The Missouri Tigers are trending in the right direction after winning back-to-back games to improve to 3-5 this season. They will look to extend their win streak when they host the Florida Gators on Sunday. The Gators have dropped three in a row heading in to this week including a brutal 42-7 loss to Georgia in their most recent outing. Florida decided to part ways with head coach Jim McElwain following its latest loss. That’s put the team in an interesting predicament as it essentially lays their season to rest. They are 3-4 and have a chance at a bowl game if they can win three of their final four, but the team is a mess right now. They have scored a combined 40 points in their last three games and now defensive coordinator Randy Shannon will serve as the interim head coach. It’s not a pretty situation in the swamp.
Details
Odds: Missouri -3.5
Date & Time: Saturday November 4th 2017 – 12:00 PM ET
Location: Memorial Stadium, Columbia, Missouri
Broadcast: ESPN2
Reasons To Bet On The Florida Gators
It was only a matter of time before the Gators pulled the plug on McElwain. It made sense that they did it this week after dropping a third straight game in embarrassing fashion. Florida has gone from contender to pretender in a hurry so it will be interesting to see if they can bounce back with Shannon on the sideline this weekend. Quarterbacks Malik Zaire and Feleipe Franks combined for just 66 passing yards and an interception against the Bulldogs. Until the Gators figure things out at the quarterback position they will continue to struggle. Running backs Lamical Perine and Mark Thompson combined for 131 yards and a touchdown in Florida’s last loss and should see plenty of touches this week in Missouri. Shannon is a defensive specialist so it will be interesting to see how the Gators respond against a Tigers side that averaged 60.0 points consecutive wins over Idaho and Connecticut heading in to this contest.
Reasons To Bet On The Missouri Tigers
Missouri quarterback Drew Lock threw for 377 yards and five touchdowns in last week’s win over UCONN. Lock will look to pick up from where he left off with another dominant performance against a Florida defense that has been exposed over the past couple of weeks. The Tigers also have a decent rushing attack with Ish Witter and Micah Wilson combining for 202 rushing yards in the win over Connecticut. Missouri’s defense registered four sacks and an interception in their latest win and should benefit from another relatively favorable matchup this week. The Gators have really struggled to move the football on offense so it will be on this Tigers defense to keep them off balance and find a way to win this game at home.
Outlook
The Florida-Missouri line opened up at -2.5 but has quickly moved up as bettors seem to have plenty of faith in the Tigers in this spot. That’s hard to believe because the Gators have been ranked in the Top 25 for much of the season while Missouri has been considered an SEC afterthought. The line climbed as high as Missouri -3.5 but has since settled back down to -3. As for the total, we’ve seen steady action in one direction: over. The total opened up at 57 but has now moved all the way up to 61.5. That’s likely because Missouri’s games have been very high scoring this year. The lowest combined score for any of their last five games has been 64 points.
Florida has won the past two meetings between these teams by a combined score of 61-21. However, this is a much different looking Gators team than Missouri faced in those two prior meetings so it’s unreasonable to expect a similar outcome. While it made sense to make the move to Shannon as the interim coach in the middle of a brutal stretch, it’s unreasonable to expect the defensive specialist to fix a passing game that has looked absolutely awful this season. Missouri will win and cover at home to extend its win streak to three on Saturday afternoon.
Pick: Missouri -3.5
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