Aggies seek upset of 21st-ranked Red Raiders

NCAA Football Betting Lines

10/21/2009 - Lubbock, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 21st-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders have been on a roll of late, and now they'll turn their attention to the Texas A&M Aggies for a Big 12 Conference clash at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock.

Texas Tech has reeled off three straight wins, including a thorough 31-10 victory at No. 15 Nebraska last weekend. In addition cracking the Top-25 for the first time this season, the win also marked the Red Raiders' first victory on the road. They'll round out their schedule with four home games over the final five weeks. A win this weekend would be No. 82 for head coach Mike Leach at Texas Tech, which would tie him with Spike Dykes as the program's all-time leader. It would also be the team's 13th straight home win, which would also be a record.

On the opposite sideline, the Aggies enter this matchup trying to avoid a fourth straight loss. They traveled to Kansas State last weekend and got manhandled, 62-14, by a Wildcats team that was coming off a 52-point loss the week before. At his weekly press conference, A&M head coach Mike Sherman put the onus on himself to right the ship.

"When you get your butt kicked like we did I do worry about (the team's mental state)," he said. "I put that on my shoulders. I'm the captain of the ship so to speak, and you've sprung a leak, and it's my job to go fix it. That's my job. However I lead them this week will be how they'll react to this loss. If I do a good job I'll lead them in the right direction."

Sherman would love to lead them to their first win over Texas Tech in the last five meetings. Overall, the Red Raiders own a slight 34-32-1 advantage in the head-to-head series.

Texas A&M committed a season-high five turnovers against K-State, which helped the Wildcats claim their largest margin of victory since 2002. Aggies' quarterback Jerrod Johnson had been enjoying a breakout season, but he was sacked six times and had some costly turnovers. Johnson did set a Big 12 record with 225 consecutive pass attempts without an interception. However, things quickly fell apart after Johnson set that mark, as he went on to throw three picks in what turned out to be a laugher. Sherman said the offense simply could not get into sync, and obviously the turnovers were a big factor. The Aggies lost an early fumble, which led to a touchdown, and they were never able to recover. Uzoma Nwachukwu caught two touchdown passes, though both came after K-State had put 59 points on the board.

Defensively, it's hard to imagine the Aggies putting together a worse performance than last week. K-State led 38-0 by halftime and went on to pile up 24 first downs and 424 yards of total offense. The A&M defense had no answer for the running game, as the Wildcats rushed for 232 yards and six touchdowns despite not having a single 100-yard rusher.

"There were a number of times on the run, we knew they were going to run the football, we had nine guys in there, and we still couldn't make the play," Sherman said. "We just couldn't make the play. We overpopulated the box, we were going to allow them an opportunity to throw the football, and we just could not stop it to save our life."

Thankfully for Sherman, Texas Tech's preferred method of attack under Leach is to drop back and throw, throw, and throw some more. Of course, given the Wildcats' overwhelming success with the run last week, don't be surprised if Leach sneaks in a few extra runs.

The Texas Tech offense continues to light up the scoreboard, coming into action this week ranked second in the nation in both scoring offense (41.43 ppg) and passing offense (413.6 ypg). Steven Sheffield and Taylor Potts are the latest in an increasingly long line of quarterbacks to thrive in the Red Raiders' spread attack. However, injuries have sidelined both signal-callers. Potts started the first five games and was completing 67.7 percent of his passes for 1,817 yards with 13 touchdowns and six interceptions. But he has been sidelined since sustaining a concussion against New Mexico on October 3rd. Sheffield stepped in against Kansas State two weeks ago and threw for 490 yards and seven touchdowns in his debut. Last week, he completed 23-of-32 passes for a more modest 234 yards and a touchdown in the upset win at Nebraska. However, several reports this week have indicated Sheffield could miss at least two to three weeks with an apparent foot injury suffered late in the fourth quarter. Coach Leach said Monday that his starting quarterback would be a game-time decision.

Red Raiders' defensive end Brandon Sharpe was a major thorn in the Cornhuskers' side last week, setting a career-high with four sacks as part of his seven total tackles on the day. For his efforts, Sharpe was named the Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Getting after the quarterback has been one of the defense's strong suits thus far. The team ranks eighth in the nation in sacks, averaging better than three per game. Sharpe now has a team-best eight sacks on the season, while guys like Daniel Howard (five sacks) and Rajon Henley (three sacks) have also been key contributors to the pass rush. Last week, the defense opened lots of eyes around the conference by slamming the door on Nebraska. The Cornhuskers' 10 points marked their lowest scoring output since a 41-6 loss to Missouri in 2006. They were also held to a mere 285 total yards for the game. Huskers quarterback Zac Lee was relegated to check-down duty, as he threw for just 128 yards on 16-of-22 passing before being benched in the fourth quarter. Tailback Roy Helu managed just 68 yards on 16 carries against the Texas Tech defense.

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Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds

Super Bowl XLIII, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Super Bowl XLIII is now set, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers will meet each other on February 1st in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium to battle it out for the coveted Lombardi Trophy. The game kicks off at 6:00pm ET on NBC with announcers Al Michaels and John Madden covering the on-field action. Super Bowl XLIII betting odds at online bookmaker MySportsbook.com have the Steelers listed as an early -6.5 against the spread favorite.Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds

Pittsburgh earned their passage to the big game by beating their division rival, the Baltimore Ravens, 23-14 in yesterday's AFC Championship Game. The Steelers jumped on Baltimore early, building a 13-0 first half lead, and never let up on their way to a fairly easy win. Although the Ravens did close to within two points in the fourth quarter, it never appeared as if they had enough offense to pull off the upset.

The Steelers dominating defense held Baltimore to a total of 198 yards while allowing them to convert just three third downs in 13 attempts. Pittsburgh also forced quarterback Joe Flacco into three interceptions, one of which safety Troy Polamalu returned fourty yards for a touchdown.

The Cardinals, by far the playoff team with the longest odds to reach Super Bowl XLIII, did so yesterday with a 32-25 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. Arizona charged out of the gates and built a 24-6 halftime lead that had the Eagles venerable defense reeling. Quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald did most of the damage, connecting on three first half touchdowns.

Arizona, however, could not sustain their momentum and the Eagles took a 25-24 with 10:45 left to play in the fourth. The Cardinals, with the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance hanging in the balance, mounted a fourteen play, 72 yard touchdown drive that consumed 7:52 off the clock. Warner hit running back Tim Hightower on a short screen for the go-ahead, game clinching score that will forever live in Cardinal infamy.

MySportsbook.com's Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds:

Pittsburgh Steelers -6.5 (-110), Over 46.5 (-110), -260 (Money line)

Arizona Cardinals +6.5 (-110), Under 46.5 (-110), +220 (Money line)

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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