College Bowl Betting – Boston College vs. USC in the Emerald Bowl

In the third and final bowl game of the day, the Boston College Eagles (8-4, 6-5 ATS) will match wits with the USC Trojans (8-4, 3-9 ATS) in the Emerald Bowl betting proceedings.

Both of these teams come into this game a little disappointed with their bowl assignments, as the Eagles were hoping for a chance to play for the ACC Championship and a berth in the Orange Bowl, while this is a very uncharacteristically poor bid for the Trojans and HC Pete Carroll who are used to spending the holidays in Pasadena.

The Emerald Bowl betting line features the Men of Troy favored by 7.5 points. You can find a ‘total’ of 44 at BetOnline Sportsbook right now.

Offense has been a major, major problem at times for the Eagles this season. The team only really had two huge outbursts this year, one coming against Northeastern, and the other coming against NC State. Aside from that, they only crossed the 30-point barrier twice and have been held under 20 points in each of their L/3 games. The team ranks just 98th in the country in total offense at 324.9 yards per game.

USC Trojans -7.5 vs Boston College on Emeral Bowl >> Join to Bet Now

Defensively is where Boston College has made a name for itself. BC has the 23rd ranked stop unit in the land, allowing 318.4 yards per game, and is holding opponents to just 19.4 points per game. Only NC State and Virginia Tech scored more than 25 points against this team in 2009.

Southern Cal has offensive problems of its own. Freshman QB Matt Barkley had his ups and downs, but by the standards of the Trojan faithful, he had far too many downs and not nearly enough ups. Barkley finished his first year under center at USC by completing 58.4% of his passes for 2,385 yards and 13 TDs against 12 INTs. Yes, he led the team to victories at Ohio State and California of note, but a fourth place finish in the Pac-10 is never going to cut it, nor is the fact that the team ranks just 58th in the country in total offense.

Carroll’s defense had very high points and very low points as well in 2009. Giving up 36 points to Oregon State, 47 to Oregon, and a whopping 55 to Stanford was very un-USC like, but in hindsight, those offenses were all very, very good. Six foes were also held to single digits in scoring.

This is a very tough game to handicap. This will be the first time that Barkley gets the feel for a bowl game, so the USC offense may struggle. However, BC’s offense is incredibly simplistic, and that may ultimately allow the Trojans to just tee off on QB David Shinskie and his fellow Eagles. Don’t look for many points to find the scoreboard in this one. The ‘under’ has gone 24-11-1 in USC’s L/36 games overall, and that should continue once again in the Emerald Bowl.

Rose’s Recommendation: 2* Boston College Eagles/USC Trojans Under

Rating Scale 1* – 5*