I'm confident of a win, but I'm in the definite minority in thinking it's going to be a battle.
People are too enamored of the final score vs. MSU last week -- 42-24 looks like butt-whipping. But then you look at how a lot of the key plays happened:
- aTm turned the ball over four times, three of which were in the red zone.
- In addition to which MSU returned a blocked FG 50 yards for a TD
- In addition to which MSU got a pick-6 late to ice the game.
- MSU did get about 75 - 80 more passing yards, but otherwise, most of the stats are about even.
- Rushing yards were about even, but if you take QB rushing out of it, aTm averaged almost 6.5 ypc -- more than MSU did.
- aTm had 27 first downs -- they moved the ball.
Where the game got away from them was turnovers and inability to consistently protect the QB, which negated MSU getting flagged 13 times for almost 140 yards in penalties
That, and a couple of blunders that don't happen all that much -- a blocked FG returned 50 yards for a TD, and a pick-6.
My point is that that game was a lot closer than the final score would make you think.
aTm is wounded and has several problems. But they're being written off as just this side of incompetent, and that's simply not warranted.