UA-59049186-1 College Football Playoff Matchups And Predictions - Good if it Goes

College Football Playoff Matchups And Predictions

Sunday, it was announced that 1-seed Clemson will play 4-seed Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and 2-seed Alabama will play 3-seed Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl. A few words on those matchups:

(1) Clemson vs. (4) Oklahoma – Orange Bowl

Oklahoma enters the playoff playing arguably the best football of the four teams. Both teams have high-powered offenses, with Oklahoma 3rd in the country in points per game and Clemson 15th. Both teams have good defenses as well; Clemson’s 6th in S&P+ and Oklahoma’s 12th. In the end, though, I think Oklahoma is just going to give Clemson too much to handle.

Prediction: Oklahoma 38, Clemson 27

(2) Alabama vs. (3) Michigan State – Saban Cotton Bowl

Michigan State’s secondary is not good. That teams have not exploited that to this point is extremely frustrating. I can understand Michigan not doing so. That game was played before Good Jake Rudock showed up. (Not that the Rudock that played that game was bad, just kind of meh.) I have no idea why Ohio State didn’t exploit the deficiencies in MSU’s secondary. Even Kirk Ferentz and Greg Davis figured it out. They figured it out a lot later than they should have, but they figured it out and OSU never did.

A good offensive gameplan should beat MSU. I’m sure Alabama has a great OC there to develop one.

lkaoc

Ah, hamburgers.

Okay, but like, Alabama just handled Florida and Florida’s defense is even better than MSU’s. And last year in the playoff, Kiffin’s problem was throwing too much when it wasn’t working and running the ball was. This year, he’s got plenty of good options. He can throw deep. He can hand off to his human cheat code running back. The only thing that may not be a very good idea is farting around with short passes.

He’s gonna fart around with short passes, isn’t he? Even though Ridley should be able to give this team fits?

Ah, hamburgers.

Okay, but like, MSU isn’t OSU. And MSU’s still gonna have to find a way to score on Alabama. Both S&P+ and FEI suggest this isn’t going to be easy to do. I think Alabama can stifle MSU’s offense enough that they can win even if this is the game where Alabama’s less-than-spectacular QB play comes back to bite them or if Kiffin shoots him team in the foot.

Prediction: Alabama 31, Michigan State 13

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com

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