2015 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

2015 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Blu-ray Movie Review

A disappointing release of a classic game.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 7, 2015

Team Marketing has released several college football games to Blu-ray, each covering the best and most important match-ups of the 2014-2015 Bowl season. The games are presented without commercial interruption and are, essentially, the television broadcasts transferred onto Blu-ray. This one, the 2015 Cotton Bowl, pits the 10-2 Big Ten Eastern Division runners-up Michigan State Spartans against the 11-1 Big 12 co-champions (with in-state rival TCU) Baylor Bears. The game was played on January 1, 2015 at AT&T Stadium (a.k.a "Jerry's World"), home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Arlington, TX, not far north of Baylor's home city of Waco.

The winning coach.

Fifth-ranked Michigan State finished second in the Big Ten Eastern division behind eventual national champions Ohio State. Led by eighth-year Head Coach Mark Dantonio, the Spartans cruised to an 11-2 record, led by a potent, high-scoring offense that, even in the team's two losses to eventual National Championship game participants Oregon and Ohio State, scored a combined 64 points. The Spartans, however, would save their best game of the season for last, a bonafide thriller against Baylor, a game for the record books and an instant classic. They Baylor Bears, however, ended the season with even larger aspirations. Art Briles' team, which finished the season with a single loss to West Virginia and a victory over conference rival TCU, believed itself worthy of a spot in the final four. But a few cupcake games on the schedule led the playoff-makers to exclude Baylor from the proceedings, leaving them to "settle" for the New Year's day showdown with the Spartans.

The Cotton Bowl was a topsy-turvy affair that saw Baylor lead much of the way through and Michigan State claw back into it in the fourth quarter. Jeremy Langford ran in a score to put Michigan State up 7-0. Baylor would answer with 7, and later in the quarter, Michigan State's R.J. Shelton ran in an 11-yeard score to regain the lead for the Spartans at 14-7. The Bears would knot the score at 14 when wideout Corey Coleman completed a 53-yard pass to Jay Lee. Baylor would own the second quarter, shutting down the Spartan offense and scoring ten points, including a goal line score by Bryce Petty to take a 24-14 lead into the half. The Bears would likewise control the third, rattling off two more touchdowns off the arm of Bryce Petty and adding a field goal while only surrendering a short-yard touchdown run to Jeremy Langford. The Bears, in control now for two quarters, entered the fourth up by a score of 41-21 and destined, it would seem, to earn the Bowl victory. But Michigan State's defense clamped down, refusing to let Baylor's lead grow any larger, shutting out the Bears in the final 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Michigan State's offense rose to the occasion. Connor Cook threw two touchdown passes -- including the game-winner with only seconds left on the clock -- to cap off a furious 21-point quarter to win the game over a stunned Baylor squad. Final score: Michigan State 42, Baylor 41.

While the game is worthy of repeat viewings outside of the greater Central Texas area, the Blu-ray is not. Team Marketing's release is a disappointment to say the least, a simple, no-frills, plopped-on presentation that does nothing the DVR cannot do beyond basic chapter skip and an absence of commercials. There's literally no other content besides the game and a bit of extracurricular footage at the beginning and end. True die-hard Michigan State fans may be able to overlook the faults if this is something they'll watch time and again over the years, but even then they'll be left yearning for a superior presentation and at least something in the way of added value.

2015 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

2015 Cotton Bowl arrives on Blu-ray with a 720p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. It's a disappointment and practically identical to the other February 2015 Team Marketing college football Blu-ray releases. Background blocking lingers in a number of shots. Aliasing often crops up around the field and overlaid graphics. This graphics are also soft and dull. Colors are bright but not very well nuanced. The green field and green-accented Michigan State and Baylor jerseys often look decent (Baylor's gaudy gold helmets dominate), each appearing fairly defined but failing to show the sort of tight, accurate crispness and definition fans expect of a Blu-ray release. Details aren't all that attractive, either. Helmet and fabric textures, the field, and faces offer decent attention to detail but often appear somewhat soft and can't match other sporting events shot on video, particularly most any of the significantly richer and sharper WWE releases. Background crowds are well defined to a point -- the first few rows -- but definition and clarity drop quickly thereafter. Even stadium signage is soft at best and poorly defined at worst. This is essentially a fairly cruddy HD broadcast image dropped onto Blu-ray. Fans shouldn't expect any improvement over what they saw on January 1. At least it's consistent.

2015 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

2015 Cotton Bowl snaps onto Blu-ray with a disappointing DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack that, again, is practically identical to the other February 2015 Team Marketing college football Blu-ray releases. No single element impresses. In-booth play-by-play is sharp and booming with no sonic nuance. Sideline reports and post-game interviews likewise lack distinction and pinpoint verbal clarity. Crowd noise is muffled and never rises above the level of a poorly defined blob of sound that's barely identifiable for what it is. Random cuts to fans in the stands are even less dynamic and play with a harsh, garbled edge. Band music, whistles, and hits on the field rarely offer more than cursory sonic detail. There's at least a decent sense of front-end space, and dialogue does manage a center-focused feel. On the whole, however, this one barely passes muster.

2015 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

2015 Cotton Bowl doesn't contain any supplements, per se, but it does include the post-game trophy presentation, which is listed as a special feature on the back of the box (which is a DVD case, not a Blu-ray case). It's simply an extension of the program beyond the game, beginning at the 2:55:53 mark and lasting a little over six minutes. A few minutes' worth of pre-game footage also included before kickoff. It shows the teams coming out onto the field and participating in the coin toss. From the main menu, viewers may choose a "play all" option or jump to the start of any of the four quarters plus the aforementioned trophy presentation. A DVD copy of the game is also included in the case.

2015 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

No fluff, no filler, and strictly for fans. 2015 Cotton Bowl is nothing but the original ESPN broadcast dropped onto Blu-ray with team entrances featured at the beginning and the post game celebration added on to the end. There's no halftime show and no extras recounting the story of how both teams got to the game. Fans who want to relive the game time and again without worrying about it getting lost on the DVR are the target audience here. Picture and sound suffice and reflect the original broadcast, but in terms of raw quality both score rather poorly. Recommended to fans who will watch it enough to warrant the buy which, at the end of the day, holds true for most every release but rings particularly accurate here.