College Football Predictions: Wisconsin vs. Oregon Preview

Written by Jake Thompson
Monday, 02 January 2012 16:22

Predictions are ready in our preview of the 2011 Rose Bowl game between Wisconsin and Oregon.

The #8 Wisconsin Badgers (11-2) and the #5 Oregon Ducks (11-2) will meet up on Monday in the 2011 Rose Bowl game, and our predictions will try to figure out what to expect when kickoff rolls around later today.  The Wisconsin vs. Oregon college football game has a start time of 5:00 PM ET and will be shown live on the ESPN channel.

Wisconsin and Oregon haven’t met up since the 2011 season when the Ducks won 31-28 at home as 13-point favorites.  The Badgers were 27-23 winners in Wisconsin the year before as 7-point favorites, meaning the underdogs covered in both head-to-head meetings, while the over was a winner in both as well.  5Dimes Sportsbook has the 2011 Rose Bowl odds favoring the Ducks at -5 with a total of 72.5.

Wisconsin’s Offense vs. Oregon’s Defense:

Scoring points hasn’t been an issue for Wisconsin this season, and they’ll enter the Rose Bowl with averages of 44.6 points per game to go along with 229.5 passing and 237.4 rushing yards each time out.  North Carolina State transfer Russell Wilson (2879 yards, 72.5%, 31 TD, 3 INT) has been terrific at quarterback, but you also have to consider that the Badgers have played poorly away from home.  They are just 2-2 on the road this season and 3 of their lowest scoring games on the year came when traveling.  Oregon’s defense has been solid against the run and the pass but is far from unbeatable, evidenced by the fact they gave up 30 or more points in 3 of their last 4 games.

Oregon’s Offense vs. Wisconsin’s Defense:

The Ducks are also impossible to stop, and their statistics show that they average 46.2 points per game while passing for 219.5 yards and rushing for another 295.7.  Wisconsin has a good defense but they are not as strong as their 17.0 points per game allowed seems to indicate.  The Badgers have faced almost nothing but below-average offenses this year and haven’t had the Stanford’s or USC’s that Oregon has had to deal with.  Wisconsin was outrushed in 2 games since the end of October, and the 2 squads to do that against them averaged 36 points.

Rose Bowl Predictions – Wisconsin vs. Oregon:

I have to believe that the Ducks have the better offense here, and our Rose Bowl predictions will be on them to get the win while narrowly covering the point spread.  These two teams are close defensively and Oregon will likely feel more at home in this game since they’ve played in California numerous times this season.  Wisconsin has had issues traveling and I feel they are a bit overrated after dominating a fairly simple schedule that never really panned out.  The over is my favorite Rose Bowl bet, and our predictions say each team here has a shot at getting over 40.

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Wisconsin 37

Oregon 45