No. 21 Missouri Tigers (3-0) 1-1 ATS, 0-2 O/U at Nevada Wolfpack (0-2) 0-2 ATS, 0-2 O/U Friday September 25, 2009, 9:00 p.m. EST, TV: ESPN
Point Spread: Missouri -7.5/Nevada +7.5
Over/Under: Off
The Missouri Tigers are heading into the Silver State of Nevada to take on the Nevada Wolfpack. The Tigers are freash off a lopsided victory over Furman (who?) 52-12. Tigers QB Blaine Gabbert had some serious fantasy football points as he went off for three touchdowns on 17 of 25 passing for 256 yards. Overall, the Tigers had 329 yards passing but not all of those yards came from the arm of Gabbert. Missouri actually scored their first TD on a trick play where wide reciever Danario Alexander took a lateral from Gabbert and hit fellow teammate Jared Perry for a 40-yard strike.
Missouri was up 42-0 at halftime and never looked back. This game was not really a challenge for the much better Tigers who outplayed Furman in nearly every aspect of the game. Jared Perry had a stat building night as he had 161 yards receiving on 7 catches and 2 touchdowns. His longest catch was for 48 yards.
Furman watched as Mizzou rallied off six consecutive touchdowns in the first half. The Tigers had 30 first downs and 525 total offensive yards. Missouri has been a team on the move during the last couple of seasons. The Tigers will look to improve to 4-0 this weekend and ready themselves for conference play.
The Wolfpack is still seeking their first win of the young season but it will not come easy. Nevada is 0-2 with losses at Notre Dame 35-0 and at Colorado State 35-20. The last time Nevada and Missouri got together it was all Tigers in a 69-17 blowout at Missouri. The Tigers matched the O/U of 69 in that game and the line was -26 in favor of Mizzou. The bookies have opened the early line with the Wolfpack as a 7.5 dog.
Missouri is 10-3 ATS in their last 13 road games as well 10-3 with the over/under. Nevada is 21-8 ATS in their last 29 home games.
The QB matchup is favoring Missouris Gabbert. Gabbert already has 8 TD passes on the season and zero interceptions. His pass completion percentage is 68.1 compared to Nevadas Colin Kaepernicks 60.7 percent. Gabbert averages 8.1 yards per pass play to Kaepernicks 6 yards per play. The big tale of the tape between these two QBs is the amount of turnovers and total passing yards. Gabbert has zero INTs while Kaepernick has 4 in just two games. Gabbert also has 747 yards passing to Kaepernicks 400. Considering most football teams success begins with their QB, Id say Missouri has the edge in this contest from behind center.
Nevada head coach Chris Ault was a bit concerned about his QB after their loss at Colorado State over the weekend. Im real concerned about Chriss play today, he never got out of his funk, said Ault regarding Kaepernicks poor play during the game. The Wolfpack had high expectations this season and recently theyve done nothing but beat themselves. Nevada had five turnovers against the Rams and a number of costly penalties which enabled CSU to really walk all over them early and often. The Wolfpack did regroup a little by scoring 14 points in the last four minutes but it was too late by then.
Missouri will head for Reno, Nevada later this week and they will hope that the Wolfpack keeps playing the way they have during their first two games. However, Nevada is looking forward to hosting a bigtime game with a chance to redeem their recent poor performances.
This game should be a W for the Tigers but Nevadas been known to play with the big boys on occasion. If Wolfpack QB Kaepernick can get it going he might be able to throw a wrench in the Tigers attack.
Wilsons Pick: Missouri 56, Nevada 28. I like the over in this game. Luck to ya.