NC State vs Rutgers Point Spread Picks

These are probably the two most improbable teams to meet in a Bowl matchup. North Carolina State won their last four games and Rutgers won their last six to become Bowl eligible. In a way it is too bad that these teams are matched up as they have both been hot. For Rutgers, they certainly had much higher expectations coming into this season and although they had a strong finish this Bowl has to be considered a disappointment. NC State has not been to a Bowl since 2005 and is certainly more than excited to have run off four straight to get to a Bowl game. There is one huge factor that turned this NC State team around and that is Russell Wilson. The Wolfpack QB got spot duty early in the season, took over and led this team straight to this game. He posted 16 TD passes and had just one INT the entire season. One of the most predictive factors in a football game is turnovers and I'd rather have my money on a kid that has made one errant pass all season over a QB like Teel who has had some good games, but also has had some meltdowns, throwing 12 INTs. There is something about this Wolfpack team that you see in sports every once in a while, things that you can't quite put your finger on, but a certain set of intangibles that makes the team greater than the sum of its parts. They not only won their last four to get here, they covered their last seven and nine out of 10. That simply means even in their losses, which didn't occur down the stretch, no one was putting this team away, and I don't expect Rutgers will either. I'll take the points here and watch the Wolfpack do their thing.