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Alamo Bowl: Northwestern vs. Missouri Football Picks

Written December 27, 2008 by Jason Lowry

Missouri Northwestern Football

For the 2nd straight year the Missouri Tigers clinched the Big 12 North division only to get whooped on by the Oklahoma Sooners in the Big 12 Championship game. This upcoming Monday the No.25 ranked Tigers will get a shot at ending the season on a good note when they take on the No.22 ranked Northwestern Wildcats in the Alamo Bowl. The Tigers finished the season 9-4, but were unable to beat any of the big powerhouses out of the Big 12 South, as for the Wildcats they finished up the season at 9-3, good enough for a tie for 4th in the Big 10 standings. For those of you looking to do some NCAA football betting on the upcoming bowl game, the oddsmakers have Missouri 12.5 point favorites over Northwestern at BetUS.com.

The Wildcats come into the bowl game this weekend looking for the schools first postseason victory since 1949, and you know that is going to be on the minds of all the players in this one. The Wildcats offense has a ton of pressure on them in this one, as the Tigers are going to to put points on the scoreboard there is no question about that. A big concern is whether or not star running back Tyrell Sutton will be able to play in this one, as he continues to battle a wrist injury. If Sutton can’t go its going to be up to quarterback CJ Bacher to get this offense moving in the right direction. Bacher had 2,128 yards through the air, but had just as many interceptions as he did touchdowns with 14. Even if Sutton is a go for this one, they still need Bacher to secure the football and keep from turning it over to the Tigers.

As for the Wildcats defense they like to play an aggressive style, and that has led to teams scoring just 19 points a game while allowing 343 yards a game of total offense. Keeping the Tigers in check might prove to be much more difficult, but this team can get pressure on the opposing quarterback, and that is a big plus. The Wildcats had 33 sacks on the season and the big plays came from Brad Phillips and Corey Wootton. Phillips led the way with 101 tackles and 2 interceptions, while Wootton had 15 tackles for loss and 9 sacks. Bet Northwestern Wildcats +12.5 at BetUS.com.

The Tigers have a ton of talent on the offensive side of things, and there really isn’t a place on the field where you can say the Tigers are weak. It all starts with the play of quarterback Chase Daniel who complete 74% of his passes for 4,135 yards and 37 touchdowns. Making things easier for Daniel is the duo he has catching footballs, as Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman were First-Team All-Americans. Maclin hauled in 95 passes for 1,221 yards and 12 scores, while Coffman caught 83 balls for 920 yards and 10 scores. The running game was led by the play of Derrick Washington who had 992 yards and 17 touchdowns, while only running it 162 times. This offense is going to score, it’s just a matter of how much.

Looking at the Tigers defense its easy to see that this unit does a pretty good job of letting opposing teams stick around, playing in the Big 12 doesn’t help the matter, but this unit still gave up 27.5 points a game and 414 total yards. If the unit has a strength its the run defense, as they are giving up just 3.9 yards per carry, and this is a defense that knows how to make the big play. The Tigers have 21 takeaways on the season with 28 sacks. The guys the Wildcats need to make sure and have an eye on are Sean Weatherspoon and Stryker Sulakk, Weatherspoon leads the team with 138 tackles and 16 of those were for a loss, while Sulakk had 13 tackles for loss including 8.5 sacks. This unit will likely keep the WIldcats in it, its just will they let them stick around late enough to win the game. Bet Missouri Tigers -7 at BetUS.com.

Lowrys Lean on the Game: Missouri -7
I’m sorry Big 10 fans, but the Big 12 is just a better conference this season, and the teams at the top are much better than the teams at the top of the Big Ten. The Tigers might not be as good as they were last season, but this team can still score with the best of them, and we don’t see the Wildcats keeping pace.

Predicted Score: Missouri 42 Northwestern 30

Check out the latest NCAA football picks from our experts and grab the best college football lines for all the bowl games at Betfirms.

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