Baylor Oklahoma State Betting – Two High-Powered Offenses Clash For Big 12 South Lead
The 2010 college football season has witnessed many wacky developments. One of them is that the Baylor Bears and Oklahoma State Cowboys lead the Big 12 South in November.
NCAA football betting: Baylor Bears @ Oklahoma State Cowboys
Online Betting Odds: Oklahoma State -7
Why To Bet On Baylor
The Bears are a team on a mission this season. They keep finding ways to win, and they have the quarterback who doesn’t appear willing to allow them to lose.
Baylor had already punched a ticket to a bowl game heading into last week’s game at Texas. One of the old Southwest Conference’s most downtrodden programs, with even fewer accomplishments to tout in its Big 12 history, could have easily settled for a modest level of achievement. The Bears could have reveled in their accomplishment and taken the easy route against the Texas Longhorns on Oct. 30. It would have been so entirely understandable if this team, so new to the spotlight, stepped off the gas pedal and allowed a proud but deficient Texas team to claim a home win and avoid a three-game home-field losing streak.
Baylor would not succumb to the temptation of relaxing. The Baptist school beat Texas for the first time since 1997 to improve to 7-2 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12. The Bears, now atop the South and in control of their fate as November begins, hadn’t won in Austin since 1991.
Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin – who must now be given serious consideration as a Heisman Trophy finalist – completed 16 of 24 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns. He was held to just 17 rushing yards on 16 carries, but that stat really doesn’t matter when you consider the fact that Griffin led Baylor back from a 19-10 deficit on the road in a night game. Griffin certainly merits a plane ticket to New York and a week of fine dining on the college football awards-banquet circuit this December.
Running back Jay Finley had Griffin’s back as a runner, anyway, gaining 116 yards on 15 attempts. Baylor showed balance and boldness in the cauldron of an enemy lair, and if that same set of qualities emerges at Oklahoma State, the Bears will be in good shape.
Why To Bet On Oklahoma State
The Cowboys, even though they scored only 24 points last week at Kansas State Wildcats, racked up 511 yards and continued to move the ball. OSU’s offense has been a scoring machine this season, averaging 45.3 points per game, third-best in the nation. Baylor’s leaky defense has surrendered 134 points in its last four games against Big 12 opponents, for an average of 33.5 points. If Oklahoma State’s offense doesn’t turn the ball over and can execute in the red zone, the Cowboys should threaten to score 50 points, and that will obviously be hard for Robert Griffin to match in a road game. OSU’s offense should have a field day against a weak Baylor secondary that did not get tested by Texas’ pop-gun passing attack last weekend.
How The Game Will Play Out
This should be a total shootout. Because it should be a shootout, the key question is that if one team gets a pick-six or a similarly high-impact turnover, will the other team crumble? Baylor has shown that it will not fold in the midst of tough situations. Perhaps Oklahoma State will win this game outright, but with the spread being what it is, it seems likely that Baylor will stay within one touchdown and barely cover the number. This game feels like a 49-42 OSU win, but again, that means Baylor covers. If the Cowboys had been favored by only four points, they’d look a lot better from a betting standpoint.
Baylor Oklahoma State Betting Pick: Baylor
