What The Crystal Ball Tells Us About Texas A&M And Georgia In The Independence Bowl
Thanks again to What If Sports we can take a peek into the college football bowl season and see what's in store for the Big 12's participants. Texas A&M gets things rolling for the conference with this afternoon's match-up against the Georgia Bulldogs. Here are a few Independence Bowl predictions.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas A&M Aggies | 14 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 35 |
| Georgia Bulldogs | 7 |
7 |
17 | 14 |
45 |
1) This game won't feature a lot of defense. The Aggies were last in the Big 12 in scoring defense and when you're playing with teams like Baylor and Colorado (both sitting home for the bowl season) that says a lot. Texas A&M surrendered an average of 32.7 points per game. Meanwhile Georgia didn't necessarily impress on defense either. The Bulldogs allowed 26.4 points per game and ranked 10th in the SEC. This will all equate to a lot of offense for both teams which should make for an entertaining game.
2) It will be a tale of two halves. Our simulation shows the Aggies starting strong and finishing slow. Before the protest start filling in from College Station let me remind you of a few games from the season. On October 3rd the Aggies had a 10-7 lead over Arkansas and ended the game with a 47-19 loss. A week later Texas A&M had a 15-14 halftime lead over Oklahoma State and lost 36-31. Then there was the 21-10 halftime lead over Colorado on November 7th that turned into a 35-34 loss. The second half collapse predicted by our simulation isn't that much of a stretch at all.
3) Both team's running games will work. Texas A&M had the Big 12's second best rushing attack at 190 yards per game but the Aggies also ranked 10th in the conference in rushing defense, allowing opponents to run for 169 yards per game. Georgia ranked third in the S.E.C. in rushing defense but an average of 128 yards per game makes that stat a little misleading. In comparison, Oklahoma had the Big 12's third ranked rushing defense at 89 yards per game. The Bulldogs average nearly 160 yards of rushing offense per game which pretty close to what the Aggies are giving up. There may be times this afternoon where it looks like these two teams are playing touch football.
4) The player of the game will be Georgia's Richard Samuel. It's only fitting that a running back gets this recognition. Samuel is an unexpected choice but our simulation has him running for 117 yards on 9 carries with 3 scores. He's currently the third leading rusher for the Bulldogs and is averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
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Comments
what?
there’s another bowl game on today? I don’t think I have watched more than 10 minutes of anything so far.
me either
There are too many bowl games now. It is not what it use to be. Your team getting into a bowl game wa special now you just have to be a 6 win team and now it’s like 60% out of the 117 teams gets a bowl game now.
Josey Wales born on LSB July 18, 2006 Jumped the shark--That glorious day in 2008. RIP Josey Wales.
In the interest of quicker games Ron should just tell the ump he's pulling the Feliz card and the ump should rule the inning over.--Sherman McCoy on Sept. 4, 2009
So Far
This game has been a defensive struggle which is shocking.
by ccmachine on Dec 28, 2009 6:26 PM CST via mobile reply actions
A&M Special Teams
More like special olympics teams
by ccmachine on Dec 28, 2009 6:34 PM CST via mobile reply actions

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