Illinois Fighting Illini vs Baylor Bears Gambling Preview + Predictions
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2010 Texas Bowl Preview – Illini vs. Bears Lines
Date/Time: Wednesday. December 29, 6 PM ET
Venue: Reliant Stadium, Houston TX
Broadcast: ESPN /ESPN3
Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Baylor Bears Betting Lines from JustBet.com
Money Line: Illinois (+115) Baylor (-135)
Spread: Baylor -1.5
Over/Under: 62.5
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Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Baylor Bears Preview
Yahoo! The Texas Bowl is here and the Baylor Bears (7-5) may have a little home field advantage in this game over the Illinois Fighting Illini (6-6) since they are from the Lone Star State. College football lines have Baylor as slight 1.5-point betting favorites in this game with a total of 62.5.
The Bears had their best season ever in the Big 12 and the Texas Bowl is their first bowl appearance since 1994. They did not end the season well losing their last 3 games and even though all those losses were to ranked teams they lost badly and their defense killed them giving up an average of 50 ppg in the 3 games.
The Fighting Illini are back in a bowl game since losing the 2008 BCS Rose Bowl and much like Baylor they sputtered at the end of the season losing 3 of their last 4 games. Their D is decent, but they have one of the best rushing offenses in the nation with a couple of guys that racked up the yards on the ground this season.
Both teams lost in their season finale with Baylor getting killed by Oklahoma 53-24 and Illinois falling to Fresno State 25-23 even though they rushed for 318 yards.
This season Illinois was 7-4 ATS and Baylor was 5-6 ATS. Something’s gotta give in this game, as the Bears are 4-1 ATS in their last 4 games when they are the favorite, but the Fighting Illini are 8-1 ATS in their last 9 games when they are the underdog.
The Fighting Illini have the nation’s 15th ranked rushing offense and they will likely need to run the ball well in this bowl game since their passing offense only ranks 105th. RB Mikel Leshoure (1,513 yards 14 TD) and duel-threat QB Nathan Scheelhaase (815 yards 4 TD) lead the rushing offense and Leshoure broke the 100-yard barrier in 8 games this season, had 142 rushing yards in the season ending loss to Fresno State, and led the Big 10 in rushing yards and rushing TD’s.
This match up on D is not that bad for Baylor and while they only rank 71st in the nation defending the run they played decent in the loss to Oklahoma giving up 109 rushing yards. They did give up 353 passing yards in the game and rank 108th in the nation in pass defense, but Illinois does not go to the air much and QB Scheelhaase only had 101 passing yards in his last 2 games.
While Illinois relies on the run to move the chains Baylor has a balanced offense with the nation’s 20th ranked passing offense and 23rd ranked rushing offense. They have one of the most electrifying QB’s in the nation in Robert Griffin III. He passed for 3,195 yards with 21 TD and rushed for 591 yards with 8 TD. In the loss to Oklahoma he did rush for 83 yards, but he only passed for 124 yards with 1 TD and 2 INT. He has a solid WR corps that had 4 players that had at least 35 catches this season. Illinois has the nation’s 54th ranked pass defense, but in their loss to Fresno State to finish out the season they gave up 304 yards through the air.
The Illini faced 2 other great duel threat QB’s on the season in Terrelle Pryor of Ohio State and Denard Robinson of Michigan and Illinois lost both games.
In the Fresno State game the Illini and their 29th ranked rushing defense held the Bulldogs to only 60 rushing yards and they will have to contain Baylor RB Jay Finley (1,155 yards 11 TD), who rushed for 82 yards averaging 4.8 yards per carry in the loss to Oklahoma.
Baylor has too much offense in this game and that will be the difference. Both teams will move the ball, but Griffin will torch Illinois through the air and lead Baylor to a win in the Texas Bowl. Take Baylor to cover the 1.5-point spread and take the Over as well, as this game will not be a defensive battle. Both teams had Over record of 7-4 on the season.
Pick: Baylor -1.5 and the Over
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