Mississippi State vs. Auburn Spread Pick
After starting the season 3-0, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are in a two-game slide and could fall to .500 if they can’t pull off a small upset versus Auburn on Saturday night. Will the Bulldogs right the ship or will the Tigers pick up a solid road win?
Game Snapshot
391 Auburn Tigers at 392 Mississippi State Bulldogs
7:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, October 6, 2018
Davis Wade Stadium, Starkville, Mississippi
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Tigers are 3.5-point favorites to beat the Bulldogs. The total, meanwhile, sits at 44 points. As of this writing, 66% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Tigers.
Auburn Tigers
Auburn redshirt junior QB Jarrett Stidham completed 19-of-33 passes for 245 yards with two touchdowns in a 24-13 win over Southern Mississippi. Stidham got off to another slow start, and was fortunate that his touchdown pass wasn’t picked but landed in the arms of talented freshman Seth Williams for a 48-yard score. He also connected on a one-yard strike to Chandler Cox to extend the 21-6 in the third. Between those passes, Stidham wasn’t atrocious, but he has not looked like a first-round prospect since the victory over Washington on opening weekend. He’ll take on the Bulldogs of Mississippi State next Saturday.
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Mississippi State senior QB Nick Fitzgerald completed just 11-of-26 passes for 98 yards and ran for just 32 yards on 20 carries in a 13-6 loss to Florida on Saturday. You can choose to give credit to the Florida and Mississippi State defenses, or you can choose to admit that these are bad offensive football teams. The answer is probably somewhere in between. In an ugly game, Fitzgerald struggled to get the ball downfield, and his accuracy was once again a problem in a loss for the Bulldogs. The 6-foot-5, 235-pound quarterback has completed over 50 percent of his passes just once this season, and he couldn’t compensate with the run game. Another tough test comes next Saturday against Auburn.
Betting Trends
Auburn
The Tigers are 2-5 against the spread in their last seven games overall and are 6-1-1 against the number in their last eight games played in October.
Mississippi State
The Bulldogs have covered the spread in eight of their last 11 home games.
Prediction
Nick Fitzgerald and this Bulldogs offense is in a massive funk. One week after scoring just 7 points at Kentucky, they returned home last week and produced only six points in a 13-6 loss to Florida. Until Miss State’s offense gets going, I don’t trust the Bulldogs to pull off an upset. Auburn’s offensive line has been a problem but the Tigers win this one on the strength of their defense.
College Football Prediction: Auburn Tigers -3.5