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With just the national championship hanging in the balance, CBS Sports has released its ranking of all 41 bowl games played this postseason. The SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl saw Florida fall to Oregon State, 30-3, with CBS Sports ranking it as the second-worst bowl game of the season.
The Gators were down over 20 players due to players opting out to prepare for the NFL draft or leaving the program via the transfer portal.
The first half saw the Gators put up a bit of a fight against the top-15 Beavers. Defensively, Florida held Oregon State to seven points in the first quarter, and a few big hits made waves on social media. The second quarter is when the wheels started to fall off, with the Gators recording just two yards of offense in the second quarter.
The second half was difficult to watch. After taking a 10-0 lead into the half, Oregon State put its foot on the gas. It scored two touchdowns in the third quarter and had its way with the Florida defense.
Offensively, Florida never jelled. Its three points came with less than a minute to play. If the Gators had been shut out, it would have been their first time since 1988. Their scoring streak extends to 436 consecutive games. The streak is the longest in NCAA history and 57 games longer than the closest team.
Here is what CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli had to say about the Las Vegas Bowl:
The saddest field goal of all time occurred in this game, but it didn’t do anything for its ranking. Florida came into the game with a streak of 436 consecutive games scoring points, not having been shut out since the 1998 season. It was the longest such streak in the nation — 57 games longer than any other program. It’s the kind of streak that only the team that holds it cares about, and darn it, Billy Napier was going to make sure the streak was extended.
That’s why he sent Adam Mihalek out with 37 seconds left to kick a 40-yard field goal to save his team from the embarrassment of losing 30-0. Losing 30-3 looks so much better! As for Oregon State, it was an emphatic statement to end a fantastic season that saw the Beavers win 10 games for the first time since 2006.
The fact that the majority of Fornelli’s analysis of the game was providing context to the only points the Orange and Blue scored was indicative of the game itself. The game also had the starkest difference between its pregame expectations and its actual production. Before the 2022 bowl season, the Las Vegas Bowl came in at No. 7 in CBS’s ranking of most anticipated 2022 bowl games.
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By: Sergio De La Espriella
Title: Florida's Las Vegas Bowl one of the worst bowl games of 2022, per CBS Sports
Sourced From: gatorswire.usatoday.com/2023/01/05/florida-football-las-vegas-bowl-cbs-sports-worst-games/
Published Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2023 22:56:31 +0000
