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Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan vs. Florida Atlantic Football Picks

Written December 22, 2008 by Jason Lowry

Central Michigan Florida Atlantic Football

The bowl games season is just about to get into full swing, and this Friday the Central Michigan Chippewas take on the Florida Atlantic Owls in the Motor City Bowl from Ford Field in Detroit. The Chippewas come into this one at 8-4 and were a solid 6-2 in MAC Conference play, while the Owls used a 57-50 win over FIU in the final game of the season to become bowl eligible at 6-6. Now neither one of these teams play in a big time conference, but this should still be an exciting games for college football fans to watch. For those of you looking to do some NCAA football betting, the oddsmakers have Central Michigan 6 point favorites over Florida Atlantic at Sportsbook.com

The Owls had a real rough start to the 2008 season, as they won just one of their first 6 games, but 3 of those losses came to conference powerhouses Texas, Minnesota, and Michigan State, so its not like they were getting beat up by bad teams. The Owls then went on to finish the season with five wins in their final 6 games to become bowl eligible. The Owls offense is led by the play of quarterback Rusty Smith who threw for nearly 3,000 yards with 22 touchdowns to 14 interceptions. Smith’s favorite target was Cortez Gent who had 53 catches for 837 yards and a team high 8 touchdown catches. The running game wasn’t much to speak of, as Di’lvory Edgecomb led the way with just 422 yards and 3 scores. Now the Owls are going to likely stick to the pass in this one, but they could really use some help from the ground game.

The Owls defense doesn’t have a lot to talk about when it comes to numbers, as they allowed 50 points twice this season and nearly 30 points a game. Teams pretty much could pick their poison against this unit, as they gave up nearly as many yards through the air as they did on the ground. Now Central Michigan has a pretty explosive offense, but also struggle on defense so we wouldn’t be surprised to see a big total on the board in this one. Bet Florida Atlantic Owls +6 at Sportsbook.com

That Central Michigan offense wound up scoring 30.3 point a game in the MAC conference this season, and a very large part of that was the play of quarterback Dan LeFevour who not only threw for 2,531 yards with 19 touchdown tosses to just 5 interceptions, but also was the teams leading rusher with 536 yards and 6 more touchdowns. Now the Chippewas also got some solid help from the running of Ontario Sneed, who ran it 116 times for 519 yards and a team high 8 rushing touchdowns. In the receiving game Antonio Brown and Bryan Anderson each had big seasons, as both had 6 touchdown catches a piece, and at least 835 yards. Now with the Owls poor defense you have to like the Chippewas chances of scoring plenty of points in this one, and we think they will as long they don’t have a number of turnovers in this one.

The Chippewas defense came in dead last in the MAC Conference in yards per game, as they let opponents rack up 424.3 yards on average, and teams really went after this team through the air, as they gave up over double the number of yards through the air as they did on the ground. This wound up in teams scoring over 30 points a game, and this unit also had 50 points scored on them twice over the regular season. Now the Chippewas have played a number of close games this season, as all but the first two games of the season were decided by 10 points or less, so if you are thinking blow out in this one, we would think again. Bet Central Michigan Chippewas -6 at Sportsbook.com

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