re: Notre Dame Game Predictions

24-21 Dawgs.

I think it's going to be a low scoring, flexing muscle sort of game.

24-17 and it goes either way. If Fromm can protect the ball and get it in the hands of the RB's out of the backfield as well as our tight ends, we'll move it enough to score and maintain field position.

I feel very confident about our defense and the depth we have in the front 7. If we can create pressure and give the guys in the back a chance, we can reign them in. If not, we'll be susceptible to some big plays.

My brain is telling me that ND should win this game, but my gut tells me that Fromm will play well enough to get us the W. Defense will have to be HUGE.

31-27 Dawgs on top.

quote:

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wdhalgren

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What the hell kind of Dawg fan are you?

I'm not saying you have to be a Disney Dawg to be a real fan, and I know I could stand to be more realistic sometimes... But damn I think he WANTS UGA to fail based off of his posting.

Watching the Temple highlights, we look bigger, thicker across the board. App State would beat Temple as bad or worse than Notre Dame.

Our secondary will make it very tough on Notre Dame's QB and D line will make it hard on their running backs.

Fromms passing style will cover over our issues on the oline and keep their D spread out so that chubb and Michel can eat.

Final 41 UGA 17 Notre Dame, Kirby gets his first signature win.

I'm the kind of fan who looks at the pros and cons and tries to base my expectations on something other than hope. It's a road game, in a big hostile stadium, against a team with a lot of talent and an experienced coach who, admittedly, can best be described as mediocre. We also have a lot of talent and a inexperienced coach who can best be described as mediocre based on results to date.

We have a true freshman quarterback starting his first game on a huge national stage with an offensive line that is obviously a work in progress. Crowd noise will be a factor and their DL will react to the snap just as quickly as our OL because of that. That means Fromm will likely be working under extreme pressure, particularly because ND will crowd the LOS, try to stuff the run. blitz on passing downs and force Fromm to think quickly.

We're probably missing one or maybe two of our starting defensive backs and playing some freshmen in the secondary. ND has a good OL, and they'll be the beneficiaries of home field and being able to hear the snap count and fire off quickly. Meanwhile, our DL has not been particularly proficient at rushing the passer, and I'm not sure how aggressive we'll be with a qb who can run like Wimbush.

Maybe Fromm will exceed my expectations and run our offense well, but that's not the norm in these circumstances. Maybe Wimbush will underperform, since he's also inexperienced, but he's a redshirt and he can run very well which gives him something to fall back on if he's having trouble seeing the field well. And he's at home, which is an advantage for a young qb IMO.

So, it's a simplistic analysis based on some facts and some intangibles, not giving much weight to last year's results. You don't have agree and I don't have a high degree of confidence because I'm not an experienced football analyst and neither team has played meaningful competition yet. If you want to call it negative bias, that's fine but I tried to look at it from a neutral perspective. Since ND is favored by people betting on the game, my opinion of a two touchdown margin is not exactly a big statistical outlier.


ETA: Reading CalDawg's post below reminded me of something that always concerns me in OOC games, officiating. I've seen too many games where the visitor doesn't get the benefit of tough calls and that could be a factor.

ALL - Their starting QB this year was 3rd string on a shitty 4-8 team from last year

If he were that good, he would have started.

I watched the full replay and he benefited from Temple just sucking at all positions. Temple and no one return of note and just looked worse than App st.

App st. is a low level team but fast and returned their key offensive play makers, who were all seniors if I am not mistaken. Also, they only had 2 possessions make it to our 25 yard line until we pulled the first team.

As far as the crowd noise, they are expecting over 25k+ UGA fans in the stadium in a 72k capacity, so this isn't like playing at night in death valley. Just chill on that.

We win a close one if Fromm can manage to throw <= 1 INT.

ND will try to pressure Fromm on every play. We need to make sure our best blocker is in the backfield all game. Maybe even put Chubb and Sony both back there together a few times and maybe hit a quick TE slant or a stop and go.

If we're going to compete with 'bama, we'll go up there and kick their @ss, freshman QB or not.

bama had a freshman last year and had a great team.