Picking Every Bowl: Orange Bowl, Michigan vs. Georgia

Capital One Orange Bowl
December 31
Georgia (12-1) vs. Michigan (12-1), Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla., 7:30 p.m., ESPN
Georgia -7.5 – O/U 45.5

After watching a healthy dose of offense in the first semifinal, prepare yourself for a clinic in nasty defense put on by both Georgia and Michigan. Forget about what Alabama did to the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game. The Dawgs have had close to a month to dissect that debacle and to repair the damage. In the Orange Bowl, you should see Georgia return to its former self — being in position to defend passes and make tackles. Of course, you should see much of the same thing from Michigan. The Wolverines allow just 316 yards and 16 points a game (to Georgia’s 253 yards and 9.5 points per game). Georgia started the season with a 10-3 defensive slugfest against Clemson, and while this probably won’t follow that same lack of scoring (which included a defensive touchdown), there will be a lot of punts and not a lot of drives crossing the 50-yard-line. Michigan’s Aidan Hutchison will challenge the Georgia offensive line and harass Stetson Bennett all night, while Jordan Davis will do much the same thing for the Bulldogs. In the end, Georgia has just a bit more speed and talent on their side, which will allow the Dawgs to make a critical stand with the game on the line.
Prediction: Georgia 23-17
Prediction: Georgia 34-11

Record:
Bowl season: SU – 21-11; ATS – 18-14-0; O/U – 14-18-0
Overall: SU – 613-192; ATS – 385-334-6; O/U – 345-368-12

About Douglas Blaine

Capnpen is a writer who was a newspaper and magazine journalist in a previous life. A college journalism major, he now works as an English teacher, but gets his writing fix by blogging about a variety of topics, including politics, religion, movies and television. When he's not working or blogging, Capnpen spends time with his family, plays a little golf (badly) and loves to learn about virtually anything.

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