CFB playoffs

[futurecoach]

I’m a Notre Dame fan,  but I don’t think anyone with a straight face can predict Notre Dame will win. Just have to hope for one of those big upsets that we do see from time to time in sports 

Alabama is going to score, Notre Dame has to hope they find away to create a coupe of turnovers. Alabama defense is not as good as in years past. Florida was able to pass all over them. Then a month and a half ago a bad Mississippi team ran for over 260 yards on them and scored 48 points. 
 

So Notre Dame should be able to move the ball on them. Which Notre Dames offense is set up to be able to move the ball and control the clock. They will need to be able to do that this game, however they will need to make sure they are getting touchdowns and not field goals at the end of those long drives. They had their chance early to do that to Clemson too, but settled for a field goal on the first drive and then missed a chip shot on the other. 
 

So I do think Notre Dame can make this a much better game than people may think. However, they will still need a lot to go completely right for them to be able to pull off the win. 

[John Anthony]

6 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

OSU offense against the two best teams they have played this year, hasn’t looked as sharp. More importantly I should say is, Fields hasn’t looked as sharp. 
 

Clemson is going to score on OSU. However, OSU needs Fields to look much more sharp in this game. Than he has against the other two good teams they played this year. 
 

Early Prediction:

Clemson 33

Ohio State 20

This sounds right.  The biggest problem is we have is lack of reps.  We have starters playing 1-2 games a month.  Day was bad against NW, first time we’ve seen him get out coached.  He will need a perfect game from him and the team to beat Clemson.

[John Anthony]

4 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

I’m a Notre Dame fan,  but I don’t think anyone with a straight face can predict Notre Dame will win. Just have to hope for one of those big upsets that we do see from time to time in sports 

Alabama is going to score, Notre Dame has to hope they find away to create a coupe of turnovers. Alabama defense is not as good as in years past. Florida was able to pass all over them. Then a month and a half ago a bad Mississippi team ran for over 260 yards on them and scored 48 points. 
 

So Notre Dame should be able to move the ball on them. Which Notre Dames offense is set up to be able to move the ball and control the clock. They will need to be able to do that this game, however they will need to make sure they are getting touchdowns and not field goals at the end of those long drives. They had their chance early to do that to Clemson too, but settled for a field goal on the first drive and then missed a chip shot on the other. 
 

So I do think Notre Dame can make this a much better game than people may think. However, they will still need a lot to go completely right for them to be able to pull off the win. 

Bama at -17.5 is too low in my opinion, I think that line is bet up.

[Parrott]

Pulling for the Irish, but it's an uphill climb, for sure.  Bama's offense is a nightmare.  I'm not even sure if Mac Jones is that great, but his o-line and RB/WRs are so good.  They must find a way to get consistent pressure on him, or they just won't be able to keep up.  

Bama has some great talent on defense, but their coverage leaves a lot to be desired.  Very odd to watch them be so poor on that side of the ball.  

Clemson/OSU should be good.  Fields looked pretty bad yesterday, but you've got to think he will come out and play a lot better.  Clemson is Clemson...really hard to beat. 

[GrantNKY]

FC made a good point. The OSU offense hasn’t looked sharp in the 2 biggest games especially Fields. But it’s also why it annoys the hell out of me to hear people talk about lack of games played from Ohio State. They haven’t been able to do anything to get a rythym going. With this team it feels like a disadvantage to me to play so few games. I like the way the defense has adjusted since the Indiana game. It’s not like NW and MSU are good offensively but I feel like they have played pretty fundamentally sound and let their players up front be disruptive and just keep everything in front of you in the secondary. Still Clemson is going to put up 35 on this defense. On the flip side, Clemson defense is capable of giving up a lot of points. Just need to get the Fields connection back to Olave and Wilson and hammer the ball with Trey Sermon. I feel ok about Ohio States chances, but not quite as good as I did last year. 

[John Anthony]

7 hours ago, GrantNKY said:

FC made a good point. The OSU offense hasn’t looked sharp in the 2 biggest games especially Fields. But it’s also why it annoys the hell out of me to hear people talk about lack of games played from Ohio State. They haven’t been able to do anything to get a rythym going. With this team it feels like a disadvantage to me to play so few games. I like the way the defense has adjusted since the Indiana game. It’s not like NW and MSU are good offensively but I feel like they have played pretty fundamentally sound and let their players up front be disruptive and just keep everything in front of you in the secondary. Still Clemson is going to put up 35 on this defense. On the flip side, Clemson defense is capable of giving up a lot of points. Just need to get the Fields connection back to Olave and Wilson and hammer the ball with Trey Sermon. I feel ok about Ohio States chances, but not quite as good as I did last year. 

It's scary how badly we needed Olave this past weekend.  It also really hurt not having Hartline on the sidelines.  

[GrantNKY]

1 hour ago, John Anthony said:

It's scary how badly we needed Olave this past weekend.  It also really hurt not having Hartline on the sidelines.  

I feel we missed JSN a ton as well. They tried to get Fleming going early to at least take some relief off of Garrett Wilson, but Fleming and Fields looked way out of sync. Jameson Williams is supremely talented and I hate to put this label on the kid, but he reminds me of John Ross on the Bengals. On Fields second pick Williams just made the complete wrong decision. That’s an easy completion if he runs the right route. Just doesn’t seem like Williams quite has the understanding of the offense. Obviously if we had Olave I feel like that’s a completely different game. But JSN would have been able to take way more heat off of Wilson if he was able play. Missing 2 of the top 3 receivers is tough. Then having to get young guys involved without the best receivers coach in the sport on the sideline able to coach them up, just leads to the passing game struggles we saw on Saturday. On that same token, that gives me some confidence for the Clemson game because that won’t be the case against them. My frustration heading in to the matchup against Clemson is this team hasn’t had the opportunity to have everyone together in a long time. I’m very curious to see the game plan Day puts together, but the in game adjustments are what I’m really looking forward to. Ohio State didn’t need to throw a single pass against Northwestern it took Day way too long to realize that. Even though it’s against Day’s nature, I think we see a major increase in the run game with Fields against Clemson. Because of the knee injury to Fields last year and OSU not needing Fields legs to get through the schedule this year, we haven’t really seen that wrinkle. I’d say more than a few phone calls to Chip Kelly and Urban Meyer are in Ryan Days schedule the next 12 days. 

[FootballBobcat]

Would have put A&M in at #4. Thought ND did not look like a top 4 team vs Clemson. 
OSU defense needs to improve if they want to stay with Clemson. After this past weekend Alabama and Clemson looked like the class of college ball. 
Believe UC can make a statement vs UGA in the Peach Bowl to show they belong with the big boys. This is their chance to show out! 
Final thought—no more teams in the COLLEGE playoffs! Four is enough!