The Missouri Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks will look to stay undefeated when they square-off at Faurot Field in Missouri on Saturday evening. The game has been penciled in to start on Saturday, September 9th at 7:00 p.m. EST and can be seen on ESPN2. On Tuesday, the Tigers are a slight -2.5 point favorite and the over/under is at 72.5 points.
The South Carolina Gamecocks are coming off a hard-fought victory over the N.C. State Wolfpack. The Gamecocks put up 35 points on what was supposed to be a good N.C. State defense. The Missouri Tigers put up 72 points in their opener to hammer Missouri State. Even with their offensive output, their defense also surrendered almost 50 points.
South Carolina (1-0)
Head coach Will Muschamp’s Gamecocks put a lot of youth out on the field against the Wolfpack. In fact, South Carolina played 16 first-year players. Muschamp says he expects that total to rise further when they play Missouri this weekend. In the match-up against N.C. State, the Gamecocks’ defense was on the field for 99 snaps and yielded 504 yards of total offense. Furthermore, the Gamecocks gave way to over 400 of those yards through the air.
“We need more,” Muschamp said. “I told the team today. We need more young guys to step up. The way you do that is to build confidence in your staff in practice, in meetings, in walk-through. Certainly we have some guys–more guys–who will play this week.”
Quarterback Jake Bentley shoulder most of the load for the South Carolina offense last Saturday. In all, Bentley completed 17 of 29 passes for 215 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. He could be set to have a bigger day if the Tigers can’t find a way to shore up their porous pass defense.
The Gamecocks didn’t get a whole lot of production from their running game in their opener. Rico Dowdle leading the team with 27 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries. However, Dowdle also had a pair of receptions for 51 yards and a touchdown through the air as well.
In the South Carolina receiving department, Deebo Samuel led the charge. The number one option hauled in 5 passes for 83 yards and and two touchdowns, while also returning the opening kickoff 97 yards for a third score. Bryan Edwards also caught 5 balls for 55 yards in the win for South Carolina.
Defensively, the Gamecocks’ front seven combined for 4 sacks, but it was an otherwise disappointing performance. The Wolfpack doubled up South Carolina’s offensive output, racking up 504 yards of total offense, including 415 yards through the air. The Gamecocks only had 246 of their own.
Missouri Tigers (1-0)
The Tigers amassed 72 points and 815 yards of offense against FCS team Missouri State last Saturday. Quarterback Drew Lock had a record-setting kind of day, passing for 521 yards and seven touchdown strikes with one pick. The school’s previous touchdown record was five and the yardage mark had been at 480. Not only did he break the Tiger’s touchdown record but tied the SEC’s.
Now the question is if Missouri can replicate similar results against a tough opponent. As of now, they scored 21 points or less four times in their last seven SEC contests heading into their 2017 campaign.
The Missouri running game also had a big day. Running back Damarea Crocket rushed for over 200 on 18 carries and two trips to pay-dirt. The leading rusher also had a fumble. Back field mate Larry Rountree III also had a pair of scores with 41 more yards added to the mix.
Two Missouri wide outs went over the century mark against Missouri State on Saturday. J’Mon Moore brought in 4 passes for 187 yards and two scores in the victory. Also, Jonathan Johnson caught a team-high 5 balls for 116 yards and a pair of touchdowns himself. Two other receivers found the end zone on Saturday.
Defensively, Missouri combined for 3 quarterback take down and an interception. Furthermore, the unit forced three fumbles but only recovered one. Realistically, the Tigers’ offense was their best defense, as they out gained the Bears 815 to 492 in of total offense. I don’t expect the offense to be as productive against the Gamecocks this weekend, so the defense needs to find ways to keep the turnovers coming in.
Prediction
N.C. State more than doubled South Carolina’s yardage total last Saturday. The Gamecocks scored 14 of their points off turnovers and opened with a kickoff return for a touchdown. Sustained offensive drives were far from the reason for victory, as South Carolina gained a grand total of 246 yards. In high sight, the game’s total could have easily came in under.
The Missouri Tigers allowed 43 points and almost 500 yards of offense to an FCS opponent in Missouri State. One can only imagine what the South Carolina offense could put up. Even so, South Carolina’s 35 points isn’t truly indicitive of how the offense performed.
Las Vegas has the game total at a inflated 72.5 points. Of course, everybody thinks that makes since because of what the tigers did against their opponent and what the Gamecocks might do against the Missouri defense. Well, I’m not buying the South Carolina offense just yet. Instead, take who I think is the better team in this match-up and capitalize on the Gamecocks at +2.5 and take the plus money in an outright victory.
Trends
The Gamecocks are 3-1-1 ATS in their last 5 conference games.
The Gamecocks are 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 road games.
The Over is 4-0 in the Gamecocks last 4 games overall.
The Under is 9-1 in the Gamecocks last 10 conference games.
The Tigers are 3-9 ATS in their last 12 conference games.
The Tigers are 2-7 ATS in their last 9 games overall.
Join the Rainmaker and myself for our 5th addition of our NCAA College Football Throwdown Podcast on September 7th. We will be previewing all the upcoming games for Week Two and discussing the contest’s spreads and totals. We also will be giving our dog picks of the week as well as in-depth coverage of some of the weekend’s biggest games.
As of now, I’m cranking out winners at a 58 percent clip for the getmoresports.com readers and hope to push that over the 60 percent mark by the weekend’s end. Again, come join us for some valuable betting advice that could directly effect your pocket books come Monday.
