2010 Rose Bowl Odds

Ducks Look to Take Down Injured Pryor and the Ohio State Buckeyes

Game-day:  1/1/2010

Kick-off:  5:00 pm EST

By Aidan Yarborough

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The Oregon Ducks started out 2009 on a low note.  After losing to the Boise State Broncos in Week 1, running back LeGarrette Blount threw a punch and subsequently was kicked off of the Ducks’ football team.

Blount was reinstated later on during the season, but by then the Ducks were considered one of the best teams in college football and in the lead in the Pac-10.  Oregon ran off 7 straight victories, and went 6 and 1 ATS in those 7 games, before losing to Stanford 51 to 42 as 6 ½ point favorites.  To say that they didn’t miss LeGarrette Blount is a terrible understatement.

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After the Stanford loss, the Ducks bounced back with victories over Arizona State and Arizona, a 44 to 41 win in Tucson, and a 37 to 33 victory over the Oregon State Beavers which gave them the Rose Bowl berth.

Oregon is a seriously good team but are they good enough handle Terrelle Pryor and the Ohio State Buckeyes?  Probably.  After all, Pryor is supposedly hurt.

Below are the college football lines for this game.

Ohio State Buckeyes            +4 -110    +160        O 50 ½ -110

Oregon Ducks            -4 -110        -190        U 50 ½ -110

Here are a few online betting trends for this game.

The Ohio State Buckeyes are 9 and 2 ATS in their last 11 games following an ATS win.

The Under is 5 and 1 in the Ohio State Buckeyes last 6 games versus a Pac-10 opponent.

The Oregon Ducks are 9 and 3 ATS in their last 12 games following a straight-up win.

The Over is 5-1-1 in the Oregon Ducks last 7 games versus the Big Ten.

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Before getting to the Pryor injury, let me just say that the Oregon Ducks have the type of speed on offense that the Ohio State Buckeyes should fear.

The Buckeyes lost 26 to 18 against a Purdue team that incorporates a spread offense.  Granted, most of the issues Ohio State faced in the lost were due to the poor play of QB Terrelle Pryor, but losing to the Purdue Boilermakers was just awful.

Oregon lost two games this season as well but the two teams that Oregon lost to both had terrific seasons.  The Stanford Cardinal boasted one of the top offenses in the nation and Heisman Trophy finalist Toby Gerhart.  The Boise State Broncos finished 2009 undefeated.

Oregon’s speed should be one of the deciding factors in this game.  The Duck’s offense, which averages roughly 425 points per game, is vastly superior to both Purdue’s and USC’s, the two teams that Ohio State lost to during the regular season.

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Not only that, but Ohio State has to travel all the way to Pasadena, like they seemingly do every year, while the Duck’s need only take the PCH down the coast and cut over to get to the Rose Bowl. 

Oregon is stacked offensively and has a better defense than most teams give them credit for as they held 7 teams out of the 12 played this season to 21 points or less.  One of those teams was the Boise State Broncos, in a 19 to 8 loss, another team with a decidedly better offense than Ohio State’s.

As far as Pryor’s injury is concerned, the Buckeye’s quarterback says that he’s okay.  There’s no way he is, of course.  Supposedly Pryor has a tear to his posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.  If that’s the case, then, as he admitted, he might have trouble making “certain cuts”.

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That doesn’t bode well for an Ohio State team that has no shot keeping up offensively with Oregon without a healthy Pryor.  Terrelle Pryor is the Buckeyes’ leading rusher and passer.

All in all this game appears to be Oregon’s to win or lose.  The Duck’s offfense can swallow a team up and Ohio State just doesn’t appear to have the speed necessary to stick with Oregon.

Oregon is the play at -4 in the sportsbook.
 
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