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Stop for few seconds, close your eyes, and remember that feeling you had after Appalachian defeated Monroe last weekend. It was not just a feeling of relief, but of validation. The Mountaineers previous wins over Troy and Georgia State were not flukes over the Sun Belt's lesser talented teams. It was a building block towards the future. Now, Monroe isn’t the best in the conference, but that win garnered some attention. Prior to the game, Monroe was the best defense in the conference. Monroe is a Louisiana school, which is the home state to the conference headquarters in New Orleans. But, before you get any respect in the Sun Belt, you must defeat the two longer tenured schools in Arkansas State and Lafayette. Georgia State and South Alabama also played Ark St and Lafayette in consecutive weekends this season, and both came away with two losses each. The next two weekends are a tall task for the Mountaineers, but I would not want it any other way. The Mountaineers want to be the best in the conference, and in order to do so, you got to beat the best. In its first year of transition, Appalachian will have the chance to really see how they measure up with the Sun Belt powers. Even better, the Mountaineers get to test themselves on the road in a stadiums with good atmospheres, despite lacking a couple thousand camouflaged hunters.



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Not usually one for "moral victories" but playing these guys tough on the road might qualify.

Jonesboro 34

Jones House 28


Fight App!

good write up, I agree about the point spread, around 10-14, but I think it will be a lower scoring game, as both defenses are really playing well, Ark State 31 App 20

The Real ASU 24

The Fake ASU 44

NP

See y'all there.

31-20, bad guys

App State 35

ASU 49

oh ye of little faith

APP 28
THE ARK 21

35-28-----the visiting team

The stars align again:

Apps 31

Arks 29

ASU wins

Hope we can make it a game, but don't have high hopes.

App - 20
AState - 31

Coming off the big win, nice win streak going leads me to not wanting to make any prediction. I think I am at a point where if I can't honestly pick my Apps to win I just won't predict anything. Makes me feel better. I want us to keep playing hard, improve and if we get outplayed so be it.

Shootout

Appy 42
Arky 45

MEN WITH LONG GUNS 28 BYOL (bring your own likker) 21

my prediction? Pain....

Playing football 38
Playing dead 35

This could be the best team we've faced all year and I'm including Michigan. Their RB is quick and if we don't tackle well he could have some long ones. Good news is they and are a heavy penalized team and have a bad kicking game. Going into ULM I know we'd lose on special teams and have to make up for it on D and O. This game special teams have should only have a slight edge. Key to the game is our oline vs their defense. They are going to score 28+ on us, can we score 30 on a D that has an excellent 3rd down % ?

NP

This will be a tough game for us; their O line is huge and will really test our ability to get to the QB and to stop the run. They are going to score some points but won't be able to keep us from doing the same. I'm predicting a close game with us coming out with the upset and our name back

ASU, the real deal 31
ASU, the pretenders 29

I believe we will be able to put up a lot of points, and our defense is beginning to click, however, quarterbacks like stAte's has given us trouble in the past. Think if we score more points than them, we win. If we don't, we will lose.

Looking at the depth charts. Their OLine is not much bigger than ours, pound for pound and inch for inch. We simply can't afford to make stupid penalties, can't put the ball on the ground and if we can sustain some drives and convert in the red zone we can play with them. I agree with another poster that they might be our toughest opponent this season. I agree, better than Michigan possibly.