Southern Miss - Troy

the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Sunday, December 21st, 8:15pm New Orleans, Louisiana

Southern Miss (6-6)______CUSA______-33.64 Wk Opp oPts Score 1 LA-Lafayette -61.26 W, 51-21 2 Auburn -77.38 L, 13-27 3 Arkansas State -51.75 W, 27-24 4 Marshall -148.36 L, 27-34 6 UTEP -94.41 L, 37-40 7 Boise State 376.20 L, 7-24 8 Rice 160.13 L, 40-45 9 Memphis -78.38 L, 30-36 10 UAB -166.76 W, 70-14 11 Central Florida -175.59 W, 17-6 12 East Carolina 198.86 W, 21-3 14 SMU -377.91 W, 28-12

Troy (8-4)______SunBelt_____76.73 Wk Opp oPts Score 1 Middle TN State -134.69 W, 31-17 3 Alcorn State -488.15 W, 65-0 4 Ohio State 310.08 L, 10-28 5 Oklahoma State 216.63 L, 24-55 6 Florida Atlantic -32.89 W, 30-17 8 FL International -116.85 W, 33-23 9 North Texas -396.09 W, 45-17 10 LA-Monroe -216.40 L, 30-31 11 Western Kentucky -369.32 W, 17-7 12 LSU 60.71 L, 31-40 13 LA-Lafayette -61.26 W, 48-3 15 Arkansas State -51.75 W, 35-9

Some pretty weak opponents for these two, mainly because they play in weak conferences. The only good win of the bunch was Southern Miss' win over East Carolina, but they had more than a few bad losses to Troy's one.

Stats Matchup
Team	Southern Miss	Troy
Points (rank)	-33.64 (#68)	76.73 (#50)
Record	6-6	8-4
Opp. Points (rank)	-496.62 (#85)	-1,279.97 (#115)
Opp. Record	71-74	61-73
Points (% of Opp. Avg)	30.7 (110%)	33.3 (112%)
dPoints (% of Opp. Avg)	23.8 (89%)	20.6 (75%)
Rush Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	196.3 (127%)	175.5 (104%)
dRush Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	145.3 (86%)	139.2 (83%)
Pass Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	238.2 (107%)	245.9 (110%)
dPass Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	223.9 (105%)	180.4 (87%)
Tot Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	434.5 (113%)	421.4 (108%)
dTot Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	369.3 (99%)	319.6 (86%)
ST Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	109.3 (90%)	118.8 (88%)
dST Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	112.1 (89%)	109.3 (84%)
Penalties / Pen. Yds	7.7 / 74.8	7.1 / 60.3
TO's / TO Margin	1.3 / +13	1.8 / +6

Nothing really jumps out looking at the stats. They're both slightly above average, barely, in most categories. Lotsa penalties between them, so this could be a sloppy game...

The Line: Southern Miss +4.5

The Call: Troy by 7

The Result: Southern Miss 30-27 (OT)

A much more entertaining game than I thought it would be - kudos to both teams. Solid play, good comeback by the Golden Eagles... well done. Bad call on my part though, but hey, what're you gonna do?