I'm kind of curious now how defensive minded teams fare against the spread in general. My naive instinct is to say that they're generally pretty good against the spread even if they have very similar W/L
I appreciate the post and comparison of past Wilcox outcomes. I realize that pure math may show the Irish with a clear advantage, but I'll also say that if I were a betting man, and if Fall practice shows the offense to be strong, and the defense stronger, then I would happily put $100 on the Bears and expect a return. We get taken lightly every time, but not all times do we play to that level. The defense is better than people think, and our offense may be just good enough to score 27.
I still contend that we win the 2017 USC game if Laird doesn't lose a perfect ball in the sun in the 3rd Q. Cal would've gone up a touchdown, but instead, Anderson missed a chip shot field goal and then USC took the lead for the rest of the game.
The thing about mediocre teams with great defenses is the point spread never truly takes that into account. The mediocrity overshadows the fact that the favored team's offense will not be running on full cylinders.
We'll probably lose to ND, but that's a new team under a new coach that might be coming out of a beatdown at tOSU. Might be able to take advantage of that.
I'm kind of curious now how defensive minded teams fare against the spread in general. My naive instinct is to say that they're generally pretty good against the spread even if they have very similar W/L
I appreciate the post and comparison of past Wilcox outcomes. I realize that pure math may show the Irish with a clear advantage, but I'll also say that if I were a betting man, and if Fall practice shows the offense to be strong, and the defense stronger, then I would happily put $100 on the Bears and expect a return. We get taken lightly every time, but not all times do we play to that level. The defense is better than people think, and our offense may be just good enough to score 27.
I still contend that we win the 2017 USC game if Laird doesn't lose a perfect ball in the sun in the 3rd Q. Cal would've gone up a touchdown, but instead, Anderson missed a chip shot field goal and then USC took the lead for the rest of the game.
The thing about mediocre teams with great defenses is the point spread never truly takes that into account. The mediocrity overshadows the fact that the favored team's offense will not be running on full cylinders.
We'll probably lose to ND, but that's a new team under a new coach that might be coming out of a beatdown at tOSU. Might be able to take advantage of that.
This might be one where Cal surprises some folks. If our D plays up to capability anything is possible.
A really helpful reminder of contests/context past, with doses of pleasure and pain. Thank you and, to coin a phrase, Go Bears!