2013 Chick-fil-A Bowl: Texas A&M tops Duke in a thriller

Manziel in the final three quarters: 19-for-21 for 285 yards, eight carries for 60 yards, five total touchdowns. Duke continued to move the ball offensively, but Manziel almost single-handedly kept A&M afloat in the first half, and the (justifiably) maligned Aggie defense finally began to make some stops in the second.

Average scoring margin for the day’s first three bowls. Hell, we really hadn’t had a good day of bowling since Friday. But then the Chick-fil-A Bowl came around.

You have to make sure the story of the game isn’t about just one player.

Texas A&M has an outstanding offensive line, led by overwhelming tackle Jake Matthews. It cleared the way for a running game that did just about anything it wanted against Duke’s smallish defense, averaging 5.3 yards a carry. It also kept its quarterback clean, except for when he ran around.

Texas A&M struggled to sustain drives early, due largely to the fact that Manziel and his wide receivers never seemed to be on the same page. Aggies wideouts dropped several catchable balls and a missed connection on third down between Manziel and MIke Evans prompted Johnny Football to chase down his No. 1 target on the sideline and offer an impassioned criticism of his performance on the previous play.

While the Aggies’ offensive struggles continued much of the first 30 minutes, Duke kept marching down the field, virtually unimpeded by the Texas A&M defense. The Blue Devils scored touchdowns on each of their first five possessions and closed out the first half with a field goal that gave them a 38-17 lead heading into the locker room.

He also did this, which I do not understand:

Manziel might only have 25 minutes left in his college career. And he might somehow top this play on his way out. Especially if A&M’s defense keeps doing what it’s doing. (As of this writing, it’s kept doing what it’s been doing. Duke’s driving again.)

After one half of football, Duke has put 365 yards and 38 points on an SEC defense. It’s technically an SEC defense. Technically. Barely. Maybe.

The telestrator has this one right:

Texas A&M’s having a rough first half against Duke. Johnny Manziel’s not pleased with Mike Evans, who’s drawn two penalties and dropped a pass:

He’s not the only Manziel feeling grouchy. Meri Manziel, no stranger to Twitter shots, sent out this since-deleted threat to a nearby Duke fan slandering her brother:

The Blue Devils are winning the Chick-fil-A Bowl, 14-3, in the first. Therefore:

Last week, the press box at the Little Caesar’s Bowl ran out of pizza. Tuesday, the unthinkable happened:

Next you’re gonna tell me the Rose Bowl ran out of roses.

Chick-Fil-A bettors have one of the least-hyped schools of 2013 clashing with one of the most-hyped players, as Duke takes on Texas A&M.

Duke (ACC, 10-3 SU, 10-3 ATS, 5-8 OU) is coming off one its finest seasons in school history, a campaign that ended with a trip to the ACC Championship Game. The Blue Devils posted a 6-2 SU record in conference play, including a pivotal 27-25 victory over rival North Carolina as a 5-point road underdog in their season finale to clinch the Coastal Division title. Duke showed solid balance on offense, with 234.4 yards a game passing and another 173.7 yards on the ground.

Duke started the year 0-2 in conference play, and it looked to be another long football season until the Blue Devils rattled off eight straight victories to end the regular season, defeating Coastal challengers Virginia Tech, Miami and North Carolina to capture the division crown. They struggled in the ACC Championship Game against national title favorite Florida State, losing to the Seminoles, 45-7.

Texas A&M began the year as a top-10 team, defeating Rice and Sam Houston State going into their matchup against Alabama. The Aggies fell in a tight one, 49-42, but won their next three games to set up another tough matchup with Auburn. A&M lost in a close one again, 45-41, before winning three straight and losing its final two tough contests: 34-10 to LSU and 28-21 to Missouri.

There are a lot of different paths to a bowl game, some disappointing, some exhilarating, some neutral. The 2013 Chick-fil-A Bowl finds two teams that came from completely different directions.

Meanwhile, in early-August I proclaimed that Duke had minimal margin for error when it came to winning six games and reaching even the most minor of bowls. Sure, it could happen, but it would potentially take some luck.

Via SportSouth

Johnny Missed Layups

Texas A&M and Duke continue the tradition of top SEC and ACC schools squaring off in the Georgia Dome, as a 10-win Blue Devils’ squad faces the Aggies in what should be a good one.

SEC teams have had an extraordinary amount of success following a Chick-fil-A Bowl win, and Good Bull Hunting took a light-hearted look at why winning the game is so important.

From our Texas A&M blog Good Bull Hunting:

Get more: On the scene at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl welcome party

Update, Dec. 26: It’s official.

“I’m excited to have Coach Roper join our staff,” Will Muschamp said in a statement. “He has a diverse, up-tempo background on offense and does a good job of adapting to what the players do best. The most important thing though is he has always remained balanced.

Duncan will be eligible at the start of the Spring 2015 semester, and can redshirt the year he misses. The specific violation is unknown, but the penalty is in accordance with that of students caught cheating at the university.

• Saturday bowl (and playoff) scores, schedule and more

In mid-November, it looked nearly impossible that Oklahoma could find their way to a BCS bowl. Sure, they had wins over ranked Notre Dame and Texas Tech teams, but neither was looking quite as good as the numbers to the left of their names might have suggested. The only real challenges the Sooners faced were against Texas and Baylor -- both resulted in blowout losses.

But Oklahoma recovered, easily defeating Iowa State and Kansas State before pulling out a dramatic upset win in Stillwater to rob rival Oklahoma State of the conference crown while simultaneously taking away their BCS berth.

The ACC had 11 bowl-eligible teams this season, with Pitt tying for both the worst overall record (6-6, with North Carolina and Syracuse) and conference record (3-5, with Maryland) among them. The Panthers did beat three other bowl teams this season, with an early-year win over Duke and late-season victories over Notre Dame and Syracuse.

Ralph Friedgen’s final game as Maryland’s head coach came in the 2010 Military Bowl -- the game was also the Terrapins’ last bowl game. Athletic director Kevin Anderson made the change from Friedgen to Randy Edsall, saying he wanted the program to go from “good to great,” and three years later, the Terps get to go to the same place.

The important thing to do when confronted by a set of 35 things is to rank them. Whether those 35 things are rankable things or events that have not happened yet, they must be ranked.

So we’ve polled 11 football fans on this year’s college football bowl schedule, with each giving a 1-to-10 rating on all 35 games. The full results are below, but first, some recognition for some of this year’s noteworthy matchups.