Bowl Games and NFL Games

 

It's that time again.  It is about to be bowl season.  There are many bowl games and I will make my predictions for all of them.  Especially for the Outback Bowl since my Razorbacks will play in it.  Even though Arkansas is 8-4 and Penn State is 7-5, they still seem to be a tough opponent to beat.  Right now the ESPN FPI has Penn State favored at 58.9%.  Penn State is 0-4 against teams that in the current Top 25 and Arkansas is 1-3 for this season.  Both are 0-3 against teams that are currently in the Top 10.  They look evenly matched so we will see how it goes.  But I feel confident that the Razorbacks can end the season 9-4 and be 4-0 in trophy games this year.  There are a ton of bowl games so we will just get to those in a second for predictions.

If you have followed me for a while, I made a preseason prediction for all of Arkansas' games.  I predicted that we would go 7-5 and we went 8-4.  It makes me happy that we actually performed better than I expected.  For the 2020 season, I predicted us going 3-7 and we did and I predicted the exact games that we would win and lose.  The link for the 2021 season prediction is here.

Last week I went 0-1 (0%) for my College Football predictions (Total: 193-62 (75.69%)) and 9-5 (64.3%) for NFL predictions (Total: 120-78 (60.6%)).  Now let's do this week's predictions!

Bowl Season:

MTSU vs. Toledo: Toledo

N Illinois vs. Coast Carolina: Coast Carolina

Western Kentucky vs. Appalachian St: Appalachian St

UTEP vs. Fresno State: Fresno State

UAB vs. BYU: BYU

E Michigan vs. Liberty: Liberty

Utah State vs. Oregon St: Utah State

Louisiana vs. Marshall: Louisiana

Old Dominion vs. Tulsa: Tulsa

Kent State vs. Wyoming: Wyoming

UTSA vs. San Diego State: San Diego State

Missouri vs. Army: Missouri

North Texas vs. Miami (OH): North Texas

UCF vs. Florida: Florida

Memphis vs. Hawai'i: Memphis

Georgia State vs. Ball State: Georgia State

W Michigan vs. Nevada: W Michigan

Boston College vs. East Carolina: Boston College

Houston vs. Auburn: Auburn

Air Force vs. Louisville: Louisville

Mississippi State vs. Texas Tech: Mississippi State

UCLA vs. NC State: NC State

West Virginia vs. Minnesota: Minnesota

SMU vs. Virginia: Virginia

Maryland vs. Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech

Clemson vs. Iowa State: Clemson

Oregon vs. Oklahoma: Oklahoma

North Carolina vs. South Carolina: North Carolina

Tennessee vs. Purdue: Tennessee

Pittsburgh vs. Michigan State: Michigan State

Wisconsin vs. Arizona State: Wisconsin

Wake Forest vs. Texas A&M: Texas A&M

Washington St vs. Miami: Miami

C Michigan vs. Boise State: Boise State

Cincinnati vs. Alabama: Alabama

Georgia vs. Michigan: Georgia

Penn State vs. Arkansas: Arkansas

Oklahoma St vs. Notre Dame: Oklahoma St

Iowa vs. Kentucky: Kentucky

Utah vs. Ohio State: Ohio State

Baylor vs. Ole Miss: Ole Miss

LSU vs. Kansas State: LSU

Predicted National Championship:

Alabama vs. Georgia: Alabama

NFL Week 15:

Chiefs vs. Chargers: Chiefs

Raiders vs. Browns: Browns

Patriots vs. Colts: Patriots

Panthers vs. Bills: Bills

Cardinals vs. Lions: Cardinals

Jets vs. Dolphins: Dolphins

Cowboys vs. Giants: Cowboys

Washington vs. Eagles: Eagles

Titans vs. Steelers: Titans

Texans vs. Jaguars: Jaguars

Bengals vs. Broncos: Broncos

Falcons vs. 49ers: 49ers

Seahawks vs. Rams: Rams

Packers vs. Ravens: Packers

Saints vs. Buccaneers: Buccaneers

Vikings vs. Bears: Vikings

Army and Navy and Heisman

 

