West Virginia Mountaineers at Missouri Tigers
TV: ESPN2; Line: Missouri -13.5; Over/Under: 63
Saturday, Sept. 7 at 12 p.m. E.T.; Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field; Columbia, Mo.
The Missouri Tigers joined Tennessee football as one of the SEC East teams to suffer an upset loss over the weekend. However, they had a bit of a rough outing, facing the Wyoming Cowboys on the road and breaking in a new quarterback in Kelly Bryant. Mizzou moved the ball well and did put up 31 points against a well-coached Wyoming team.
This week, they get to host a West Virginia Mountaineers team that is in its first year with new head coach Neal Brown, who successfully turned around the Troy Trojans. They barely put away James Madison last week, winning 20-13.
Despite WVU’s 1-0 start and Mizzou’s loss to a Mountain West team, all the hype is behind the Tigers for this game. It’s actually an exciting matchup that could turn into a shootout if everything goes right. After all, nobody believes in Brown’s or Barry Odom’s defense, Mizzou clearly has an offense, and expectations are there for WVU to develop one.
Prediction
Taking Missouri to win and cover is the easy part. Mizzou clearly can score and move the ball, and they’re back home this week against a program in transition. So Derek Dooley’s offense should take off. The question is in regards to the over/under. We say take the under because WVU won’t score enough.