The Baylor Bears will travel in-state to play the Rice Owls on Friday, September 16th at 8:00 p.m. ET. The game will be played at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas and will be shown on ESPN.
The Baylor Bears are -30.5 point favorites and the over/under is set at 66. The Bears enter the contest with a 2-0 record while the Owls at 0-2 are still searching for their first win of 2016.
Baylor Bears:
Baylor dismantled Rice in a good old fashioned butt whopping last year in Waco (70-17). The Bears interim head coach Jim Grobe is taking a cautious approach to his teams first road game of the year.
Jim Grobe is counting on veteran leadership to make sure his team is focused and taking the trip to Houston seriously. He is also relying on them to guide his younger, less experienced players to prepare as if this was a big game in Oklahoma.
The Bear’s Quarterback Seth Russell has came back from a neck injury that put him out of commission in 2015. So far, his return has been as effective as he could hope for. Russell has already completed 40 out of 67 throws for over 400 yards.
The gunslinger has six touchdowns and only two interceptions on the season. Russell has been held to limited action in the two games. As a result, the numbers could’ve been a lot higher if he participated in all four quarters of the first two contests.
Running back Shock Linwood gave the Baylor Nation a scare in last weeks game. After he tallied 58 yards on 18 carries, he left the game with a strained neck. The running sensation is back this week for the match-up against the Owls.
Shock Linwood has over a 150 yards rushing with no touchdowns on the season. A break-out game could be on the horizon for this talented player. Furthermore, Linwood is only 48 yards away from breaking the school rushing record of 3,665 yards. Walter Abercrombie holds the record from his 1978-81 campaigns in Waco.
Wide receivers K.D. Cannon and Blake Lynch are showing signs of becoming immediate threats whenever the Bears take possession of the football. Together, they have over 20 catches and nearly 250 yards with four scores.
The speedy defense is led by end K.J. Smith and linebacker Taylor Young. Together they have racked up 14 total tackles and two sacks in the first two matches. The quality of offenses have been average at best, so it’s hard to get a bead on the effectiveness of the unit on the field.
Rice Owls:
The Owls look to be in some serious trouble to start off the 2016 season. They rank a paltry 119th in the nation in total offense. Unfortunately, when you average only 290 yards a game, you find yourself tied for 121st in the country in scoring. To make matters worse, these numbers were also posted after playing Army and Western Kentucky. Two teams that are not necessarily known for their defensive play.
Owl’s Quarterback Tyler Stehling has struggled to keep the ball out of the opposing teams hands. The signal-caller has completed 39 passes on 68 attempts with a touchdown, but has three interceptions in two games played.
The production out of the backfield is non-existent. Tyler Stehling is the leading rusher with 81 yards on 17 carries. The duel-threat quarterback has found the end-zone only one time via the ground attack.
Wide receiver James Mayden is a one man show for the Rice Owls on the perimeter. Nevertheless, his six catches for 83 yards doesn’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of opposing secondaries.
Rice has given up 77 points in it’s first two contests, while teams have exposed them through the air and on the ground. The two stand-outs that are trying to stop the bleeding are Linebackers Emmanuel Ellerbe and Alex Lyons. Both players have a team high 17 tackles apiece.
Match-Up Analysis:
First, let’s just get this out of the way. Baylor is going to claim victory in Houston on Friday evening. The big betting question is by how many points will they win by. The numbers also indicate that the Bears should find plenty of holes in Rice’s porous defense.
Seth Russell is starting to jive early on with his wide-outs. That spells more trouble for an under manned Rice football team. Throw in the fact that Shock Linwood is due for a big half of football and things could get ugly in a hurry.
The Rice Owls are a little better than they have shown and Baylor was tied 6-6 with SMU at halftime last week. That also might give bettors a nod to lean toward the huge home underdog in this game.
I refuse to play this total with the Owl’s inability to move the football and the cover is high enough that I’m going to stay clear. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Baylor wins the ball game by 40. Either way, I’m going to lay off the road favorite in an in-state match-up. There’s better spots to get your money in on this one.
The Hun’s Pick:
I’ll wait for the Baylor team total to come out, then hit it as soon as possible before the number rises even more before game time. I expect it to be around 46-48 points.
