New Orleans Bowl Betting Odds

Opening Line: Southern Miss -3.5 / Middle Tenn. State +3.5 O/U 59

Time: 8:30 PM EST Sunday December 20, 2009 on ESPN

The Southern Mississippi State Golden Eagles take on the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders in the Big Easy in the New Orleans Bowl. The Golden Eagles won 2 of their last 3 games and the Blue Raiders ended the season on fire winning their last 6 games to finish 2nd in the Sun Belt Conference behind a Troy team that they beat this season. Southern Miss lost both of their games against ranked teams this season and Middle Tennessee State did not play any ranked teams this season. Southern Miss is playing in New Orleans Bowl for the second straight year.

This season Southern Mississippi was 6-4-1 ATS and Middle Tennessee State was 9-3 ATS.

The Golden Eagles rank 31st in the nation on offense and their strength is running the ball with the RB duo of Damion Fletcher (937 yds 8 TD) and Tory Harrison (626 yds 9 TD). QB Martevious Young (1,590 yds 13 TD 1 INT) took over the starting job in the middle of the season and played well in the 2nd half of the season. Middle Tennessee State ranks 49th in the nation on defense and their main goal will be stuffing the run. The Blue Eagles are solid on the front line, as they led the country with a per-game average of 8.83 tackles for a loss and finished 4th in sacks with 3.17 per game. The Southern Miss offensive line has to play well in this game giving Young protection and opening up holes for the rushing game.

The Blue Raiders have the nation's 30th ranked offense and they are all about QB Dwight Dasher (2,627 yds 21 TD), who also leads rushing attack (953 yds 11 TD). How he goes the Blue Raiders go, as if he has a good game they have a great chance to win, but if he struggles Southern Miss will win this game. Dasher will be facing a Golden Eagles' defense that ranks 77th in the nation, but only 113th in passing defense. Dasher has two legit targets in WR's Patrick Honeycutt (36 rec 411 yds 4 TD) and Chris McClover (31 rec 486 yds 4 TD), who are each averaging at least 11 yards per reception. Since the Southern Miss secondary has major issues their front line D has to pressure Dasher and they did rank 12th in the nation with 34 sacks this season. If the Blue Raiders' offensive line gives Dasher solid protection they may light up the scoreboard.


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