Percy! And Tebow! And the defense!

Perfect analysis BTD.

The game was really won on defense though, particularly the goal-line stand in the first half and the interception to close the half.  If Oklahoma has a halftime lead, maybe it's a different game.

Believe it or not, Harvin was nowhere near full speed.  He got in footraces twice and lost badly both times. That would NEVER happen if he were healthy.

He still had a nice burst, though.

Tebow's passing was off as badly as I have ever seen him in the first half, and I watch him play every chance I get.  But he was pure gold in the fourth quarter, an unstoppable force.

Several times, when a play was changed from the sideline, it looked as if Bradford then telegraphed the play by the way he was signaling to the backs or receivers, because the defense reacted and stopped the play for a loss.

i also noticed that tebow, the qb, was the leading rusher. assuming (and i am) that he's drafted in april, they'll beat that foolishness out of him in the NFL.

he's going to have to learn to be more of a pocket type passer, if he expects to live more than a season.

as well, UF's punting game was vastly superior to OU's receiving game. i expect their punter will be a late round draft pick also.

all that said, utah should have been playing UF tonite, not OU. sorry OU fans.

On the other hand, the announcers had obviously canonized Tebow before the game started and by the end of the game, Tebow was going to save the economy and get us out of Ira, Afghanistan and fix health care,  Obama should put him in as chief of staff.  Between St. Tebow and Nervous Sam, the game was less fun than it might have been.

Thom Brennaman was a national embarrassment tonight with his constant Tebow jocksniffing.

The standard was set early on when he gushed "if you spend five minutes with Tim Tebow, your life is better for it."

That school should be shut down via a RICO lawsuit.

And he noted two reasons why UF would prevail:  1) the double-threat of Thibeaux, and 2) the overall superior speed/athletic ability of UF on both sides of the ball eventually wearing down OU.  

These factors indeed were the difference.  Including on the key defensive stand late in the 1st half where OU -- very unimaginatively and stubbornly -- tried 4 times to run it in but were stopped by a swarming, stronger UF squad.

And Thibeaux finally came through in the 2d half in displaying his outstanding ability to run, while OU, strangely, seemed to forget that first priority is to stop the person with the ball, and not his other options.

As I said earlier on this very blog--defense wins championships and that certainly was the case last night.  And the Big 12 and their reliance on outscoring their opponents fell apart when faced with a team that actually plays defense.  

Still and all, I didn't see anything last night to convince me that Utah wouldn't have had a chance to beat either of the two teams.  

Otherwise, yes, it's almost always going to be the best defensive team which prevails (one rare exception being the no-D 2000 St Louie Rams).  

UF just had too many good athletes and with speed, while OU was unimaginative when they needed to be clever, and generally failed to use their hurry-up offense to rapid advantage -- instead, it was usually the hurry up and wait offense.