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Oregon Double Digit Favorite Over Purdue
Despite Losing Blount for the Year
9/12/09
A single punch has led to devastating effects for the Oregon Ducks. A single
poor decision and they no longer have RB LeGarette Blount. After punching a
player from Boise St, he has been suspended for the rest of the year. Oregon
lost that game 19-8 and slipped out of the Top 25 rankings from #16. They will
look to get back on track against the Purdue Boilermakers who started their
season with 52-31 win over Toledo. Last year’s game between these two teams
resulted in a thrilling 2-0T finish with Oregon coming out on top 32-26.
Sportsbook.com has
Oregon favored by 12 with a total of 58.5.
The Purdue Boilermakers have a new coach in Danny Hope. They lost all of their
skilled starters and only return 4 starters to the offense. All of them are
offensive lineman. Joey Elliott has taken over at QB. He has played 10 career
games, but has made no starts until the Toledo game. You would think he played
very well against Toledo, throwing for 220 yards and 3 TDs. However, he also
threw 3 INTs. Sophomore RB Ralph Bolden went buck wild in his first game of the
year, putting up 234 yards on 21 carries for 2 TDs. If he plays anything like
that against Oregon then the Boilermakers will make short work of their
opponent.
Purdue is bringing back 7 players on defense. The defensive line and secondary
both look strong with DT Mike Neal, and CBs Brandon King and David Pender. The
Oregon running game will be an unknown without Blount, so if the Boilermakers
can stop or even slow down the Ducks running game it would go a long way towards
getting one in the W column. Purdue ranked 24th against the pass last year and
they must play like it in this game. If Oregon is able to pull off big passes to
make up for the loss of Blount then Purdue will be in big trouble. If the
defense does its job, then the offense will need for good play from RB Bolden
and QB Elliot.
Oregon took a big blow by losing Blount, but one player doesn’t make a team. QB
Jeremiah Masoli is an effective threat as both a runner and a passer. He picked
up 13 passing TDs and 10 rushing TDs last year. His knowledge and ability to
utilize the spread option offense will only get better as time goes on. The
biggest question is the blocking up front. Will the offensive line be able to
protect him and new RB Andre Crenshaw? I’m willing to say that they can do that
against the Purdue Boilermakers, but against conference opponents they will have
trouble. However, I will save that argument for another day.
The Ducks defense did well against Boise St in their first game, holding them to
19 points and 361 total yards. They did particularly well against the run
keeping the Broncos to 164 yards on the ground, and they also held them to 2 of
4 on fourth down. Needless to say, the offense they will be playing this week is
much weaker than Boise St’s. If they are able to shut down RB Bolden and make
problems for QB Eliott then this game could be a laugher. The secondary hasn’t
been the best in recent years, but if they can come up with a few INTs it would
go a long way towards a Ducks victory.
One has to wonder what the impact of the Blount fiasco will be on this Oregon
Team mentally. That type of a situation can go either way. It could cause a team
to band together and overcome, or it could destroy a teams morale. Either way,
you'd have to think the talent gap between these two teams is close after last
years game. We're suckers for big underdogs that can put points on the board as
the back door is always open in that scenario. Mark us down for Purdue +12.
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