THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

I heard Tony Dungy on a national radio show this week. And he was talking about how insignificant the Time of Possession stat is. Dungy’s rationale is that it doesn’t matter how long you have the football, it’s what you do with it once you get it. And if you were watching the UC-Fresno State game on Saturday, you saw exactly what Dungy was talking about. Fresno crushed the ‘Cats in time of possession. UC had the ball a grand total of 16-minutes and 18-seconds. But UC won the game, 28-20. So Dungy’s theory has some validation. But you can only play this kind of game once in a great while. All I could think of, after Tony Pike hit Marty Gilyard with the TD pass that made the score 28-17, was how short a time the UC defense had to catch its breath.

Games like the one the Bearcats played Saturday grind a defense down. Now, it turns out, Fresno State’s offense ran out of gas late in this game as well. The interception by Carey was big. And Fresno running back, Ryan Mitchell, just about unstoppable in the first three quarters looked ‘winded’ in the final minutes of that game. But when West Virginia, South Florida and Pitt pop up n the schedule in the next few months, UC won’t be able to play this kind of game. Its defense will need to take the ball away more than it did Saturday. It will need to get off the field on third down better than it did Saturday. Allowing Fresno State to convert third down on 12-of-20 tries won’t cut it against teams that are coming up.

But along the way to great seasons, good teams have games like the Bearcats did Saturday. UC fans don’t like this memory, but Ohio State had this kind of game at Paul Brown Stadium in 2002. In 2006, the year the Florida Gators won the national title, they played not go great on the road but won at Vanderbilt by six, the came home the next week and beat South Carolina only by one. So it happens. You don’t play all that well, but you find a way to win. UC did exactly that Saturday.