Scouting the Rose Bowl

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Northwestern was playing today at trendy Rose Bowl darkhorse Minnesota and, sure enough, with a Dome full of brunch-laden Gopher fans (are mimosas still in season?) Minnesota had a pass intercepted in the final 20 seconds and the Wildcats returned it for a touchdown and a 24-17 victory. It was Minnesota’s second conference loss so the mighty Gophers won’t make a turnaround from 1-11 to the Granddaddy of them all. Good thing for the Rose Bowl.

A few minutes later over on ESPN, Michigan State kicked a late-game field goal at Wisconsin to win, 25-24. The Spartans, who never led in the game, are 5-1 in the conference and their come-from-behind win might be good news for USC.

Michigan State is notable for its horrible late-season fades but with something to play for now (a Big 10 title and possible Rose Bowl berth) maybe the Spartans will be enthusiastic when they play at Penn State on Nov. 22. That would be a best-case scenario for the Trojans because a one-loss Nittany Lions team would most likely be out of the national title game spot but would still be an attractive Rose Bowl opponent both for USC (please, not Ohio State again) and the Pasadena folks.

And here’s a good reason why announcers really need to pay attention to all the little details, such as what down it is. As a Michigan State player was stopped short of a first down with the final 30 seconds ticking away, ESPN play-by-play announcer Pam Ward was yelling her dismay that Spartans Coach Mark Dantonio didn’t have his team spike the ball to stop the clock.

Well, Pam, it was fourth down. Spiked ball? Game over for the Spartans. But while Michigan State was in a mad scramble to get its field-goal unit onto the field, Wisconsin Coach Bret Bielema called time out. About the time Ward realized Michigan State would have been poorly served by spiking the ball, she did switch gears and wonder what Bielema was doing.

-- Diane Pucin