Rose Bowl Free Picks

Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Oregon Ducks - 5:00 ET - Jan 1, 2010

The Rose Bowl betting proceedings kick off from Pasadena at 5:00 ET on New Year's Day, and BetUS Sportsbook customers surely won't want to miss any of the action! The Ohio State Buckeyes (10-2, 9-3 ATS) will look to end the Big Ten's drought in this game against the Oregon Ducks (10-2, 7-5 ATS). Not only has the Big Ten not won a Rose Bowl since 2000, but Ohio State also has a knack of falling short in the biggest games. Over the L/3 seasons, they've lost BCS games to Texas, LSU, and Florida, two of which could've won the National Championship. As for the Ducks, they'll enter the Rose Bowl betting battle scorching hot, having won its final two games in dramatic fashion.

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The oddsmakers expect to see Oregon rumbled to victory, as they have lined the Ducks at -4 with a 'total' of 50.5.

It's hard to ignore just how good Ohio State really has been this year. The team has covered nine of its L/11 games after losing its opener ATS against Navy. The only really bad looking blemish on this slate came on October 17th in a miserable 26-18 loss to Purdue. But since then, all has been forgotten, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The Buckeyes have only conceded four offensive touchdowns in their L/5 games. This should be an interesting day for QB Terrelle Pryor, who spurned a chance to play at Oregon in favor of Ohio State. The argument can be made that he just hasn't panned out at all for the Bucks, as he only accounted for a total of 2,529 yards this year between his arm and his legs and was booed by the fans at the 'Shoe several times.

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Unless Pryor can find a way to stick score for score with the Ducks, it's hard to see how the boys in green and gold are getting stopped. Since nearly getting blanked by Boise State on the opening night of the season, Oregon has scored at least 24 points in all of its games and has dropped at least 31 all but one other time. The U of O has put at least 42 on the board seven times this year. This may be the most relentless rushing attack in all of college football. RB LaMichael James has rushed for 1,480 yards and 14 scores, but what makes the 'O' go is QB Jeremiah Masoli. The junior signal caller (who ended up becoming the prized quarterback in Eugene after the highly coveted Pryor turned the Ducks down) rushed for 659 yards and 12 TDs to go with his 2,066 passing yards and 15 scores. Keep in mind that all of this has been done essentially without RB LeGarrette Blount, who was suspended for the majority of the season after throwing a punch following the Boise State blowout.

The Bucks stop here. Oregon just has too much offensive firepower for Ohio State to keep up with. All of the negativity surrounding OSU's history is just going to pile on, as the Buckeye faithful get even more restless with how poor Pryor’s panned out for them.

Sharps's Recommendation: 5* Oregon Ducks

Rating Scale 1* - 5*

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