Minnesota Golden Gophers vs Missouri Tigers Point Spread Picks

Many will look at this Missouri team and say they took the easy road into the SEC Championship Game. That may be the case as the East was certainly the weaker of the two divisions, but they played seven Bowl teams along the path, and have now won it two straight years. This is a team that had a limited offense, but used a strong and opportunistic defense to stay in and find a way to win almost every week. Missouri held nine of their 12 regular season opponents to 24 or less points, and seven to 20 or less. Minnesota certainly does not represent the type of offense that has had success against Missouri. The Golden Gophers best win was at Nebraska this season, and they suffered a bad loss at Illinois. Minnesota has relied on David Cobb way too much as he is the focal point of the offense. The three toughest defenses the Gophers saw were Wisconsin, Ohio State, and TCU, and he totalled 304 yards in the three games at 4.5 yards per carry, a lot less than what he did on the season, and over a yard worse than his average vs. all other teams. I think Missouri has enough weapons to stop Cobb and make Minnesota throw the ball, where their ball hawking defense can make big plays. The Tigers were burned pretty big defensively by Alabama, but this team through the years has had a huge response to that following a game where they allowed better than 40 points by going 26-4 ATS in their last 30. The Tigers are also 8-2 to the UNDER following a double digit loss at home, while Minnesota is 11-5 to the UNDER in their last 16 overall. Teams that lose their conference championship game have a 34-12 mark to the UNDER as well. Make the play on Missouri and UNDER.