Published: December 26, 2007 11:59 pm            

Blog Championship Series | Semifinals

Two dominating performances gave us the most logical final that could have occured after No. 1 went down in the quarterfinals. For those concerned, the championship will go up on Jan. 7 with possible championship-related fun between now and then.



Semifinal round - Game 1: Kansas at Oklahoma

NORMAN, Okla. – BCS eight seed Kansas outgained and held a decisive edge in time of possession against Oklahoma Saturday at Owen Field.

Oklahoma held edges in more important categories - score and turnovers. As a result, the No. 4 Sooners trounced the upstart Jayhawks 42-14 to earn a spot in the Blog Championship Series Championship on Jan. 7 in New Orleans.

Sooners running back Allen Patrick rushed for 144 yards and a pair of touchdowns on a day where five of Oklahoma’s six touchdowns covered 43 or more yards.

Three of those touchdowns came as a result of Kansas turnovers starting when the Sooners capitalized on a muffed punt by Ryan Murphy late in the first, taking over at at the Jayhawks’ 20. Oklahoma covered the distance in three plays with an 8-yard run by Allen Patrick pushing the hosts to a 7-0 lead.

Kansas knotted the score in the latter portion of the second quarter as Todd Reesing connected with Dexton Fields from 19 yards away. Within the span of 11 seconds and an 89-yard kickoff return by the Sooners’ DeMarco Murray had given Oklahoma a 14-7 lead heading into the half.

It was merely the beginning of the end for Kansas.

Oklahoma wasted little time on expanding that lead following the second-half kickoff as Patrick darted through the Kansas defense on his way to a 66-yard touchdown just two plays into the half.

Two more big plays followed in the third for Oklahoma with an 89-yard interception return by Ryan Reynolds and a 43-yard touchdown pass from Joey Halzle to Brody Eldridge on Oklahoma’s first pass at the game. Halzle, who threw just one pass, ended the game with a 791.2 rating.

Sooners’ backup Sam Bradford completed his only pass on his squad’s next possession when he found Adron Tennell behind the Jayhawks secondary for a 74-yard touchdown strike. Bradford’s QB rating following the game topped out at 1051.6.

Reesing’s 47-yard touchdown pass to Fields capped off the scoring against Oklahoma’s second-team defense.



Semifinal round - Game 2: Virginia Tech at Lousiana State

BATON ROUGE, La. – First it contained a high-powered Southern California offense. On Saturday, the Louisiana State defense served a bagel to BCS No. 3 Virginia Tech as the second-seeded Tigers advanced to the Blog Championship Series finals with a 13-0 win over the Hokies.

The next mission for the LSU defense will be BCS No. 4 Oklahoma on Jan. 7 at the Louisiana Superdome. The Sooners trounced Kansas in their semifinal game.

The clash will serve as a rematch of the 2003 BCS title game – played at the Superdome – that resulted in a 21-14 win and a split of the national title for LSU.

While the score wasn’t as dominating as LSU’s 48-7 win over Virginia Tech on Sept. 8, the Tigers’ defense looked just as good as it recorded six tackles for loss and registered two sacks against the Hokies with sophomore right end Ali Highsmith picking up a sack and two tackles for loss.

Two first-half turnovers forced by the Tigers pass rush went towards two field goals by Colt David and a 6-0 lead. David connected twice from 43 yards away with his first field goal coming after a Curtis Taylor pick. David then set up his next field goal when he recovered Eddie Royal’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff.

LSU managed the game’s only touchdown early in the second on a 2-yard run by Keiland Williams polished off a nine-play, 85-yard drive. Matt Flynn threw for 79 yards on the drive with a 38-yard strike to Terrance Toliver moving the ball inside the Hokies’ 5.

Even with the Tigers offense seemingly in cruise control for the rest of the game, the Hokies never threatened to dent the lead despite holding onto the ball twice as long as LSU in the final three quarters.



Shawn Curtis is a sports writer for The Tribune-Democrat. Had he known that his tournament championship would have just been a rematch of another BCS championship that should have never happened, he’d have just saved everyone’s time.

        

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