By Charles Jay
Some people who place their college football bets at Vietbet are looking upon the Cotton Bowl game as a case of the irresistible force against the immovable object. That may be true, but only to some extent. The fact remains that the Baylor Bears have one of the most high-powered offenses in the country, perhaps the MOST powerful, while the Michigan State Spartans are known for playing hard-nosed defense. These teams will kick it off at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX at 12:30 PM ET.
Baylor leads the nation both in scoring offense (48.8 ppg) and offensive yardage (581 per game), and that is a by-product of pushing the pace. They are going to try and use it to their advantage against a Michigan State stop unit that was close to impenetrable at times last year, and was still formidable this season. They held opponents to just 293 yards of total offense, which translates to 4.8 yards per play.
Michigan State is 10-2 straight-up and 8-4 against the football pointspread. They have covered eleven of their last 14 as an underdog. Baylor is 11-1 straight-up and 7-5 ATS.
In the college football betting odds that have been placed on this game by the folks at Vietbet, Baylor is favored slightly:
Baylor Bears -2.5 (-115)
Michigan State Spartans +2.5 (-105)
Over 69.5 points -110
Under 69.5 points -110
For the uninitiated, the Cotton Bowl is not played at the Cotton Bowl stadium at all, but at Jerry Jones’ palace in Arlington. Baylor, located in Waco, can expect some in-state support. They have an imposing record at home, which even carried over to their move into the new McLane Stadium. Last year they disappointed greatly in the Fiesta Bowl, going up against a competent quarterback in Blake Bortles (Central Florida). Connor Cook isn’t in Bortles’ class, but he isn’t chopped liver either. Cook completed only 58% of his passes, but had a nice ratio of touchdowns to interceptions (22-6). The Spartans will try to keep Baylor “honest” with running back Jeremy Langford (1360 yards), but the Bears are extremely proficient against the run,allowing just 2.9 yards per carry.
Michigan State obviously thinks it has enough to keep Baylor’s offense off-balance, but some of the evidence at the disposal of Vietbet customers indicates that spread attacks that play up-tempo have given the Spartans some trouble. For example, Oregon tallied 46 points against them, while Ohio State had 49. Baylor is in that league; in addition to the abilities of Bryce Petty, who was eighth in the country in passing efficiency, they have racked up 235 yards on the ground, scoring 42 rushing TD’s.
There is that factor of “validation” for Baylor here. They felt strongly that they belonged in the four-team field for the college football playoff, but the committee that made those determinations continually had them behind TCU, despite the fact that Baylor had beaten the Horned Frogs in a furious 24-point fourth-quarter effort. And they see what kind of “statement” TCU (which had also been left out of the playoff) made against Ole Miss. if they are able to seize the advantage here, don’t expect them to take their foot off the pedal.
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