It is that week again.  We have the Heisman Trophy Ceremony and the Army vs. Navy game.  Next week is when Bowl Season starts.  This week is just a little break from a lot of College Football before that part of the season starts.  When it comes to the Heisman, Bryce Young will definitely win it this year.  His stats are crazy but what convinced me was his last 2 games.  When he played Auburn, he didn't really have a good game compared to how he usually plays. He was 25-51 with 317 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 INT.  But his Heisman moment was on Alabama's last drive during regulation before overtime.  Alabama gets the ball with 1:32 left in the 4th Quarter starting at the Alabama 3 yard line.  3 yard line!  Bryce Young was able to lead the offense to score a touchdown with 24 seconds left in the game to tie it.  If it wasn't for his brilliant time management and clutch throws then Alabama might've lost the game and not be in the playoff potentially.  That was the drive that convinced me that he deserves the Heisman.  He already has the monster stats from the whole season.  Now he has a great moment when his team really needed him during adversity to be clutch and give them the chance to win.  He also threw 421 yards and 3 TDs against Georgia.  Freaking Georgia!  That's my case for Bryce Young for Heisman.  

With Army vs. Navy, Army all the way this year.

Last week I went 6-5 (54.5%) for my College Football predictions (Total: 193-61 (75.98%)) and 9-5 (64.3%) for NFL predictions (Total: 111-73 (60.3%)).  Now let's do this week's predictions!

NFL Week 14

Steelers vs. Vikings: Steelers

Raiders vs. Chiefs: Chiefs

Ravens vs. Browns: Ravens

Jaguars vs. Titans: Titans

Saints vs. Jets: Saints

Cowboys vs. Washington: Cowboys

Falcons vs. Panthers: Panthers

Seahawks vs. Texans: Seahawks

Lions vs. Broncos: Broncos

Giants vs. Chargers: Chargers

49ers vs. Bengals: Bengals

Bills vs. Buccaneers: Buccaneers

Bears vs. Packers: Packers

Rams vs. Cardinals: Cardinals

Conference Championship Week: 2021

 

It's that week again.  It's Conference Championship weekend.  It's the weekend that will finally determine the Top 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings and show who plays who for Bowl Season.  This is definitely one of my favorite parts of the year and not just because of Christmas.  This time of year really shows us what the rest of the College Football teams and NFL teams are made of.  College Football teams try their best to get in their best bowl game and then really go out to end the season well.  NFL teams are really cracking down to play better to end the season well and get a shot at entering the playoffs.  All of this with the Christmas season just makes it a great time.

The regular season for the Razorbacks ended with an 8-4 record with 4-4 in the conference.  8 wins is the same amount of wins from the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons combined.  These seasons were Bret Bielema's last season and the Chad Morris years.  We have grown so much since those terrible years.  This is actually the first season that I feel that resembles more with the success that we had with Bobby Petrino.  We are not there yet but with how Sam Pittman is handling things, we can definitely get there.  With Bret Bielema, we did have great moments but too many times we would get blown out or lose to a team that we should've beaten.  This year we only got blown out by Georgia (obviously they are #1 now) and had close games with Ole Miss and Alabama.  Auburn was a more or less a close and blown out game but sometimes those games can happen from nowhere.  But we've had other close games where we came out of the top where we would normally choke under Bret Bielema or Chad Morris.  With Chad Morris it was just terrible.  I'll show you a chart of the average amount of points we score each game (offensive) compared to points we give up (defensive) from 2009-2021.

From 2009-2011 are Bobby Petrino years and he was good at keeping the offensive points more than defensive points.  The only years after that where that happens is from 2014-2015 and 2021.  If you know Sam Pittman, he was here as one of the coaches from 2013-2015 and then head coach from 2020-2021.  Notice that the years after Bobby Petrino that we've been able to score more Offensive Points than Defensive Points given is when Sam Pittman is here.  Our winning percentage is different because of this.  When Offensive Points > Defensive Points, our winning percentage is 67.53%.  When Offensive Points < Defensive Points, our winning percentage is 30.12%.  It's a simple concept of football that determines how well the team is.  Score more than the other team.  Bobby Petrino did that more often and that's why his winning percentage was at 74.36% from his best years from 2009-2011.  All I have to say is so far we seem to be on the right track to get like that again but of course we will need to do more.  Seeing how consistent Bobby Petrino was in doing this is why we Razorback fans really miss those good days of Arkansas Football.

