The 40 bowl game matchups cut in all sorts of directions. A game might be a blowout but still fun. A game can sometimes be close and yet still boring. The best question is if a game’s collection of athletes is likely to produce relatively little offense, few explosive plays, and a small number of explosive or colorful developments. Here is a look at the best candidates for those kinds of games:
Camellia: Appalachian State vs. Toledo
The Appalachian State Mountaineers got crushed by a relatively ordinary Miami team earlier in the season. They couldn’t beat the Troy Trojans, a team that fell apart late in the season and didn’t even tie for the Sun Belt Conference title. Appalachian State is a decent team, but hardly an elite team. The Mountaineers do not have a dynamic offense – they accomplish most of what they accomplish through their defense and toughness.
Toledo didn’t come close to beating Western Michigan in the MAC West Division this season. The Rockets lost at home to Ohio University, something which very rarely happens. Toledo just didn’t pack the same punch of last year’s team, when it was much more dangerous. The Rockets might give Appalachian State a good fight, but this feels like a game which will be played close to the vest.
Potato: Colorado State vs. Idaho
This game probably won’t be close, with Colorado State having developed momentum in the final weeks of the season. Colorado State blew out the champion of the Mountain West Conference, San Diego State, in San Diego over a week ago. The Rams won four of their last five games and at least three of their losses (to No. 15 Boise State, to a quality Air Force team and a solid Minnesota squad) are understandable.
Idaho, coming from the Sun Belt, might find itself overmatched against another team which has grown in November and is primed for another crisp offensive performance. They did win four straight to end the year but the competition they faced was mostly a group of lightweights. This game could easily be 31-10, which is generally not a fun contest.
Dollar General: Ohio vs. Troy
Ohio gave Western Michigan a push in the MAC Championship Game, but in the game before that, the Bobcats barely beat Akron at home. They won 9-3, but if Akron had not dropped a pass in the end zone in the final minute of regulation, the Bobcats would have lost, and they wouldn’t even have gotten a chance to play Western Michigan in Detroit this past Friday. This is a low-octane offense with inconsistency at quarterback and a lack of a bruising offensive line to set up the running game.
Ohio will go against Troy, a team whose offense looked abysmal in a November 17 game against Arkansas State. The Troy offense sputtered down the stretch, failing to score in the 30s against Georgia Southern’s mediocre defense. These offenses are not going in the right direction. No matter which team wins or by how much, this game doesn’t figure to rouse any observers.
Quick Lane: Maryland vs. Boston College
This is a matchup in which both teams are below average. There are 128 programs in college football, meaning that the two-thirds mark of teams is 86th. Teams which fall below 86 on the list are in the bottom third of all teams in the country. Enter Maryland and Boston College, which rate near 90 in a number of offensive metrics. This could easily be a 13-10 game, close all the way but hardly filled with compelling and riveting action. There really isn’t much excitement to be had here.
When you look at the Terrapins, they finished the year with losses in four of their last five games, so it’s not as if they come into this game with a head of steam. They needed to beat a lousy Rutgers team in their last game to make the cut. As for Boston College, they were 4-6 until they won their final two games of the year to sneak in. Even with those wins, this is a team that dropped four of their last seven games.
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