Thoughts on College Football's First Bowl Week and NFL Week 15

1. Best of the Week

Best Game: Browns vs Bears

What a sloppy, gross, wonderful football game. We were graced with cutaways to Cleveland fans in brown and orange Santa hats and trash bags to avoid the rain, there were five interceptions, and the Bears almost pulled off a Hail Mary to win. It was the full Flacco experience, a roller coaster of a football game.

Best Player: Christian McCaffrey (RB) - 49ers

McCaffrey was everywhere on Sunday, as he always is, with 2 receiving touchdowns and 1 running. I would argue that he is the MVP of the league; everything that offense does is based on his unique abilities. The catch down the sideline where he dove to catch it, got up, and scored was the highlight I will remember from this one.

Best Uniform: Appalachian State vs Miami (OH)

Both teams had great tribute jerseys for the Cure Bowl but the rain added an extra element of fun to this one with so many fumbles and sliding everywhere. It was great to have on the TV; I'm glad I wasn't there in person.

2. Tight Ends are Fine Wine

Watching David Njoku ball out Sunday in year 6 had me thinking, do we judge tight ends too early? That position combines two totally different skill sets, blocking like a lineman and getting involved in the passing game, and we ask these guys to step up to the League and do both. Why wouldn't it take a bit to figure out how to be impactful?

Looking at stats, there seems to be a big leap in year 2 for a lot of the greats. Gates, Gronkowski, and Kittle all took leaps, as did modern good players like Hockenson. Kelce was good right away, but he got way better into his 30's finding those soft spots in the middle of the field and catching touchdowns in bunches from Mahomes. It's not unlike those hoopers who can get to their midrange shot no matter their age. Figuring out the leverage of safeties, how to set up linebackers, and then how to reach block defensive ends is a tall ask, which gives me hope for Michael Mayer, Dalton Kincaid, and even Kyle Pitts to put things together.

3. FCS Football is Awesome

If you get the chance to watch Montana play South Dakota State for the FCS national title game, do it. Every division besides Division 1-FBS has been doing a playoff for a long time, and the quality of these schools is great. If you don't believe me, look at what former FCS-power James Madison has done since they joined the Sun Belt. South Dakota State dropped the hammer on Albany and Montana got a close win against North Dakota State. These teams run the ball well, they execute at a high level, and the venues in which they play look awesome. Throw in the Carhart and camo-clad fans going nuts in freezing temperatures in Montana and South Dakota and its a great viewing experience. 

4. Bet Bowl Games Early

The new way to find value for the bowl season is to bet before the transfer portal opens and to bet against top schools playing smaller foes. Missouri opened as touchdown dogs to Ohio State and after the mass exodus from Columbus are now favorites. USC, North Carolina, LSU, and a host of other schools have faced big shifts in lines. Bowl games are hard to bet; you have to decide which team is motivated to show up for a weird expedition game. There is value to be had in underdogs for sure, and in a toss up scenario take the plus-money.

5. Play of the Week

I thought the Bruins would be flat in their bowl game against Boise State, and for a half I was right. But UCLA came out firing in the second half and got the win against the Broncos. Chip Kelly still has it as a play caller, and he finds unique ways to run the same play. The play we are going to look at is a flood concept, but it looks very different than the play you call on Madden that is called "Flood".

The Flood concept tries to put three players on the same side: one shallow, one intermediate, and one deep. This "floods" the side of the field and is difficult for zone defenders to decide which to cover. The traditional method is a flat, an out, and a go route. UCLA will have the flat and out route, but the deep route will be a deep crosser. Let's take a look.

• UCLA starts out with a bunch to the wide side of the field (circle) along with the running back (dot 1), and the tight end (dot 2) on the short side of the field. If you had to guess which way they were running flood, you would likely pick the wide side of the field.
• A lot of college coaches love the three receives away from the tight end set because it is really easy to see if the team is in man or zone. Since Boise State has left a corner (dot 3) on the side of the field with only the tight end, it is a zone look. If it were man, a safety or linebacker would likely be over the tight end. Another easy way to tell is all the defensive backs (dots 3, 4, and 5) are angled into the back field, ready to watch the quarterback's eyes.

• At the snap, the running back (dot 1) takes the flat route by crossing the quarterback's face. The corner (dot 2) settles in to defend this route.
• The tight end is running the 10-yard out route to the sideline and a safety (dot 3) is taking this matchup.
• On the bunch side, the inside receiver is settling down in a short hitch (dot 4) with the middle linebacker and nickel back both eyeing him. This leaves the middle receiver of the bunch (dot 5) with no one but the deep safety covering him. But how does this become that flood look if there is no go route to compliment the flat and out?

• That middle receiver with the free release runs a deep cross (dot 2) to the opposite sideline to take the place of that deep go route. Normally this would take too long to develop, but since he ran to the short side of the field he had time.
• Look at all the space created for him. The tight end (dot 1) is exactly 10 yards deep on the sideline, and the safety is sprinting back to recover. The linebacker is trying to get across, but the receiver is too fast for him. The deep safety got too deep and is late over.

• A huge gain for the Bruins, well done.
• The deep crossing route is a staple against cover 1 and cover 3, coverages a lot of teams run to bring an extra safety into the box to stop the run. This play is one to remember when you watch Washington play in a few weeks. The Huskies love this concept with Odunze crossing the field. Keep an eye out for it.