|
We are also on Yahoo Messenger: mossreport
|
New Orleans Bowl - December 18th North Texas (+12.5) v. Colorado St. (Total: 47.5) This is the bowl game for teams that really should not be in a bowl game, but some new conference wanted a bowl game. So should that prevent us from betting on it. Of course not. We do commend the sending for the conference Champ. North Texas instead of the better and more attractive Middle Tennessee State. North Texas North Texas's Last 10 Yard Margins
North Texas (SU 5-6 ATS 7-3) recovered from an 0-5 start to almost run the table until losing to Troy State to finish the season. The Mean Green as they are called improved as the season progressed playing solid defense in spite of a weak offense that barely averaged 310 yards. They had more success on the ground then through in their ball control offense. Colorado State
Colorado State had a disappointing season, but are still happy to be still playing. New QB Bradlee Van Pelt is an exciting players who still needs to mature, but can be very dangerous. The defense was Swiss Cheese this season and cause CSU to lose the yardage battle almost every game.
Play: Colorado State has been a terrible favorite this season going only 1-3 ATS as a favorite and will face a strong rushing defense that will force Van Pelt to show he can win a game with his arm (something he has not done yet). North Texas has covered their last six games and is 5-2 ATS as a dog and 5-1 ATS on Turf which is their home field surface. This game will be meaningful for the Mean Green who are happy to be enjoying some success in their return to Division 1-A Football. Colorado State has been a bowl 3 straight years, so this will be nothing special for them and we look for a weak performance. This game will also be a low scoring affair with both teams strength on the ground and a strong North Texas defense. North Texas (+12.5) for 2 Stars. 6 Point Teaser with North Texas (+18.5) and Under (53.5) for 3 Stars. North Texas Straight Up for 1 Star. GMAC Mobile Bowl - December 19th East Carolina (-1/64.5) v. Marshall This should be a great match up between two exciting teams on offense. East Carolina
East Carolina has always been an enigma under head coach Steve Logan who seemingly can never push this talented team to the top of C-USA. This season they have a high powered offense that has no problem moving the ball, just a problem holding on to it. They went -14 in turnovers over their last 4 games and are allowing over 400 yards per game for the season. Marshall
On offense the Thundering Herd of Marshall kept on rolling this season averaging over 500 yards per game on offense but their defense allowed 425 per game and was particularly vulnerable to the run for 211 per game and 4.6 per carry. This defensive weakness was exploited in the MAC Championship game when they lost a 24-0 lead to the rushing of Toledo. Pick: Total Play of the Year: East Carolina Over 64.5. 7 Stars. This game will go over. Both teams hit 60 or points in their games in 15 of 23 combined games. In addition, the minor bowls have been slugfests over the past few seasons and all of the trends are strongly pointing to the over. The weather looks to be good, but wait until Monday and we will recheck the forecast and notify you. Tangerine Bowl - December 20 Pittsburgh (-1.5/50) v. North Carolina State The rebirth of the Tangerine Bowl (in place of the sadly missing Micron PC Bowl) in Orlando is a welcome return to the bowl schedule after an 18 year hiatus. Pittsburgh
This season was a tale of two halves for the Panthers. For the first half of the season they had no production on offense while they were running a new spread offense. With a 1-5 SU record they reverted back to the pro set they successfully ran last season and reeled off 5 SU and ATS wins in a row. The offense averaged over 32 points a game and out gained opponents by close to 200 yards per game during those 5 games. The Panther defense has been strong for the whole season holding opponents to under 300 yards and 21 points per contest. N.C. State