Last week I went 18-5 (78.3%) for my College Football predictions (Total: 187-56 (77%)) and 11-4 (73.3%) for NFL predictions (Total: 102-68 (60%)).  Now let's do this week's predictions!

College Football Week 14:

Oregon vs. Utah: Utah

Baylor vs. Oklahoma St.: Oklahoma St.

Utah State vs. San Diego State: San Diego State

Appalachian St vs. Louisiana: Appalachian St

Georgia vs. Alabama: Georgia

Houston vs. Cincinnati: Cincinnati

Michigan vs. Iowa: Michigan

Pittsburgh vs. Wake Forest: Pittsburgh

Western KY vs. UTSA: UTSA

Kent State vs. N Illinois: Kent State

USC vs. California: California

NFL Week 13:

Cowboys vs. Saints: Cowboys

Broncos vs. Chiefs: Chiefs

Buccaneers vs. Falcons: Buccaneers

Cardinals vs. Bears: Cardinals

Chargers vs. Bengals: Bengals

Vikings vs. Lions: Vikings

Giants vs. Dolphins: Giants

Eagles vs. Jets: Eagles

Colts vs. Texans: Colts

Washington vs. Raiders: Raiders

Jaguars vs. Rams: Rams

Ravens vs. Steelers: Ravens

49ers vs. Seahawks: 49ers

Patriots vs. Bills: Patriots

Mizzou vs. Arkansas: Battle Line Rivalry

 

Last week was a great moral victory for us!  We only lost to Alabama by 7.  Usually we would be losing by 40 by halftime.  What's funny is that we are still ranked and Alabama went down from #2 to #3 after that game.  It looks like the College Football Playoff noticed how well we played and how vulnerable Alabama looks.  Hopefully tomorrow, we will have another win for us to bring us to 8-4.  Do you know when the last time we went 8-4 in the regular season?  It was 2007 when we had legends like Darren McFadden, Peyton Hillis, and Felix Jones.  To get that 8th win, we beat #1 LSU in triple overtime.  It was a great game.  I want more great victories like that one.  But this week, I hope we have a sound victory over Missouri.  It's at home and so I'm going to attend the game myself.

Last week I went 18-1 (94.7%) for my College Football predictions (Total: 169-51 (76.8%)) and 9-5 (64.3%) for NFL predictions (Total: 91-64 (58.7%)).  Now let's do this week's predictions!

College Football Week 13:

Ole Miss vs. Mississippi St: Ole Miss

Missouri vs. Arkansas: Arkansas

Boise State vs. San Diego State: Boise State

Iowa vs. Nebraska: Iowa

Cincinnati vs. East Carolina: Cincinnati

Colorado vs. Utah: Utah

North Carolina vs. NC State: NC State

Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: Georgia

Ohio State vs. Michigan: Ohio State

Texas Tech vs. Baylor: Baylor

Wake Forest vs. Boston College: Wake Forest

Houston vs. UConn: Houston

UTSA vs. North Texas: UTSA

Alabama vs. Auburn: Alabama

Oregon St vs. Oregon: Oregon

Penn State vs. Michigan State: Michigan State

Wisconsin vs. Minnesota: Wisconsin

Texas A&M vs. LSU: Texas A&M

Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma St: Oklahoma St

Pittsburgh vs. Syracuse: Pittsburgh

Clemson vs. South Carolina: Clemson

Notre Dame vs. Stanford: Notre Dame

BYU vs. USC: BYU

NFL Week 12:

Bears vs. Lions: Bears

Raiders vs. Cowboys: Cowboys

Bills vs. Saints: Bills

Steelers vs. Bengals: Bengals

Buccaneers vs. Colts: Buccaneers

Panthers vs. Dolphins: Panthers

Titans vs. Patriots: Patriots

Eagles vs. Giants: Eagles

Falcons vs. Jaguars: Falcons

Jets vs. Texans: Texans

Chargers vs. Broncos: Broncos

Rams vs. Packers: Packers

Vikings vs. 49ers: 49ers

Browns vs. Ravens: Ravens

Seahawks vs. Washington: Washington

Happy Thanksgiving!

