One of the more underrated matchups this bowl season will take place at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights take on the NC State Wolfpack in the 2008 Papajohns.com Bowl.
Our team of writers and handicappers break down the matchup and hand out an Papajohns.com Bowl Free Pick, which takes place Monday December 29 at 3:00PM ET.
Bet the 2008 Papajohns.com Bowl
Oddsmakers from online sports book Sports Interaction have made Rutgers -8 point spread favorite. The over/under for this game has been set 56.5 total points.
Top Public Betting Trend: Both of these teams are 5-0 against the spread in their last five games while the over has hit in six of NC State’s last nine games and in four of Rutgers’ last five.
Key Stat: Rutgers has scored an average of 29 points per game this year while only allowing 18.5 PPG defensively. They’re also averaging 128.8 rushing and 266.3 passing yards per game in 2008.
Game Outlook: There’s no doubt about it – Rutgers has an absolutely explosive team. They also come into this game winners of five in a row, including victories over Louisville (63-14), Army (30-3), South Florida (49-16), Syracuse (35-17) and Pittsburgh (54-34). But outside of wins over South Florida and Pittsburgh, none of their opponents offered much of a challenge, where as NC State had a little tougher challenge in the ACC, beating the likes of Miami, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Duke. The Wolfpack are the inferior team in this matchup but they’ve been absolutely fantastic against the number this year, covering in nine of 11 games this season. They’re basically doing it with smoke and mirrors because their stats aren’t particularly impressive, but we feel good about them keeping the score within a touchdown. We won’t predict an outright win for the Wolfpack, but think they’ll cover the 8-point spread. For the rest of our College Football Bowl Free Pick, see below.
Our Free College Football Bowl Pick for the Papajohns.com Bowl matchup between the North Carolina State Wolfpack and Rutgers Scarlet Knights game is
NORTH CAROLINA STATE WOLFPACK +8
TheSpread.com Projected Final Score
Rutgers Scarlet Knights 37
North Carolina State 30
We also predict that this game will GO OVER THE TOTAL (56.5 Sports Interaction.com) SET BY ODDSMAKERS