I still think the FSU team, that beat Louisville, would have played Michigan toe to toe.
Absolutely. They certainly would not have lost by 3 touchdowns.
So, how to compare? Washington, to be fair, had an off night for several reasons. Their star running back was limping through the whole game. Their QB missed two open touchdown passes earlier in the game. By later in the game he was too banged up to be of any use. Off night for the whole offense.
FSU’s second string QB would not have played any worse and a different type of offense might have done better against Michigan. FSU’s defense would have made Michigan work a lot harder to score and could have kept the game close.
I’m noticing that it’s not uncommon for a team to have a bad game during the playoffs and, potentially, an almost perfect game. Michigan’s bad game was against Alabama where they tried multiple different ways to give the game away but still had the horses to win. Their game against Washington had view mistakes and was executed close to perfection.
This tells me two things. A team with a strong defense is more likely to survive a playoff, especially a 12 team playoff where everyone is subject to one off night or bad game. This year’s FSU team was built for such a playoff.
