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(17) Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech. This Tech team was awful.
Pittsburgh vs. Stanford. Stanford hasn't really played well this year, but they should beat the Pitt Panthers.
Michigan State vs. Oregon. Ducks over the wounded Spartans. Missouri vs. Oklahoma State. Drew Locke goes out a winner in his final collegiate game.
Northwestern vs. (21) Utah. Until he loses a couple of games, never pick against Kyle Whittingham in a bowl game. This could turn out to be a real good game though.
NC State vs. (25) Texas A&M. I'll take the Aggies by a touchdown.
Iowa vs. Mississippi State. Iowa was overrated, I'll take the SEC team.
(23) Kentucky vs. (18) Penn State. Another SEC vs. Big 10 Bowl game, this time I'll take the Big 10 team. (16) LSU vs. (5) UCF. Even with the corner for LSU sitting out for the Tigers preparing for the draft, this will still be a quality secondary, that I don't think the backup is going to be able to move the ball. LSU won't be able to move the ball either with that horrific offense, but I see the LSU defense getting a couple turnovers in UCF territory, set up a short field for the great field goal kicker. (4) Ohio State vs. (8) Washington. Urban goes out a winner. (10) Georgia vs. (15) Texas. Unfortunately for the Horns, Georgia will take out the frustrations of missing the playoffs on the Horns.
Kyler Murray didn't give up 28 points in the first half. OU came within striking distance in the 4th quarter, narrowing the lead to 11, but Bama continued to score. Murray threw for 300+ yards with 2 TDs and ran for 100+. I don't really think you can lay the loss at his feet alone. Bama was simply a better team.
Murray did not score 28 points in the first half either. He waited too long to get with the program.
Lincoln Riley deserves blame for not riding Murray sooner than later. If the quarterback is not getting the job done, he needs to know the message instantly.
I'm actually more intrigued than ever since we're dealing with arguably the 2 best QBs in college football going head to head. When's the last time that happened? Young vs Leinart?
It should be an interesting game. IMO it's the best matchup we could have hoped for. Both teams are pretty similar with strong running games, elite QB play, strong defensive fronts that are great at stuffing the run, and less than spectacular secondaries. Both also have inconsistent special teams play.
As great as Bama's air attack is, Clemson's has the potential to be better. They have a taller QB (6'6 vs 6'0) who has a stronger arm than Tua. TBH, he's a much better arm talent even if talent is not what will determine the outcome of next Monday's game. Bama has speedsters in Jeudy, Ruggs and Waddle, but they are small guys. Waddle is listed at 5'10, which means he's really about 5'8.5. Higgins and Ross are 6'5 and 6'4, respectively, and they both have speed. I think it's going to come down to who can protect the QB the best, but on paper, I'd give an edge to the Clemson passing game even if it hasn't been as statistically prolific as Bama's. They are going to be a problem for college defenses over the next couple of years.
I'm not expecting either team to get much done on the ground.
Yeah.. I mean, we can moan and whine about Clemson vs Alabama again.. But.. Would you rather have seen Alabama vs Notre Dame? Clemson vs Oklahoma?
It's the best possible matchup.
The key to the game is how Tua reacts to pressure.. Because Clemson is going to pressure him. So far, we've seen him fall apart under pressure. Does this happen again? If so, do we see Hurts come in at the half? I think Hurts' skill set matches up against Clemson's defense better than Tua.
Will we see what I expected to see last year? Clemson wearing down the Alabama defense with the run game from Etienne, Choice and Feaster? It didn't happen because Clemson had no real downfield threat with Kelly Bryant. How will Lawrence face the pressure of the biggest game? He's done pretty dang good so far. You can bet that Venables paid attention to what Oklahoma did late.
Alabama by 6 right now is the spread.. Take Clemson.
Yeah.. I mean, we can moan and whine about Clemson vs Alabama again.. But.. Would you rather have seen Alabama vs Notre Dame? Clemson vs Oklahoma?
Why would anyone complain? If they didn't want AL vs Clemson then they should have beaten them during the 14 games each leading up to now.
I give the NCAA a lot of credit for finally instituting a playoff. That first year would have been AL vs FSU under the old system. Thanks to the playoff both lost in the first round, FSU quite badly, and we got OR vs Ohio State. It's been 5 years now and so far they have been mostly getting the blow outs out of the way in the first round, the title games have been close since that OR one. IMHO the only thing they could improve is possibly a 6 team, 3 round playoff where #1 & 2 get a bye week. Then UCF could be in. Arguably they should have been in this year instead of ND.
I'm happy to see AL vs Clemson for the fourth year in a row. Both survived a 12 game season plus a conference title game. In AL's case that conference title game was a serious fight for their spot in the playoffs while ND took a week off ...
Iowa Hawkeyes buck the odds and win the Outback bowl against Mississippi State, 27 - 22. First time a Big 10 team has beaten an SEC team in the Outback, since the 2014 season when Wisconsin beat Auburn.
Iowa has not had good luck in bowl games over this past decade, but they won today, and won the Pinstripe bowl last year. They got crushed in the Rose bowl a few years ago, but won the Orange bowl back in 2010 against Georgia Tech.
Looks like the media members and Georgia players have to eat a lot of crow this morning. Georgia loses to a 4 loss Texas team after some of their players tweeted about Notre Dame being included in the playoff and not them. If you're going to run your mouth on twitter, might be a good idea to not lose your bowl game.
After that demolition last night it looks like the committee members got the 4 best teams into the playoffs. Oklahoma's much maligned defense didn't get totally blown out or give up a ton of points to Alabama while Georgia was thoroughly outplayed by a now 10-4 Texas team. What's the excuse going to be for the SEC media now?? They should've been in the playoffs so they didn't care about this game?? They thought this game was a joke?? Their season ended on December 2 when they were announced as the 5th seed just missing the playoffs??
And also, just to set the facts straight if were going to rag on Notre Dame for not showing up, the same has to be said for Georgia. The Dawgs were down by 21 at one point in the 4th quarter, or only a touchdown less than Notre Dame was against a vastly superior team. Just because Georgia scored a couple of garbage time touchdowns and ND didn't to make that score look closer than it actually was BOTH of those games were demolition's.
Looks like the media members and Georgia players have to eat a lot of crow this morning. Georgia loses to a 4 loss Texas team after some of their players tweeted about Notre Dame being included in the playoff and not them. If you're going to run your mouth on twitter, might be a good idea to not lose your bowl game.
It's clear Maryland belonged in the Playoff conversation. They beat the team that beat the team that almost beat Alabama.
Maryland > Georgia
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