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New Orleans Bowl Odds – Southern Miss vs Troy Football Picks & Predictions

Sunday’s New Orleans bowl features the Troy Trojans against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.  This will be Southern Mississippi’s 7th straight bowl appearance.  Troy isn’t nearly as accustomed to post-season play.  They will be playing in just their 3rd ever bowl game and their first since 2006.  After a 2-6 start, Southern Miss won their last 4 games of the regular season to become bowl eligible and ended up receiving a bid to the New Orleans Bowl, which they happily accepted.  Troy opened up with tough losses against tough teams, but surged during conference play and ended up with a 8-4 record and their 11th bowl appearance in 12 years.  Troy is favored by 4 points over Southern Miss and the total is set at 55 points.

The Golden Eagles have had a successful year on offense.  They gain 434 yards of total offense per game, splitting the load between the running game (196 yards per game) and the passing game (238 yards per game) for a very balanced attack.  Southern Miss’s best weapon is RB Damion Fletcher, a Conference USA All Conference first-teamer who rushed for 1,235 on 6 yards per carry and finished the regular season with 9 touchdowns.  Besides Fletcher, the Golden Eagles will rely on the arm of Austin Davis and the hands of his favorite target, DeAndre Brown.

The offensive stats for the Golden Eagles were pretty impressive, but their defensive numbers will show you how they ended up just 6-6 on the year.  As a team Southern Miss gives up 369 yards per game and 23.8 points per game.  Their secondary has been especially lax, giving up 24 of the 36 touchdowns the Golden Eagles have surrendered this year.  Southern Miss’s run defense hasn’t been that much better, allowing 145 yards per game on 4.4 yards per carry.  They’ll face a strong Troy offense in the New Orleans Bowl, so they’ll need to play much better this Sunday if they want a chance at a bowl victory.  The Golden Eagles are 4 point underdogs in the New Orleans Bowl.

The Troy Trojans experienced a great offensive season.  They averaged better than 33 points per game and racked up an impressive 421 total yards per game.  Their running game broke free for more than 5.1 yards per carry leading to over 175 rushing yards per game, and the passing attack gained 246 yards per game through the air by completing 61% of their passes.  The Trojans should have no problems moving the ball against a Southern Miss team that doesn’t have much defensive stopping power.

Overall, Troy’s defense was pretty solid on the season.  The Trojans gave up 20 points per game and 386 yards of total offense per game, but that was obviously more than enough for the offense in most cases.  Their secondary held opposing teams to just 5.6 yards per pass attempt and just 3.5 yards per rush attempt.  It will be difficult for Southern Miss to break a lot of big plays on this defense.  The key for the Trojans will be stopping Damion Fletch and the Southern Miss running game, but they can’t sleep on aerial attack, which has been just as successful for the Golden Eagles this season.  Troy is favored by 4 points on Sunday.

Both teams feature good offenses, but what this game should come down to is defense.  Southern Miss hasn’t show much in that department this year, while the Trojans have been fairly successful.  It’s possible this one could turn into a shootout, however, as it isn’t clear that Troy will be able to stop Southern Miss’s offensive attack.

Win this college football betting season with NCAA football picks from our top experts.  We’ll help you beat the college football odds this bowl season with the best football picks that money can buy!

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• 2009 Southern Miss Football Predictions
• Southern Miss UAB Free College Football Pick for October 1, 2009
• 2009 Troy Football Predictions
• Middle Tennessee State at Troy Football Lines & Picks
• Memphis v. Ole Miss Football Spreads & Picks

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