Re: Who here has suffered the worse gambling beat?
2006 National Title game LIVE betting before USC turned the ball over and Vince drove for the winning score. I grabbed a big but reasonable number on USC to hang on....
Behind the precise throwing of Matt Leinart, who despite his one interception, finished the day with otherwise stellar numbers, completing 29 of 40 passes for 365 yards and one touchdown, the Trojans drove 80 yards over nine plays in 3:36. Reggie Bush scored his only touchdown of the game on a 26-yard run to end the drive. (Bush finished the game with 95 yards on just six catches and gained 82 yards on 13 carries; he also averaged 20.2 yards over five punt returns.)
Two Vince Young completions to wide receiver
Billy Pittman, who caught four passes for 53 yards on the day, helped the Longhorns drive to the USC 17-yard line on the next possession. When Young fumbled on third down, Texas settled for a 34-yard field goal that brought the Longhorns to within five, 31-26.
On their ensuing possession, The Trojans gained 48 yards with a 33-yard Leinart pass to Kirtman and a 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalty. This set up a 22-yard scoring toss from Leinart to Jarrett, and a successful extra point attempt gave USC its biggest lead of the game, 38-26.
As Texas took the ball trailing by two scores with just 6:42 to play in the game, Young accounted for all 69 yards of a Longhorns' scoring drive that took just 2:39 to complete, rushing for 25 (including a 17-yard touchdown run) and completing five passes for the rest of the necessary yardage (For the game, Young completed 75 percent of his passes — 30-of-40 — for 267 yards, with no passing touchdowns, and no interceptions.) A successful Pino extra point attempt again brought Texas to within five with 3:58 to play.
Though the Longhorns' defense yielded one first down on the subsequent Southern California drive, it held the Trojans, who turned to LenDale White on a third down at midfield only to see him lose the ball and have it recovered by wide receiver
Steve Smith just two yards short of a first down. A Texas timeout stopped the clock with 2:13 to play. Then, in what may have proved to be the most pivotal coaching decision of the game, Trojans coach
Pete Carroll elected to give his number-two ranked offense (ranked behind only Texas) , which had averaged 582.2 yards and 50.0 points per game on the year, an opportunity to convert a fourth down-and-two at the Texas 45-yard line. However, due to pre-snap adjustments by the Texas defense, who had failed to stop this same play three times all leading to USC touchdowns, caused White to only gain slightly more than one yard, and Southern California turned the ball over at the Longhorns' 44-yard line with 2:09 to play in the game.
During the next and final Texas drive, the Longhorns faced a third down-and-twelve and converted for a first down at the USC 46-yard line after a completed pass for seven yards and a Trojans face-mask penalty. From there, Young hit little-used wide receiver
Brian Carter twice for 26 yards to move the ball to the USC 13-yard line. Facing 4th down and 5 yards to go from the 8-yard line, Young notched his third rushing touchdown of the game with 19 seconds to play, giving his team a one-point lead. Young successfully reached the end zone again on the following two-point conversion, giving his team the 41-38 lead. The lead held as Leinart took the ball with only eight seconds left and was unable to drive the Trojans past the Texas 43-yard line before time expired. The loss would be only the second of Leinart's college career, and the first Rose Bowl loss for USC since the
1989 game.
