Thursday, February 9th, 2012
It will be a Big Ten conference match up on Saturday afternoon when the Minnesota Gophers pay a visit to the Ohio St Buckeyes in college football game. Kick off time at Ohio St is scheduled for 12PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the home team Ohio St Buckeyes opened as a 17 point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has come in on the underdog Minnesota Gophers, as the Ohio St Buckeyes are currently a 16-point favorite. The over under has is currently lined at 43 ½ for the college football bettors to play into. College football money line players can make a play on the favored Ohio St Buckeyes at –900 with the road underdog Minnesota Gophers returning +650 to win straight up without the points on their side of the ledger.
Ohio St starting quarterback Terrell Pryor has come under heavy criticism as the team dropped its second game of the season losing at 1-5 Purdue 26-18 last week. Pryor has struggled throwing the football this season, as he is not an accurate passer in the pocket. Pryor passed for two interceptions and had a fumble last week in defeat. Prior to that it was a 5 of 13 passing performance for 87 yards as his defense and special teams carried the Buckeyes to a 31-13 victory over Wisconsin. Pryor has digressed much like Juice Williams of Illinois so one must start to wonder if the opposing Big 10 defenses have found a way to shut down these running quarterbacks who lack sufficient skill in the pocket. A good game plan until proven otherwise is let Terrelle Pryor beat you with his arm and not his legs. That got Illinois starting quarterback Juice Williams benched and it could get Terrelle Pryor on the bench as well. Ohio St is last in the Big Ten in passing offense and the unit has only produced 8 touchdowns through the air with 10 interceptions. Illinois with a similar problem is 11th in the Big Ten in passing offense. The lesson learned here is if you have a running style quarterback he better know how to pass the ball effectively or your offense will get shut down against the better programs in the Big Ten conference. With Terrelle Pryor getting too many rushing carries it resulted in fewer carries for Ohio St running back Brandon Saine who has only 70 rushes this season but has produced a 5.4 yards per carry average. Ohio St is still a strong force defensively allowing its opponents only to average 14 points per game and gives up just 284 yards a game. Minnesota played a good defensive team at Penn St last week and could do absolutely nothing. The Gophers produced just 37 yards on the ground and 101 through the air in a 20-0 loss. Unfortunately for the Gophers they are going to face another good defense and with good speed in their secondary. Minnesota is 4-3 on the season with losses to California, Wisconsin and Penn St. Minnesota is 10th in the Big Ten in total defense allowing 393 yards per game and 5.3 yards per play. The team in not good defensively in both areas of run and pass. Junior Gophers quarterback Adam Weber is hitting on 55% of his passes this season with 6 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. The Gophers are a poor rushing team producing just 3.5 yards per attempt.
Tony T’s Opinion: After watching Minnesota do nothing offensively against a good Big Ten defense it’s hard to take the points in this game against the Buckeyes defense. The question is can Terrelle Pryor do enough against Minnesota to get the point spread beat? Ohio St has gotten point spread covers despite Terrelle Pryor’s ineffectiveness but I wont lay double digits on the Buckeyes side here. There are better games to play on Saturday.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Ohio St Buckeyes are 8-3 ATS in their past 11 meetings with the Minnesota Gophers
The Wagerline consensus has 60.5% of the CFB bettors on Minnesota +16
The Wagerline consensus has 62.7% of the CFB bettors playing over 43 1/2
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