Five Star Rose Bowl Picks – Penn State vs. USC – Who Covers The Spread
The pros at FiveStarPick.com got blown up yesterday. Our bankroll took a serious hit and we know yours did too, but what’s done is done and we have to focus on today’s comeback. Spoken like a true gambler…Today we focus on the Rose Bowl which features two powerhouses in Penn State (11-1 Straight Up, 8-3 Against the Spread) and USC (11-1 SU, 6-5 ATS.) Las Vegas sports books list the Trojans as 8.5-point favorites with the total listed at 44.5.
Penn State’s bid for a national championship ended on Nov. 8 when they lost to Iowa on the road 24-23 on a last-second field goal. The Big Ten conference has been down all year and the Lions’ non-conference schedule wasn’t good enough to boost their BCS rankings.
The Trojans’ fall came a couple months earlier (Sept. 25) and also on the road. After crushing Virginia (52-7) and Ohio State (35-3) at the beginning of the season, USC traveled to Oregon State and got rocked. The Trojans were down 21-0 at the break and ended up losing 27-21.
USC head coach Pete Carroll is 5-2 in his bowl history and 3-1 in the Rose Bowl. USC lost in the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl to Utah 10-6 in Carroll’s first season at USC. In 2005, his 12-0 team fell to Texas 41-38 in the Rose Bowl, which cost USC its third straight national title.
Penn State is 23-10-1 in bowl games under Paterno and has recently won three straight. The Lions have played twice in the Rose Bowl with Joepa, their last visit coming in 1995 when the school downed Oregon 38-20.
USC owns the nation’s best scoring defense with 7.8 points per game and the Lions are boasting 12.4 PPG. The Trojans also lead the nation in yards allowed per game (206.1). Penn State’s 263 YPG surrendered is 5th best nationally.
Offensively, Penn State is averaging 40.2 PPG but was held to 13 points when it faced Ohio State, which most would agree was the best unit the team faced all season. QB Daryll Clark (2,319 yards, 17 TDs) and RB Evan Royster (1,202 yards, 12 TDs) will be tested against USC linebackers Rey Maualuga, Brian Cushing and Kaluka Maiava.
USC QB Mark Sanchez (2,794 yards, 30 TDs) is looking to light it up tonight with RB Joe McKnight (646 yards) in the backfield both running and catching the football. The USC receiving corps is average, but Patrick Turner (667 yards, 10 TDs) is Sanchez’s top target.
Now let’s talk trends…USC is 8-0 both SU and ATS in its last eight meetings against Big Ten opponents and all eight wins have come by double digits. The Big Ten is 0-2 this bowl season, while the Pac 10 has gone 2-0.
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