Beef ‘O’Brady Bowl: Southern Miss Golden Eagles vs Louisville Cardinals Bowl Preview
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Date/Time: Tuesday, Dec. 21 8 p.m. (ET)
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Venue: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, FL.
Broadcast: ESPN
Golden Eagles at Cardinals Lines by betED.com
Pointspread: Cardinals -3
Over/Under: 57
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The Southern Miss Golden Eagles, out of Conference-USA will look to renew their rivalry from the ‘80’s and ‘90’s with the Louisville Cardinals from the Big East in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Florida on Tuesday, Dec. 21. Kickoff from Tropicana Field is set for 8 p.m. and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Unfortunately, Southern Miss dug itself an early hole in the conference this season with a one-point 50-49 loss to UAB in overtime as a 10 ½ point home favorite and another one-point 44-43 loss to East Carolina as an eight-point home favorite. The Golden Eagles did go on to beat eventual C-USA champion Central Florida 31-21 in mid-November as a 10 ½ point road underdog, but the damage to their title hopes was already done. They would still have to consider their season a success with an overall record of 8-4 straight-up (6-6 against the spread) and 5-3 SU in the conference.
Southern Miss did a good job of moving the ball through both the air and the ground this season . This resulted in the Golden Eagles having the 15th ranked scoring offense in the nation; averaging 37.6 points per game. However, Southern Miss did struggle stopping its opponents on defense; giving up an average of 29.4 points for game.
QB Austin Davis led the passing attack, completing 62.3 percent of his throws for 2,898 yards and 18 touchdowns. RB Kendrick Hardy was the main cog in the running game with 855 yards on 127 carries. Davis added another 436 yards on the ground and led the team with 10 TD’s.
Louisville has to consider its six wins in 2010 a huge success after winning just nine games the last two seasons combined. The Cardinals also know that if few more things would have fallen their way this year they could have actually won the Big East Conference. The Cardinals beat Connecticut, who ended up winning the title, 26-0 as a three-point home favorite, but their chances came unraveled in losses to Cincinnati 35-27 as a 2 ½ point home underdog and to South Florida 24-21 in OT as a two-point home favorite. Louisville finished the season 6-6 both SU and ATS and was 3-4 SU in the conference.
The Cardinal’s defense remained solid all season long; giving up an average of just 18.7 points per game, which was 15th best in the country. They also had a bruising ground game that averaged 180.5 yards per game. RB Bilal Powell looked unstoppable at times, ending the season with 1,330 rushing yards on 211 carries for an average of 6.3 yards per carry. He also led the team in touchdowns with 13.
Trends:
Southern Miss is 4-2 ATS in its last six games and the total has gone ‘over’ in seven of its last eight games.
Louisville is 3-3 ATS in its last six games and the total has stayed ‘under’ in four of those six games.
Head-to-head, these two teams met last year in the regular season with Louisville coming away with a 25-23 win as a 2 ½ point favorite. The total stayed ‘under’ the 49 ½ point line.
This time around, Louisville will count on its running game to control both the line of scrimmage as well as the clock to keep the Golden Eagles’ offense off the field for as much as possible. This strategy works to a charm with the Cardinals coming away with a win and covering the points.
The Pick: Louisville -3 and UNDER
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David Schwab is a regular contributor to the Cappers Picks Blog. While not cheering for his beloved Philadelphia Eagles David can be found working on his blog. David wants to hear from you so please comment below.
