Shocky1 said:
notre dame fighting irish 49
stanford cardinals 7
offensively the cards got nfl talent at wide receiver but beyond breaking bad passing talent at qb1 & qb2 with 87 yards in the air against the irish
defensively stanford is more salty but playing all the time on the field resulted in almost 500 yards of offense for notre dame
yeah them high gpa stanford cardinals (2-4) are my 2nd favorite acc team but if coach bloesch can get his **** together my birthday stormin' the field celebration under scorpio skies at the BIG GAME is gonna be a nite to remember!!
The skinny on Furd:
Offense:
Excellent WRs and a better than average TE. QB and oline are a disaster. The oline has been ineffective in the run game or protecting the passer. Señior players are not athletic and the athletic players are inexperienced and young. It is not clear how good the RBs are given the problems at Oline and QB. The QBs typically are the leading rushers.
The athletic 1st string QB Daniels projects as a decent ACC QB. Okay passer, good runner. He was beaten-up and injured vs Clemson (btw, Clemson beats Miami in the ACC championship game IMO). He missed games and probably wasn't ready tor Notre Dame, but tried to play anyway. The 2nd string QB is a transfer run first, second and third QB, and Furd becomes one-dimensional the wrong way given their WRs. They go stubborn with the run and it looks ugly with their weak line. Lot of o-lie penalties, etc. Not even sure who on their line would start for Cal. The third string QB, the future, star recruit Brown from venerable Mater Dei, was seriously injured (throwing hand injury) in their VA Tech game, his second injury in the season. A healthy Brown under Taylor's tutelage and a decent oline is a scary thought with their WRs. That appears to be a scenario that is at least a year away. With Daniels and Brown having injury issues, the QB spot is a disaster. With Daniels, they can move the ball, but the red zone offense is not good. The solid Cal defense should have their way with this unit.
Defense:
Is vastily improved, and it Furd had a decent offense, might be considered one of the better ACC defenses. There is some experience. They lack depth and simply get worn down if the offense is not sustaining drives (see Clemson, VA Tech and Notre Dame games). They have had a lot of terrible second halves. The Furdies are stout against the run at least for a few quarters, and proved somewhat vulnerable to over the top though long passes. Cal is a good match-up for this defense, as Cal doesn't have the kind of offense that sustains drives and wears teams down.
Special teams:
Solid. Their PK is accurate.
If Furd can keep the game close, Cal could Wilcox it and lose.