The Ole Miss Rebels rolled to a 50-22 win over Louisiana on Saturday to improve to 5-5 following back-to-back victories. The Rebels still have a shot at reaching seven wins but they will need to sweep their final two games beginning with a home game against the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday night. While seven would be nice, six and a bowl berth would be a success for Ole Miss given what their program has endured dating all the way back to the offseason.
Ole Miss looked good on both sides of the football against the Ragin’ Cajuns but it will be in tougher against Texas A&M at home. The Aggies snapped a two-game slide with a lopsided win over New Mexico last week. The Aggies do have four losses on the season but at a closer look, they were all to quality teams. The UCLA loss to start the year was a calamity but their only other losses were to Alabama, Mississippi State and to Auburn. Those are all teams ranked in the Top 20 right now. The Aggies should be motivated to reach eight wins this season with two SEC contests left on the schedule.
Details
Odds: Mississippi -2.5
Date & Time: Saturday November 18th, 2017 – 7:00 PM ET
Location: Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, University, Mississippi
Broadcast: ESPN2
Reasons To Bet On The Texas A&M Aggies
Texas A&M will need back-to-back wins over Ole Miss and LSU to reach eight wins. The Aggies won’t finish better than 8-4 but matching their regular season win total from each of the last two seasons won’t necessarily be a bad thing considering the adversity this group has faced at times this season. Freshman quarterback Nick Starkel is coming off an incredible performance after throwing for 416 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions in last week’s win. It will be difficult for Starkel to deliver another performance like that on the road against Ole Miss but he will need to be at his best in order for them to pull off the upset. Texas A&M will also need to get its run game going in order to take some of the pressure off of its young passer. The Aggies combined for just 63 rushing yards last week but did register two rushing scores.
Reasons To Bet On The Ole Miss Rebels
Even without star quarterback Shea Patterson the Rebels offense was clocking in last week’s win. Jordan Ta’amu threw for 418 yards with three touchdowns and just one interception. The junior quarterback is up to 1,246 passing yards and seven touchdowns compared to only two interceptions so far this season. As long as the Ole Miss passing attack continues to click this team will have a chance to finish strong at home. Meanwhile, senior running back Jordan Wilkins rushed for 124 yards and a touchdown in last week’s win over Louisiana. Wilkins should be in for another heavy workload this week against Texas A&M. The Rebels offense has averaged 41.3 points per game over the past three weeks so as long as the defense shows up they should have an excellent shot at winning this weekend.
Outlook
We’ve seen a little bit of movement on this betting line as it bounces around a field goal. The Rebels opened up at a -2.5 and that’s where it currently sits, but it did drop to -2 and get as high as -3. The total has also shifted around a little bit. It opened up at 67 and moved as high as 69.5. As of now, it’s back at 68.5.
For as good as the Aggies looked last week, this will be a much tougher test on the road in a hostile environment. Texas A&M has reached eight wins in each of the last two seasons and they should get there again. Ole Miss has had trouble with quality teams, losing to Arkansas, LSU, Auburn, Alabama and Cal. As for the Aggies, their losses are all to quality teams. They’re the better team in this spot and they’ll go on the road and win this game outright.
Pick: Aggies +2.5
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