Thoughts on a crazy Orange Bowl
So these non CFP games can still be pretty entertaining, huh? The Orange Bowl and all the other non playoff bowl games seemingly take a backseat these days, and with good reason. Those 3 games matter the most because everyone wants to win a national championship, and if you' not in the CFP, you obviously can't achieve that goal. Star running backs sitting out these so called "other games" doesn't help that image. And the fact that we have more bowl games than ever, many of which feature 6 win also rans and teams we've never heard of adds to the problem. But the fact remains some of these are still very fun and entertaining that feature elite talent. That's what we got Friday night, in spades
Florida State looked like they had this game won the whole night, until suddenly they didn't. Their defense was suffocating most of the night, led by their brilliant DL Demarcus Walker, who it seems has been at FSU for 6 years. For some reason, he's not getting much love from the NFL but he is a spectacular college player, who just makes TFL after TFL. He may be undersized but man does he have a motor.
Of course the big story going in was the sudden hamstring injury of the do everything CB for Michigan Jabrill Peppers. The sure top pick being out changed everything for Michigan, and early on it showed. Nyqwan Murray had a 92 TD reception late in the first quarter that sent shockwaves through the Miami, FL crowd. Eventually both defenses adjusted and the qb play was substandard to put it kindly. But there was no stopping the amazing talents of FSU RB Dalvin Cook, who continued to carve through the ACC record books.
Then just as it looked as if FSU had this game in the bag, Michigan exploded for 15 points in a span of 3:25. This was done impressively without all world TE Jake Butt, who may have come down with either an ACL or MCL injury. From there it was a mad rush to the finish, with the winning TD coming on a beautiful dime from Deondre Francois, who wasn't great, but flashed his potential to Nyqwan Murray, who looked like a star all night. They did have to survive a blocked extra point, which was incredibly returned for 2,to cut the lesd to 33_32, with just 36 ticks on the clock. Props as well to FSU defensive coordinator, Charles Kelly, as his unit recorded at least 15 TFL's on the night, and were generally all over the place, making Michigan look very bad at times. Michigan clearly is still of need of a competent signal caller, going forward.