Cotton Bowl Preview: Michigan State Spartans vs Alabama Crimson Tide
Written By David Hess (Follow me on Twitter @DavidHess311)
When: 8:00 PM ET, Thursday, December 31, 2015
Where: AT&T Stadium In Arlington, Texas
Lines: Alabama -10
Total: 46
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The Michigan State Spartans had an excellent year as they come in at 12-1 on the year, while also going 91 SU vs Bowls teams, but they were just 4-6 ATS in those games. The Spartans had a bad loss to Nebraska earlier in the year, but still got here by winning the Big 10 Title game vs Iowa. Connor Cook leads what has been a very average offense that the Spartans had this year. He did hit just 56.8% of his passes, but didn’t make many mistakes as he had just 5 INT’s compared to 24 TD passes. He really just did enough to win games. The Spartans come in at 69th in the nation in total offense and 48th in scoring, putting up 32.1 ppg. The defense is where their bread is buttered as they come in ranked 23rd in yards allowed and 21st in points allowed, giving up just 20.5 ppg. The Spartans are 9th vs the run, but 73rd vs the pass and that could be an issue as the Tide has the ability to hit the big plays down the field.
The Alabama Crimson Tide are one again in the thick of the National Title chase. Boy it’s getting old as I for one am tired of seeing this team near the top of the heap every year. Still they had another fine season, going 12-1 overall, including 10-1 SU and 6-5 ATS vs Bowl teams and they faced the toughest schedule of all the bowl teams this year. Alabama has once again done it with a stout defense that comes in ranked 2nd in the nation in yards allowed, 1st vs the run and 3rd in points allowed, giving up just 14.4 ppg. On offense they are lead by Heisman trophy winner Derrick Henry, who ran for 1986 yards and 23 TDs. It will be interesting to see him go up against the 9th ranked run defense. Their passing offense isn’t that good as it is 73rd in the nation, but they could hit some big plays down field vs a bad State pass defense.
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[259] Michigan State +10 over Alabama
I am going with the Spartans here a I feel that this is just too many points to give a team that doesn’t make mistakes on offense and does play great defense. Alabama will have to throw some in this game and the Spartans should take away some of the running of Henry with their 9th ranked run defense. The Spartans can be thrown on, but still passing is not a strength of the Tide. On offense Michigan State is rather conservative, but all year they have been doing enough to win the games and I feel that their offense will do enough to keep this one close, while their defense does the rest. Bama may win this game, but by less than a TD. The clincher is that Mark Dantonio is 12-1 ATS as a dog and have pulled 9 outright upsets in those games. This one has 24-21 written all over it.
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