marshall at bowling green
when the chips are down, marshall is still the best big game team the conference has ever seen. the herd's mac stay has proven ephemeral and im sure pruett would love one more mac east title before he leaves. while akron is the only team in the mac east who controls their own destiny, its more likely that marshall wins the east if they win out (akron finishes at ohio and home to miami -- which will take a herculean effort to win). bowling green is an offensive juggernaut. theres no denying that. jacobs has exceeded everyones expectations at qb and their offense is just en fuego right now. but theyre facing a real defense now. no more ripping apart ball state, eastern michigan, temple, and western michigan. bowling green hasnt seen a defense this good since week one in oklahoma. also cant discount the potential lookahead factor with the biggest rivalry in the mac on deck (bowling green vs. toledo). not saying bg will be looking ahead so much that theyll be unfocused on the herd, but thats a huge game for them and it seems a lot of people have inexplicably written marshall off. i love the fact that marshall played like shit in the 2h against akron because this is the kind of program where that shit doesnt fly. instead of candy coating it and protecting his players, pruett was publicly pissed, as his quotes and press conferences certainly attest. im certainly not the biggest fan of marshall's pedestrian offense, but hill showed me some good things last week and id like to think he carries that over. as far as the line goes, i cant say its 'off' necessarily because the linesmaker really has no choice but to install bg as a TD+ chalk, especially with the way theyre ripping teams at home. but in terms of talent, big game experience, coaching, and all the other variables, i would have played marshall at anything more than 5 or 6. pruett as an underdog is about as solid a bet as you can make. the speed of the marshall defense is something bg hasnt seen this year (since okie) and jacobs has essentially been running 7-on-7 pass drills the last few weeks with all the time he's had to throw. im not so sure he can be as effective with pressure from goddard and company. after all, jacobs is still raw and relatively untested in big games. the marshall program thrives in this kind of spot. im expecting marshall's best effort of mac play on saturday. this is when i expect marshall's toughness and experience from playing ohio state and georgia to show up. to me, with a win, marshall wins the mac east because i dont realistically see akron winning out. if ive learned one thing in all my years of betting the mac, its what i stated earlier: marshall is the best big game team the conference has ever seen, and pruett as a dog is damn near an obligatory play.
.. any power there in Hoops this year?
