Rose Bowl Preview and Prediction
The Bowl Season continues in Pasadena, California for the Grand Daddy of them all the Rose Bowl. Today the Stanford Cardinal, winners of the Pac-12 championship face the Michigan State Spartans the winners of the Big 10 Championship.
Both teams have strong defenses that can shut down the running game of their opponents, game in and game out.
Stanford enters this matchup with an overall record of 11-2 SU and 7-6 ATS. In their 13 regular season games, 8 have ended on the UNDER and 5 on the OVER.
Michigan State enters today’s matchup with a record of 12-1 SU and 8-4-1 ATS. In their 13 games, the UNDER has also cashed 8 times and the OVER 5 times.
The Rose Bowl is celebrating its 100th edition this year with Michigan State making its first trip to the famed bowl in 26 years. Stanford is making its 14th trip to the Rose Bowl having won its most recent trip last season against the Wisconsin Badgers.
Defense will be the name of this game, as Michigan State should be spelled D-E-F-E-N-S-E. The Spartans are the leaders in the nation in rushing defense and total defense.
Stanford is no slouch when it comes to defense as they rank no. 14 in total defense giving up 90 yards more per game than the Spartans.
One big key to this game is whether the pounding offensive rushing game of Stanford can blaze a path to the end zone. Stanford’s Tyler Gaffney has rushed for 1,618 yards this season with 20 touchdowns, with most of his yardage coming between the tackles. However, that is the heart and soul of the Michigan State defense.
On defense, Stanford was third against the rush and tied for the lead in the nation in quarterback sacks with 40.
A key matchup for this game will be the defensive skills of Darqueze Dennard the All American and Thorpe Award winning cornerback for Michigan State against Ty Montgomery the elusive wide receiver for Stanford.
Montgomery has 58 receptions and 10 touchdowns. He is also a very talented kick returner who ran two kickoffs back for touchdowns this season while averaging 31 yards per return.
The Spartans give up less than 13 points per game, which is No. 4 in the nation. Dennard has help on the defense from Kurtis Drummond a safety, with four interceptions and Denicos Allen and Shilique Calhoun who combined for 29.5 tackles for losses.
One player missing who cannot be overlooked is Max Bullough the defensive leader at middle linebacker for the Spartans, who will not play after being suspended.
Offensively the Spartans average nearly 30 points per game with Jeremy Langford at running back rushing for 1,338 yards and 17 touchdowns. Connor Cook the Spartans quarterback threw for 2,425 yards and 20 touchdowns, while throwing just 5 interceptions.
Stanford’s front seven on defense can take control of games. The D is led by Trent Murphy at outside linebacker who leads the nation with 14 quarterback sacks and Shayne Skov the inside linebacker who has 100 tackles on the season.
Offensively the Cardinal average 33 points a game, behind Gaffney and quarterback Kevin Hogan who had 20 touchdown passes and 9 interceptions.
The line has Stanford favored by 4.5 points. I like the Cardinal SU and the Spartans ATS.
