illustrate Franklin’s futility in big moments, but I think the one that really gets to the point is this: He’s now 1-18 in Big Ten regular-season games against top-10 opponents, per Stathead. Penn State is good enough to play in lots of enormous, memorable games on campus, just not to win them.
Next for Penn State: an easy set of bounceback games against UCLA and Northwestern.
Next for Oregon: a bye, then another showdown (at home) against No. 11 Indiana. “With this experience under his belt, QB Dante Moore is truly battle-tested.” Yep.
Kalen DeBoer has lost big to Vanderbilt, a bad Oklahoma and a Florida State team that’d won one FBS game the previous year. But under the absolute brightest lights, he’s doing well at Alabama. The Tide got out to a 14-0 lead and squeezed out a win in Athens. That means:
DeBoer was working on an approval rating near zero after Bama opened up with that loss in Tallahassee. The Tide had looked good since then against meager competition, but this win was validating. I was impressed with Bama’s stick-to-it-iveness. For example: WR Ryan Williams had a terrible drop of a sure TD on the opening drive. Instead of sulking, Bama converted the ensuing third down and went on a long touchdown march anyway. Also, speaking of tenacity, here’s 6-7, 369-pound tackle Kadyn Proctor playing receiver:
Tough scene for Georgia, which relaxes with Kentucky at home next week before visiting an Auburn team that is addicted to giving up sacks.
Is Bama back? Well, let’s handle Vandy next week. Actually, the No. 18 Commodores are legitimately good now, which should put them in DeBoer’s wheelhouse for a change. For now, Matt Baker writes that the embattled head man has gotten some “breathing room.”
You can even hear someone yelling, “CHILE ROASTERRR.” Thank you for reading, and say hello at [email protected] if you like.
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