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Poinsettia Bowl: TCU vs. Boise State Football Picks

Written December 21, 2008 by Jason Lowry

Boise State TCU Football What a game college football has coming its way this Tuesday, as the No.9 Boise State Broncos get ready to take on the No. 11 TCU Horned Frogs in the Poinsettia Bowl. Now we are only a handful of games into the 2008 Bowl season, and you can’t complain about spending a Tuesday night watching these two teams. The Broncos come in a perfect 12-0 after rolling through the WAC Conference and taking care of teams like Oregon and Bowling Green in non-conference play. As for the Horned Frogs they come in 10-2 with a 2nd place finish in the Mountain West Conference and their only to losses were on the road to Oklahoma and Utah. For those of you looking to do a little NCAA football betting this weekend, the oddsmakers have TCU 3 point favorites over Boise State at Sportsbook.com

Boise State comes into the upcoming game with an explosive offense that is led by the play of freshman quarterback Kellen Moore who averaged nearly 271 yards a game passing, while completing 70% of his passes. Moore finished the season with 25 touchdown passes to only 9 interceptions, and wound up taking home the WAC Freshman of the Year Award. The Broncos also got plenty of help from running back Ian Johnson, who might not of had numbers like the past, but still managed to score 12 touchdownsm which gave him 57 on his career, good enough for the best total by any WAC Conference player. As a unit this team scored nearly 40 points a game, and you have to think that as good as TCU is on defense the Broncos are going to find a way to still put up a good number on the scoreboard.

Now the Broncos have a solid defense to go with that explosive offensive of theirs, as they have pretty much held almost every opponent besides Oregon and Nevada in check this season. Now the reason the Broncos play so well on this side of the ball is they are great against the run allowing just a little over 104 yards a game, good enough for 15th best in the nation. The Broncos have also been good again the pass, as teams are normally forced to throw due to the fact that the Broncos usually have big leads. Now the Horned Frogs aren’t overpowering on the offensive side of things, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see them have some success against the Broncos defense in this one. Bet Boise State Broncos +3 at Sportsbook.com

Now the Horned Frogs bring a run heavy offense to the table and they have a number of backs that they will throw into the mix. Aaron Brown was suppose to be the star in the backfield, but wound up just running for nearly 50 yards a game. Joseph Turner actually led the way with 494 yards and 10 scores, but 5 different backs had at least 350 yards to help the Horned Frogs come in 13th in the nation with 215 yards per game on the ground. Now when the Horned Frogs have to put it in the air, turn to Andy Dalton who has done a good job of limiting mistakes and keeping this unit on the field. Dalton wound up throwing 11 touchdowns to just 4 interceptions, and is capable of beating you with his legs as well. Now as long as this offense continues to keep from turning the football over you have to like their chances of playing spoiler on Boise State’s perfect season.

The Horned Frogs have win with their defense, and if you look back to when they played Oklahoma they only allowed 35 points, and if you look at the number of times the Sooners put 50-60 on opponents, you have give plenty of credit to this team. This team only had more than one touchdown scored on them 3 times all season, and the only other times besides Oklahoma the Horned Frogs had huge leads, so it didn’t really matter if the other team scored or not. A big reason the Horned Frogs are so good on this side of the ball, is the play of junior defensive end Jerry Hughes, who had 14 sacks, 6 forced fumbles, and 18.5 tackles for loss. So you have to think this team is going to give the Broncos all it can handle, and if Hughes has a big game like expected he could wind up being the reason the Horned Frogs take home the victory. Bet TCU Horned Frogs -3 at Sportsbook.com

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