This past weekend saw many crazy finishes in sports and we saw many big upsets throughout. College football had its CFP selection Sunday after all the crazy conference championship games on Saturday; The Steelers played a tough divisional game and much more. We will recap all of that for you and give you our reactions to these crazy games.
Steelers– The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Ravens Sunday, 27-22 in a hard fought battle on both sides of the ball. Even Aaron Rodgers showed his efforts when the ball he threw got reflected and turned up right back into his own hands. At least the Steelers know now if they need a Wr2 they have Rodgers. After a very controversial call with Isaiah Likely who got not 1 but 2 feet in the endzone, the call was seen as a drop by the refs because after he got his feet in he dropped the ball. Personally I think the call should have been a touchdown, but I’m not the ref. This led to the Steelers punting the ball back one last time before Lamar was sacked 4th and 2 with 16 seconds left, meaning the Steelers won. Yet again the Steelers have the luck of the Irish to pull one of the most climatic wins in the NFl off. They reclaimed their first place position in the AFC North at 7-6 and will head into a tough final stretch of games against the Dolphins, Lions, Browns, and Ravens. The division title is still a very possible thing but they will have to win 3 of the last four at least. The Steelers season is well past the beginning, but could be coming closer to an end. It’s looking like another classic Mike Tomlin 9-8 season, just like every year.
Penguins– The Pens played the Dallas Stars this Sunday where they took them all the way to a shootout where they ended up losing 3-2. Connor Dewar and Tommy Novak were the two who scored goals for the Penguins but in the shootout, Mikko Rantanen scored the game winning goal for the Stars.
Pitt Basketball– Many people thought Pitt had hit rock bottom when they lost to Quinnipiac but they just went below rock bottom when they lost to Hofstra on Sunday, 80-73 in a game where nobody really expected the Panthers to lose. This is the second time this season where the Panthers lost to a Mid-Major opponent at home. Pitt now 5-5 on the season will head into their next game, next Saturday on the road at Villanova. Pitt will have to figure something out defensively because they cannot allow the Wildcats to get easy baskets in the paint like they allowed against Hofstra with 38 points coming from inside the paint. It’s embarrassing that this program, in year eight of Jeff Capel is still losing to bad teams and to teams who they shouldn’t lose to. If Capel doesn’t figure it out, he could be on his way out. A once promising, successful program and a top seed consistently in March Madness with Jamie Dixon has completely fallen off of a cliff into a bottom feeder and an embarrassment in college basketball.
Shaler Girls Varsity Basketball – The Titans had a great start to the plum tip off on Friday beating a familiar section opponent in North Hills.The Titans beat the Indians 42-38 putting on a solid display. On Saturday however the Titans did not find that same success that the did on Friday dropping a game to Greater Latrobe in an overtime thriller losing by 3 points with a final score of 46-49. The Titans now stand at a record of 2-1.
College Football Conference Championships– Championship weekend has passed and we had a ton of crazy results. In the ACC, 7-5 Duke took down 10-2 Virginia in Overtime 27-20 on a game winning interception where linebacker Luke Margott jumped the pass and stole it to end Virginia College Football playoff chances. The game had many questionable calls including one in overtime when Duke scored a touchdown to give them the lead there was a flag called roughing the passer and Duke asked if they could accept it and it would affect Virginia on the next drive. I’ve never seen this ever that the ref allowed this and Virginia started with a 15 yard penalty and backed them up from the 25 to the 40. I don’t think they should have allowed that and it truly affected the result of the game. The ACC ended up getting a bid to the playoffs with Miami getting the 10 seed but the conference needs to figure out their tiebreaker rules because a 7-5 team should never be in the conference championship.
In the Big 12, 11-1 Texas Tech rolled past 11-1 BYU to secure their first outright conference title in school history. Ben Roberts stole the show on defense, coming up with 2 interceptions and making multiple big tackles. BYU was never able to make any sustained drives and that was a key part in their loss. Texas Tech potentially has the best defense in the nation but the offense definitely raises some questions as they head into the playoff as the 4 seed and most likely will play Oregon if they beat JMU.
In the Big 10, 12-0 Indiana played a classic against 12-0 Ohio State to secure their first conference title since 1967. The Hoosiers offense was electric with Fernando Mendoza having a great game in the passing attack. The Ohio State offense did well but never was able to break through some of their mistakes. Late in the game Ohio State was driving down 3, with under 5 minutes to play and the drive came down on a fourth and two where Ohio State elected to kick three to tie the game and ended up missing wide left. Indiana controlled the ball and converted on multiple plays to secure the victory and hoist the Big 10 title trophy and get the number one seed in the CFP and watch out because they are truly the real deal and a national championship threat.
In the SEC, 11-1 Georgia routed 10-2 Alabama 28-7 to get their second SEC title in 2 years. They dominated the Crimson Tide all game with Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson never being able to settle in and just was pressured by the elite Georgia defensive line. The Bulldogs running game was key with Nate Frezior running over 50 yards and had one touchdown. Georgia would not be denied in any aspect of the game but somehow Alabama still got into the playoffs as the 9 seed over Notre Dame. The Tide should be out of the playoffs after that performance and I feel like that’s the only thing the committee got wrong.
Other notable college basketball games – On Friday #1 Purdue faced off against #10 Iowa State, in a blowout game, where Iowa State handed Purdue their first loss of the year, 81 – 58. Iowa State put up a solid first half beating Purdue by 4 points. In the second half however Purdue really put their foot on the gas forcing 10 turnovers, going on a 13-2 run, and shooting around 60% from the field as a team. Purdue definitely didn’t give their best performance and it was obvious they struggled shooting from the arch all night only shooting 4-18. Milan Momcilovic led the game with a 20 point game. Purdue plays very well when they play at their own speed and it’s shown this season but Iowa State did a great job of speeding up Purdue taking them completely off their game. Their Zach Edey replacement Daneil Jacobsen had a decent first half affecting a number of Cyclone shots. There is a lot of talk now with who should be ranked at the #1 spot now, even though I am a Tarheels fan I think Duke has put together some great games against tough ranked opponents.
Which brings us to the next game Friday showed to be a great day for college basketball as #4 Duke faced off against #10 Michigan State. Duke had the upper hand in this one and kept their undefeated streak going. With the help of Cameron Boozer the potential top 3 pick and freshman standout really showed his dominance on the court 18 points 5 assists and 15 assists. Which means he put up a triple double and he has consistently been the outlier for Duke’s success. Michigan State ran the classic Tom Izzo ball and they were successful for the most part. In the first half it was much more of a defensive game where both offenses couldn’t get much going. Izzo tried to get his team to emphasize getting rebounds and second chances but they fell really short on the rebounds.Michigan State did however play better in the paint than Duke, but that’s because Duke shot significantly more outside shots than Michigan State who has never been much of an elite team shooting from beyond the arch.
