Michigan State Looks to Improve Title Chances with Win Over Ohio State
By Charles Jay
If you are either the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Michigan State Spartans, you know that a victory in Saturday’s Big 10 showdown is going to take you one step closer to winning the conference title, and at the very least, a berth in the Rose Bowl. For Michigan State, which is ranked eighth in the latest college playoff rankings, it could eventually be a ticket into the four-team national playoff field. These clubs will do battle in East Lansing at 8 PM ET.
When you think about these teams, you imagine that you’ve got a couple of ball-control offenses and great defenses. But these guys can score some points. In fact, they ranked fourth and fifth in the nation in scoring average per game. Where Michigan State hopes to get the edge is with its defensive unit, but they didn’t have a lot of success against an explosive spread when visiting Oregon earlier in the year.
Neither of these schools has a conference loss thus far. Michigan State suffered its only loss to the Ducks, while Ohio State surprisingly fell at home against Virginia Tech. At that point in the season, there was still some doubt about how the Buckeyes would handle the switch at quarterback, which was necessitated when Braxton Miller went down with an injury. But they have handled things quite nicely, and have scored 50 points or more in five of the last six games.
College football betting line – Michigan State vs Ohio State: Michigan State, the home team, is laying points:
- Michigan State Spartans -3.5
- Ohio State Buckeyes +3.5
- Over 56.5 points -110
- Under 56.5 points -110
Miller was rated by one NFL scouting service as the top senior quarterback available for the draft. That was before the season started. But when he had a shoulder injury, which required surgery, coach Urban Meyer had to bring JT Barrett quickly up to speed with the offense. To say that he has responded would be a vast understatement. Barrett has legitimately been a star, with a 65% completion rate and 23 touchdown passes, having been intercepted only seven times. Some of the Michigan State opponents believe that he has a better arm than Miller, and that he is more dangerous on an overall basis.
VietBet customers don’t want to sell Michigan State’s quarterback short, however. Connor Cook is a guy who has improved by leaps and bounds since taking over the quarterback job, and he has thrown for slightly more yardage than Barrett, with a very solid ratio of 17 TDs to five interceptions. He also has arguably more help in the backfield, in the person of Jeremy Langford, who is on a streak of five straight games of 100 yards or more, and is well known to the Ohio State defense, since he rushed for 128 yards against them in the Big 10 championship game last season.
College football bettors know that in a game that rises to the level of “showdown” status, it always helps to have some extra time to prepare, and it is in that regard that Michigan State might have a little edge here, since they are coming off a bye week. With a defense that is ranked fifth in the nation, they may actually have the two best units on the field. And inasmuch as they are ranked #8 in the Playoff Rankings, a win here will leave them very much alive for that four-team scramble at the end of the season.
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