Upcoming Match-ups

Rose Bowl Early Preview – (3) Noles’ Win-Streak on Line vs. (2) Ducks

John Benson

by John Benson in News

Updated Jan 17, 2018 · 9:40 AM PST

Rose Bowl: Rose Bowl, Pasadena (Jan. 1, 5 p.m. Eastern)

(2) Oregon Ducks (-9.5, 71.5 o/u) vs. (3) Florida State Seminoles

The first ever College Football Playoffs doesn’t need any additional storylines to capture the nation’s attention. But, gratuitously, the Rose Bowl has a doozy, as it pits the two most recent Heisman Trophy winners against one another.

This year’s winner, Marcus Mariota, will lead the No. 2 Oregon Ducks (12-1) against last year’s winner, Jameis Winston, and his No. 3 Florida State Seminoles (13-0).

Despite the 13-0 record, this has been a trying season for Florida State, last year’s national champs. They struggled to beat ostensibly lesser teams, and aren’t getting the respect a defending champion deserves, according to head coach Jimbo Fisher.

“I think you always have that mentality as a coach, there is nothing against the other teams ranked ahead of us but I think winning is so hard and you repeat things people are going to prepare differently, prepare for you in the off-season,” said Fisher. “And to overcome so much adversity, defending our championship and still being able to go undefeated, I think it is a tremendous feat.”

Though FSU is riding a 29-game winning streak, and is the only undefeated team in the nation, it does have cracks in its armor. The biggest issue is turnovers, with Winston throwing 17 picks this year. On the flip side, Mariota has thrown just two.

The Ducks also led the Pac-12 in turnover margin, recovering 14 fumbles and intercepting 11 passes.

Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich is feeling good about his team heading into the first-ever national semi-final.

He said, “We take pride in being the last Pac-10 conference champion, the first Pac-12 conference champion and now it’s another bullet point of how far our program has come. When you look across you got Alabama, Ohio State and Florida State and we’re in the same breath, it’s an honor. Playing at the Rose Bowl is every kids’ dream and our guys will be fired up.”

Oregon is currently a 9.5-point favorite, which might seem like a massive spread, but the Ducks and Noles are coming off markedly different performances in their respective title games. The Ducks dominated then-No. 7 Arizona, 51-13, whereas FSU barely survived then-No. 11 Georgia Tech, 37-35, failing to cover as moderate 4.5-point favorites.

While there will be plenty of action on the Ducks to finally give the Seminoles a loss, the smart play due to FSU’s penchant for turnovers is taking the under (71.5).

(Photo credit: Athies22 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)

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