Before I get to the Over/Under results I want to comment very briefly about the Longhorns loss. Every team but one competing for a championship loses their final game of the season. There is no shame for Steve Sarkisian, Quinn Ewers, or any other Texas player in losing that game last night. Sarkisian didn’t do his best job preparing his team or calling plays. Ewers didn’t play up to his talents and capabilities. Those things happen. Most importantly Texas lost to one of the all-time great performances by a quarterback in a championship elimination game. I’m not sure any team would have beaten Washington last night.
I’ve been quite critical of Steve Sarkisian over the last three seasons. Though there are criticisms to spread around about the performance against Washington I’m simply not in the mood to do that now in light of how far Sarkisian has brought the team. There is no perfection.
On to the fun stuff.
The up and coming John “Spaffy”Spafford won for the second time this year but he had to outlast Zach Moorhead in the tiebreaker to do it. Zach and John tied for first place with 7 correct answers. They both picked Alabama to beat Michigan, so we had to go to the second tiebreaker to determine the winner. Zach predicted the total points scored in Alabama-Michigan game would be 72. John predicted 45 which was within two points of the final total of 47 so he gets the win. If there was a Rookie of the Year award John Spafford would be the runaway winner with two wins and two second place finishes. His performance is all the more impressive since he didn’t play until the Oklahoma game.
David Frink, Reed Ramlow, Kevin Hill, Clayton Frink and Andy Garrod tied for third with 6 correct answers.
David Frink was the only player who predicted that Keilan Robinson would have no rushing attempts. Only four players predicted that Texas would commit more turnovers and only four predicted that Washington would have more than 31:30 time of possession. Turnovers and time of possession obviously turned out to be huge factors in the game’s outcome.
The average score of the 21 players was 4.8.
13 players entered Moneyball, so John takes home $65 in prize money.
I watched a highlights broadcast of the game with the camera facing north/south always from the back of the offense side of the field. It is amazing how perfect Penix was. Our secondary didn’t cover the receivers badly, he was just damn near perfect with his throws. Also incredible to think Penix has been sacked only 11 times in the last 14 games.
PS, we should have run the ball more – per carry yardage was great. Also, the announcers at the beginning of the game said Sarkisian pre-scripts the first 40 offensive plays and always stays with the process That makes zero sense to me.