What though the odds be great or smallThe odds are daunting... Alabama is favored by nine and a half points, according to my admittedly cursory research on these inner-tubes... and ALL of the ex-spurts, save Lou Holtz, whose opinion MIGHT could be suspect, pick Alabama to win.
Old Notre Dame will win over all
No matter. It's GOOD to be the underdog. Kick off is about three and a half hours away... time enough to finish this beer, grab a nap, have a bowl o' those Navy beans, and then settle in for what should be a damned good game.
GO IRISH!
PS: Yet another winter-time outdoor Happy Hour. How long can this continue?
9 1/2 is is too broad a spread.
ReplyDelete'Bama will humiliate The Dame in the first 2 1/2 quarters...will likely be ahead by 21.
ND will get their asses in gear in the last 1 1/2 Qs, and only lose by 7.
IMH(expert)O.
You spelled ex-spurt wrong but were otherwise right on target.
DeleteHmm, I choose Alabama, as if I know anything.
ReplyDeleteYou chose right.
DeleteI gotta take the Irish... for one fairly obvious, if illogical, reason.
ReplyDeleteThe obvious: 'Bama was the better team.
DeleteOuch. Just ouch.
ReplyDeleteDid one team forget to show up?
Ouch? More like MURDER.
DeleteThat thing I said about 'Bama humiliating ND, and then ND making it close...
ReplyDeleteNever mind.
What amazed me about this whole thing is that everyone (almost) in the sports media was saying before the game, "Notre Dame comes in a HUGE underdog." If almost everybody thought they were a huge underdog...then how in the hell did they get to be voted #1 in so many polls?
I fell asleep at half-time, thinking that ND might stir. But, they were just badly over-matched.
What Craig said.
Delete". . . how in the hell did they get to be voted #1 in so many polls?"
ReplyDeleteBy going 12-0 against a decently rigorous schedule.
I didn't think it was gonna be close, and I'm on record in my comments on this blog, to that effect. Just based on what I saw of 'em this year, I pegged the Irish as roughly on the level of a good Big Ten team. They barely beat Purdue (who was NOT a good Big Ten team), handled Michigan State (but didn't quite blow their doors off), and barely beat Michigan (who got smoked by 'Bama). A Notre Dame - Ohio State game might have been interesting. . .
Anyway, Alabama did what they have typically done to good Big Ten teams. Just too many horses down there in Tuscaloosa. . .
They barely beat Pittsburgh, too, but I thought they were better than what they showed last night.
DeleteThe Pitt game was the one that sealed my doubts. I won't go in to a long yada yada over it, but when I watched that game (and don't get me wrong...even great teams have bad games) I saw too much missing.
DeleteEvery sportscaster I've heard on ND games kept talking about how their QB was just "not there yet...didn't do this, that, the other..." Yet, they continued to rack up the votes. Add to that the drooliness over Te'o. Okay...the guy is above average...even superb to his scheduled competitors. But, my beloved Tigers (and The Bamaroids, btw) face guys like him almost every week in their conference schedule. I'm not saying that he can't be great...he's just got to play against mo' better teams to get there...as does Golson.
As has been mentioned somewhere in this thread, ND will have a VERY good class of recruits, due to their regained prominence. That should help...a lot.
All that said, I'm gonna be the first to raise my hand, and say that I was wrong when I thought that Notre Dame was done for. I could not imagine a scenario that would ever allow them to get extremely high quality recruits...but, success breeds success. Give 'em a few years (if it's done right, and they don't squander it), and maybe they can compete with the very elite.
Okay...the guy is above average...even superb to his scheduled competitors.
DeleteSuperb where everyone was concerned, is my opinion.
As for the rest... ND WILL compete with the so-called elite and they shall win, too. It's good that you acknowledge that. ;-)
Superb where EVERYONE except The Bamaroids are concerned (the only Championship Conference Team he played)...dude missed about 40 tackles, and was handled.
DeleteBut...he'll get better if he gets better competition.
Just sayin'...
But...he'll get better if he gets better competition.
DeleteTe'o was a senior, so he's done... unless he moves on to the NFL, at which time he'll see "better competition." But I'll never know, seein' as how I don't watch football on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and other days when they wanna get more of the suckers' money.
That said, he DID have a sub-standard game last evening, which he acknowledged in the post-game reek. I'm reminded of Peter Graves' line in Airplane: he picked a bad day to quit sniffin' glue.
Yes, Buck...I knew Te'O is a Senior. He will move on to the NiFfLe, and will likely never be seen by yours truly, either.
DeleteDude is okay. Going up against better competition will make him mo' better. That's the way things work. I've got a looooooooong story about a visit with a son of mine who was bitching about a local private school football team that just cleans everybody's clock (btw...many of their graduates now play in the NFL). He was mad as hell because they "recruit," and "we can't compete with 'em because they're so damn good!"
But I told him, "Good competition makes everybody better."
Daddy taught me that...and Daddy never taught me wrong...
That was, unfortunately, ugly. I was rooting for ND, as you know. Just ugly.
ReplyDelete"Ugly" ain't the word, Jim. Embarrassing is more like it.
DeleteWith all due respect to Georgia, the Nat. Championship was really decided/played in Baton Rouge when LSU had their foot on Alabama;s throat and let 'em off the hook in the last 1:20..
ReplyDelete(NOT a homer. NOT. :) )
(NOT a homer. NOT. :) )
DeleteTell it to the Marines. ;-)
Bama Bammed.
ReplyDeleteBlowouts happen, it's sports. Plus college kids...who knows what's going on in their lives....school...girlfriends...whatever.
ReplyDeleteNot sure who feels worse today, ND or Texas A&M. The Aggies gott'a be kicking themselves for beating 'Bama but losing two games they should've won.
I'll still take ND's 12-1 after what they've produced over the last 20+ years. Plus they just had the best ranked recruiting class. They'll be back.
IRISH!!!
Yeah, those Aggies GOTTA be thinkin' "what if?" Apropos o' not much... I find it interesting that you and I... the both of us godless heathens (me, coz us Buddhists really have no Deity At Hand [all is one, one is all] and you, just because)... are ND fans. ;-)
DeleteOld man was Irish Catholic so grew up either watching/listening to ND games and or watching the game recap on Sunday mornings. Remember those…”Due to the lack of action we move to the middle of the third quarter”. Can’t remember the announcer’s name…he was great.
DeleteSorry, Buck. Saw that one coming.
ReplyDeleteYou're back in the spam trap again. I thought about leaving THIS one there. ;-)
DeleteNow, that's funny.
Delete