Let's See About Bama

 

It is finally this week for the Razorbacks. Bama week.  Of course we will probably not win this one because, it's Alabama.  But we are better than we have been the past few seasons.  Right now in 2021, we have the same amount of wins (7) that we've accumulated for the 2018-2020 seasons combined.  We did beat Texas A&M whom is Alabama's only loss and we beat LSU last week who had Alabama running for their money too.  Our worst loss was against Georgia this year (37-0), but I think Alabama isn't as good as Georgia so we might not lose to them as badly or we might have a chance to make it a closer game.  I don't see us winning but I would love to be so wrong today. We'll just see how things go.  I'm just going to look like Squidward below while watching and hoping things go good.

Last week I went 16-2 (88.9%) for my College Football predictions (Total: 151-50 (75.1%)) and 7-6 (53.8%) for NFL predictions (Total: 82-59 (58.2%)).  Now let's do this week's predictions!

College Football Week 12:

Arkansas vs. Alabama: Alabama

Charleston So vs. Georgia: Georgia

Michigan State vs. Ohio State: Ohio State

Wake Forest vs. Clemson: Clemson

Iowa State vs. Oklahoma: Oklahoma

Prairie View vs. Texas A&M: Texas A&M

Tennessee St vs. Mississippi St: Mississippi St

Illinois vs. Iowa: Iowa

Georgia Tech vs. Notre Dame: Notre Dame

SMU vs. Cincinnati: Cincinnati

Michigan vs. Maryland: Michigan

Nebraska vs. Wisconsin: Wisconsin

Virginia vs. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh

UAB vs. UTSA: UTSA

BYU vs. Georgia So: BYU

Syracuse vs. NC State: NC State

Baylor vs. Kansas State: Baylor

Oregon vs. Utah: Oregon

Vanderbilt vs. Ole Miss: Ole Miss

Oklahoma St vs. Texas Tech: Oklahoma St

NFL Week 11:

Cowboys vs. Chiefs: Chiefs

Colts vs. Bills: Bills

Ravens vs. Bears: Ravens

Lions vs. Browns: Browns

Texans vs. Titans: Titans

Packers vs. Vikings: Packers

Dolphins vs. Jets: Jets

Saints vs. Eagles: Eagles

Washington vs. Panthers: Panthers

49ers vs. Jaguars: 49ers

Bengals vs. Raiders: Bengals

Cardinals vs. Seahawks: Cardinals

Steelers vs. Chargers: Chargers

Giants vs. Buccaneers: Buccaneers

The Battle for the Boot!

 

It's that week of football again.  It's the Battle for the Golden Boot.  We haven't beaten LSU since 2015 and I am anxious for it to happen.  But I have mixed feelings on how the game will actually go.  It is an away game for us so LSU has that advantage.  But they are 4-5 and they tend to have a 50/50 chance of either performing well or mediocre this year just on what I've observed.  They had Alabama running for their money last week but also lost by double digits to Kentucky who lost to Mississippi State whom we beat last week.  We will see how it goes but I think this is our best chance to beat them in years now.  

The Battle for the Golden Boot in 2011 was interesting, just to do a little flashback from 10 years ago.  I remember for that week, LSU was #1, Alabama #2, and Arkansas #3.  See why that is interesting?  We haven't been as good as we were back then in Bobby Petrino's last year before the whole motorcycle incident.  Of course we lost that game but just imagine if we won and went to the National Championship against Alabama.  The player that had all of the hype that year was none other than Tyrann Mathieu pictured below.

Yeah we didn't do well against him that year.  But still, we went 11-2 that season. Oooohhhh man I would like us to be that good again!