NC State was up and down this season only averaging 2 yards more per game then they gave up, but they had an almost 1 turnover per game advantage against their opponents. Although the Wolf Pack played solid down the stretch winning 4 of 5 SU, they have not been impressive and have not been able to score against strong defenses. Pick: Pittsburgh (-1.5) over NC State. 3 Stars. 24 was a magic number for Pittsburgh this season. If they held a team to less then that they won, otherwise they lost. Looking at NC State's games this season, we don't feel they will score 24 points against the hot Pitt defense. Pitt should be able to out score North Carolina with the offense that has returned to form over the last 5 regular season games. Las Vegas Bowl - December 25th 3:30 PM Utah (+3.5/46) v. USC Christmas would not be complete with being subjected to Brent Musburger broadcasting a bowl game, although maybe he will have new things to say since they aren't in Hawaii as usual since this season move of the Hawaii bowl games to the mainland. USC USC had another mediocre season that will be ending on a positive note, going Las Vegas after beating UCLA to end their regular season. USC won 4 straight to end the season but did not to anything to standout as a team on the rise. They have a terrible rushing offense and mediocre defense, but they finished with a +13 turnover ratio. Ironically this team probably did some things better teams over the past few years, but they suffered through a 4 game losing streak losing by a total of 14 points. In addition, they suffered though a hard schedule and some tough injuries to their leading returning rusher Sultan McCullough. On a scale of 1 to 10, this season would rate a 6, due to the 4 close losses, tough schedule, and bowl appearance over UCLA. USC SEASON LOG
----OFFENSIVE---- ----DEFENSIVE----
W-L T.O -RUSHING PASSING- -RUSHING PASSING-
DATE OPPONENT S A LINE TOTL FINAL RESCR RAT YDS RYPA YDS PYPC YDS RYPA DEF PYPC
-------- ---------- - - ----- ---- ----- ----- --- ----------------- -----------------
09/01/01 SAN JOSE W L -17.0 63.0 21-10 26-18 2 165 5.00 213 10.1 115 3.83 213 10.7
09/08/01 KANSAS ST. L L 1.5 49.5 6-10 20-22 1 100 3.33 197 12.3 340 5.96 26 3.7
09/22/01 oregon L W 7.0 51.0 22-24 26-21 -2 40 1.25 411 16.4 80 3.08 223 9.7
09/29/01 STANFORD L L -2.5 55.0 16-21 16-21 0 28 1.17 240 10.9 203 4.06 194 17.6
10/06/01 washington L W 5.5 46.0 24-27 19-26 1 134 3.27 152 19.0 174 4.24 267 14.1
10/13/01 ARIZONA ST W W -2.0 57.5 48-17 32-16 3 149 3.47 295 16.4 164 4.69 155 11.1
10/20/01 notre dame L L PICK 40.5 16-27 16-27 0 60 1.82 230 12.1 208 3.92 138 13.8
10/27/01 arizona W W -6.5 48.5 41-34 22-23 2 64 2.13 248 10.3 101 2.97 311 13.5
11/03/01 OREGON ST W L -6.5 49.5 16-13 14-23 1 33 0.92 171 8.1 181 4.31 203 10.2
11/10/01 california W W -13.0 49.5 55-14 31-11 2 213 4.53 235 12.4 68 2.00 155 11.9
11/17/01 UCLA W W 3.0 46.5 27- 0 21- 3 3 96 2.53 180 12.9 28 1.04 86 6.6
Utah After an impressive start, Utah sputtered down the stretch to finish 6-5 SU and 7-4 ATS. They possess a balanced offense, averaging over 200+ yards per game running and passing. They have a two headed running attack with RB's Hunter and Tate (both averaging 5 ypc and 200 ypg combined). Utah's defense although statistically strong (the best of the Mountain West) presents some question marks since they finished up the season with consecutive weak performances against the run. Although Utah improved after a disappointing 2000 season, we are left with a feeling that Utah could have done better and should have done better. UTAH SEASON LOG
----OFFENSIVE---- ----DEFENSIVE----
W-L T.O -RUSHING PASSING- -RUSHING PASSING-
DATE OPPONENT S A LINE TOTL FINAL RESCR RAT YDS RYPA YDS PYPC YDS RYPA DEF PYPC
-------- ---------- - - ----- ---- ----- ----- --- ----------------- -----------------
09/01/01 UTAH ST W L -9.0 NT 23-19 28-14 4 213 4.63 147 9.2 70 3.33 231 10.0
09/08/01 oregon L W 17.5 51.5 10-24 22-25 -1 121 3.46 252 10.1 107 3.34 270 15.0
09/22/01 indiana W W 1.5 NT 28-26 29-23 1 169 3.93 278 13.2 229 5.20 157 12.1
09/29/01 NEW MEXICO W W -7.0 NT 37-16 30-18 1 255 5.31 210 14.0 146 4.06 165 16.5
10/06/01 S.FLORIDA W W -14.0 45.0 52-21 34-20 2 245 5.00 264 15.5 27 1.04 336 10.5
10/20/01 WYOMING L L -17.0 55.0 0-35 28-11 -1 190 4.22 275 16.2 33 1.32 117 6.5
10/27/01 colo. st L L -3.0 44.5 17-19 25-23 -2 228 6.16 214 11.9 123 2.80 201 18.3
11/03/01 unlv W W PICK 46.5 42-14 42-14 0 212 3.85 180 13.8 38 1.46 118 14.8
11/10/01 S.DIEGO ST W L -17.5 NT 17- 3 24-15 1 225 5.00 138 13.8 64 2.06 194 12.9
11/17/01 byu L W 5.5 63.0 21-24 21-24 0 168 3.65 189 11.8 180 5.63 270 12.9
12/01/01 air force L W 50.0 NT 37-38 30-21 -3 382 6.82 161 13.4 239 4.69 35 8.8
Pick: 2 Team/6 Point Teaser Utah (+9.5) and Under 52. 3 Stars. Utah's balanced offense will prevent USC from concentrating on just on aspect of the Utah offense and allow them to keep in the game. But that game should still be a low scoring affair in cool Vegas desert. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
