Game Day Skull Session: Get Dumped Then, Northwestern

By Kevin Harrish on December 19, 2020 at 4:59 am
It's a bad day to be a Northwestern Wildcat.
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I'm gonna keep this short and sweet.

QB1 is good to go. And that's all the confidence I need.

Word of the Day: Aplomb.

 SATURDAY SLATE. 

Matchup Time (ET) TV/Mobile
#14 Northwestern vs. #4 Ohio State (in Indianapolis, IN) 12:00pm FOX
#10 Oklahoma vs. #6 Iowa State (in Arlington, TX) 12:00pm ABC
#5 Texas A&M at Tennessee 12:00pm ESPN
Washington State at Utah 1:30pm FS1
Air Force at Army 3:00pm CBSSN
Missouri at Mississippi State 3:30pm SECN Alt.
Ole Miss at LSU 3:30pm SECN
Minnesota at Wisconsin 4:00pm BTN
#3 Clemson vs. #2 Notre Dame (in Charlotte, NC) 4:00pm ABC
Boise State vs. #24 San Jose State (in Las Vegas, NV) 4:30pm FOX
Illinois at Penn State 5:30pm FS1
Stanford at UCLA 7:00pm ESPN
#23 Tulsa at #9 Cincinnati 8:00pm ABC
#1 Alabama vs. #7 Florida (in Atlanta, GA) 8:00pm CBS
Arizona State at Oregon State 10:30pm ESPN

 TIP THE CAP. Credit where credit is due: Northwestern kicked the shit out of the pandemic this year. As of last night, they officially went the entire season without one single positive COVID-19 test.

The amount of discipline this takes from everyone involved is legitimately very impressive, especially considering all the precautions Ohio State took only to *still* have to cancel a game due to an outbreak.

 LET'S DO SOME PICKS! These are all going to win. Parlay them and pay for Christmas. You're welcome.

  • Ohio State -19.5 against Northwestern. This is strength on strength with Ohio State's offense against Northwestern's defense, but at the end of the day, Ohio State has played a comparable defense against Indiana (and put up 35 points) while Northwestern hasn't seen anything like this Buckeye offense – regardless of who's out.
  • Notre Dame +10.5 against Clemson. Notre Dame outplayed Clemson last game and that game frankly shouldn't have even gone to overtime. The only difference is Clemson has Trevor Lawrence back this time, but quarterback play was not at all the problem last time, so I'll gladly take Notre Dame and double-digit points in a rematch of a game they were more impressive in last time.
  • Alabama vs. Florida Over 74. Both of these teams have gas offenses and have been a little shaky defensively. Statistically, Bama's defense is good, but the one time they played a competent offense (against Ole Miss, mind you) they gave up 48 points and 650 total yards. Meanwhile, Florida's defense hasn't even pretended to be good. There will be many, many points.
  • Iowa State vs. Oklahoma Under 58.5. Last time, these two teams put up a combined 67 points, but a lot of that was because Oklahoma's defense couldn't stop giving up big plays. The Sooners' defense has gotten a little less terrible lately and the truth is, Iowa State's offense is run-heavy and isn't nearly as explosive as it looked in that matchup. I think the under cruises here.
  • Air Force vs. Army Under 38.5. Just bet the under, man. This total could not possibly be low enough. I'd take it at like, 15.

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