Last week I went 18-5 (78.3%) for my College Football predictions (Total: 135-48 (73.8%)) and 7-6 (53.8%) for NFL predictions (Total: 75-53 (58.6%)).  Now let's do this week's predictions!

College Football Week 11:

Arkansas vs. LSU: Arkansas

New Mexico St vs. Alabama: Alabama

Michigan vs. Penn State: Michigan

Oklahoma vs. Baylor: Oklahoma

Mississippi State vs. Auburn: Auburn

Northwestern vs. Wisconsin: Wisconsin

Utah vs. Arizona: Utah

Georgia vs. Tennessee: Georgia

Purdue vs. Ohio State: Ohio State

Minnesota vs. Iowa: Iowa

Southern Miss vs. UTSA: UTSA

Maryland vs. Michigan State: Michigan State

Texas A&M vs. Ole Miss: Ole Miss

Notre Dame vs. Virginia: Notre Dame

NC State vs. Wake Forest: Wake Forest

TCU vs. Oklahoma St: Oklahoma St

Washington St vs. Oregon: Oregon

Nevada vs. San Diego State: San Diego State

NFL Week 10:

Chiefs vs. Raiders: Chiefs

Falcons vs. Cowboys: Cowboys

Saints vs. Titans: Titans

Jaguars vs. Colts: Colts

Browns vs. Patriots: Patriots

Bills vs. Jets: Bills

Lions vs. Steelers: Steelers

Buccaneers vs. Washington: Buccaneers

Panthers vs. Cardinals: Cardinals

Vikings vs. Chargers: Chargers

Eagles vs. Broncos: Broncos

Seahawks vs. Packers: Packers

Rams vs. 49ers: Rams 

Hawgs vs. Bulldawgs

 

The bye week is over and now it is time to get back on track.  We are favored to beat Mississippi State and they are ranked.  Hopefully if we win, we'll be ranked too.  That means that we'll get a ranking in the College Football Playoff rankings for the first time in a long time!  It was in 2016 that we were last ranked in the College Football Playoff rankings.  We just need to play well and take advantage of being at home for this game.

Last week I went 13-6 (68.4%) for my College Football predictions (Total: 117-43 (73.1%)) and 9-6 (60%) for NFL predictions (Total: 68-47 (59.1%)).  Now let's do this week's predictions!

College Football Week 10:

Mississippi State vs. Arkansas: Arkansas

Missouri vs. Georgia: Georgia

Ohio State vs. Nebraska: Ohio State

Wake Forest vs. UNC: UNC

Liberty vs. Ole Miss: Ole Miss

Illinois vs. Minnesota: Minnesota

Pittsburgh vs. Duke: Pittsburgh

Michigan State vs. Purdue: Michigan State

Tulsa vs. Cincinnati: Cincinnati

Navy vs. Notre Dame: Notre Dame

Oklahoma St vs. West Virginia: Oklahoma St

Baylor vs. TCU: Baylor

Auburn vs. Texas A&M: Texas A&M

Idaho State vs. BYU: BYU

Wisconsin vs. Rutgers: Wisconsin

NC State vs. Florida State: NC State

LSU vs. Alabama: Alabama

Tennessee vs. Kentucky: Kentucky

Iowa vs. Northwestern: Iowa

Boise State vs. Fresno State: Fresno State

Oregon vs. Washington: Oregon

Indiana vs. Michigan: Michigan

San Diego State vs. Hawai'i: San Diego State

NFL Week 9:

Packers vs. Chiefs: Chiefs

Browns vs. Bengals: Bengals

Broncos vs. Cowboys: Cowboys

Texans vs. Dolphins: Dolphins

Falcons vs. Saints: Saints

Raiders vs. Giants: Raiders

Patriots vs. Panthers: Patriots

Bills vs. Jaguars: Bills

Vikings vs. Ravens: Ravens

Chargers vs. Eagles: Chargers

Cardinals vs. 49ers: Cardinals

Titans vs. Rams: Rams

Bears vs. Steelers: Steelers