Missouri vs. Alabama prediction: College football odds, picks, best bets
Alabama has played in four straight nail-biting one-score games, struggling to pull away in each contest.Last week, the 15th-ranked Crimson Tide lost to Tennessee, giving them little to no margin for error for the rest of the season.Meanwhile, No.
21 Missouri escaped with a four-point win over Auburn after trailing for most of the game to move to 6-1.The two teams meet on Saturday (3:30 p.m.ET, ESPN) in a huge SEC matchup with plenty of College Football Playoff implications.
Alabama opened as a 13.5-point favorite and the spread has ballooned to the Crimson Tide laying 17 points.Meanwhile, the total got as high as 57 points before dropping to as low as 51.The Tigers will be shorthanded on offense as quarterback Brady Cook and running back Nate Noel are doubtful on the injury report.
Last week, Cook left the game with a high-ankle sprain against Auburn, but he returned to help lead Missouri to the comeback win.If he’s out, it would be Drew Pyne, who completed just 47.6% of his passes and posted a dreadful 3.7 yards per attempt last week.With Noel sidelined, the Tigers will rely heavily on Marcus Carroll.
The App State transfer is averaging 4.7 yards per carry to Noel’s 6.1, but he has forced 15 missed tackles, per Pro Football Focus.It will likely be tough sledding for him against a Crimson Tide run defense that ranks 16th in EPA per rush allowed.Luther Burden III is one of the most talented wide receivers in the country, but he hasn’t made the same impact this year, and the downgrade at quarterback won’t help his case.
He’s posted 90-plus receiving yards just once this season after doing so in eight of his 13 games last year.The Crimson Tide secondary has been vulnerable to giving up explosives, but the Tigers rank just 94th in yards per drop-back allowed this season.After showing incredible signs of progress over the first month of the season, Jalen Milroe has played two of the worst games of his career over the last two weeks.
In those contests, he...