weekend preview #14: even more meaningless games

Can you believe it's already been three years since tebowcrying.jpeg?



#2 Alabama vs. #3 Georgia (SEC CHAMP)

This game is being played out to see who will have the privilege of pounding Notre Dame into the ground on Jan 7. As the season went on Georgia's one loss (a bad one at that) to South Carolina began to look more and more like an aberration rather than anything to take meaning from. Aaron Murray certainly looks very good coming into the game.

When you look at his QB numbers for the season the two games that stick out are obviously the loss to South Carolina and his dismal QB rating in that one and also that barf-fest against Florida which I described as something like two QBs trying to out shit each other. Since that game though Murray has been fantastic, not throwing for a single pick.

My main concern with Georgia is first that Murray isn't exactly a mobile quarterback which as, Johhny Manziel showed is the key to beating Alabama. Second, the last time Georgia went up against a good defense it was a huge turd of game that saw Murray throwing for 3 interceptions. If there's one thing Alabama does, it's capitalize off of mistakes without making their own.

Looking at AJ McCarron's numbers we see that he's been, uh, pretty good this year. Obviously what sticks out is his 2 interceptions for the entire year, coincidentally in the one game they lost. However, even in that game he was completing over 60% of his passes.

When I first started writing about this game I was sure that Georgia could give Alabama a pretty good game, maybe even cover. Alabama is favored by a touchdown which still sounds about right. But after looks through all this stuff I'm not convinced anymore about Georgia. Looking back through Alabama's games defense has honestly not meant much for McCarron. I'm not trying to downplay Johnny "Football's" performance in that game but I think Alabama more lost that game through turnovers than A&M outright won it. A&M isn't anywhere near the top in beficaries of turnovers so it's anyone's guess why McCarron played poorly in that game. Georgia ranks at #59 in take-aways so that doesn't bode well for them either.

Alabama will definitely win this game and mostly likely go on to beat ND for back to back titles. I still wouldn't be surprised to see it be a tough "man's game bullshit expression" (a defensive struggle). That being said I'm going Alabama 24-14.

#13 Florida State vs. Georgia Tech (ACC CHAMP, lol)

Disclaimer: I've never liked Georgia Tech, at all. Something about them rubs me the wrong way. I've also never liked their triple option offense. If it was such a good offense how come no one uses it, huh? Oh, Air Force? Yeah, how good are they?

Anyway my hatred for GT aside, Florida State is favored by 14 in this one and I can't really think of any reason not to take the points. OK, Georgia Tech is #3 in rushing offense but what do these numbers mean, really? I mean I can sit here in say I'm #3 in eating oranges, right? See, it doesn't mean anything.

But seriously, this game is going to be a bunch of running and a bunch of running being stopped. Like I said GT is #3 in rushing offense but Florida St. is #4 in rushing defense. There you go, that's your tag-line or whatever for why on Earth you should watch this game. If you look at in reverse FSU isn't that great at running the but GT isn't that great at stopping it either. So that's pretty much a lock.

Unfortunately, if you're an FSU fan this game is going to come down to one EJ Manuel, who, has only twice gone two or more games in a row this whole year without throwing a pick. Yeah sucks. Luckily, though GT isn't that great at stopping the pass, ranking #78.

The biggest thing scaring me off from saying Georgia Tech can cover is looking at their schedule:

Man, that's shameful. Losing to Middle Tenessee? I don't even know what conference or state that's in. In fact GT's only win over a team with a winning record is North Carolina! And two of those teams it beat have since fired their head coach! 

Um yeah, take Florida State and the points.

#16 UCLA vs. #8 Stanford (PAC-12 CHAMP)

This game was so good last week they decided to play it again. UCLA hopefully learned something about that Stanford rushing offense. But it's unlikely. I don't think UCLA has big enough dudes to really do anything about it. Maybe UCLA's secret weapon will help them along, but unless it's some kind of PED or steroids or something to make their trench guys bigger or whatever I don't think it'll work.

Stanford is simply a bigger, better team than UCLA. 

Stanford is favored by 8 in this one and I'm keen on thinking they might cover. There's a saying that a good defense always travels well, which Stanford has, and I figure a good rushing attack travels pretty well too. If you can run the ball well against a team that can't stop it you'll win 9 times out of 10. 

So, Stanford will likely play in the Rose Bowl against whoever wins:

#12 Nebraska vs. Wisconsin (B1G CHAMP, lol)

Nebraska seems to be having one of the quietest two loss seasons in college football. While I think it's fair to say Wisconsin's has been a disaster. Well maybe not a disaster, how about a tire fire? Amidst terrible quarterback play that was partly responsible for this guy getting fired after only two games, lol and nearly losing to some pretty bad teams, yeah it has been a rough year for the Badgers. One thing they both have in common, though? Losing to to some team. 

The last time the two teams played Nebraska won an ugly (is there any other kind in the Big 10 this year) game 30-27. 

Nebraska is favored by a field goal which seems pretty close honestly for a team with a known commodity like Taylor Martinez against a... I'm not even sure what string the Wisconsin quarterback is. But then again the spread in this game is exactly what the score was in the last game. 

Nebraska comes into the game on a 6 game win streak, while Wisconsin is in the midst of a 2 game losing streak. 

Martinez has looked better and better as the season progresses. Remember at one point in the last game between these two Wisconsin actually had a comfortable lead in the beginning but it fell apart in the end. I don't think Nebraska will let that happen again and I would expect Nebraska to easily cover and then some.