No. 9 Missouri vs. No. 7 Ohio State: 2023 Cotton Bowl Best Bets

No. 9 Missouri vs. No. 7 Ohio State: 2023 Cotton Bowl Best Bets

It's bowl season in college football, and we are primed and ready for a great assortment of New Year's 6 games, including the Cotton Bowl. This season, we will have Missouri taking on Ohio State in what should be a fantastic matchup between two of the best teams in the country.

The Missouri Tigers are -1.5 favorites over the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2023 Cotton Bowl, which will be broadcast on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.

BetQL has you covered for everything college football, so let's dive right into this contest.

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Missouri vs. Ohio State: Live Odds

Missouri Tigers Outlook

The Tigers seemed to come out of nowhere this season to become a top-10 team and now will be playing in one of the biggest bowl games of the year. They finished the season 10-2 SU and had a pretty good record ATS as well at 7-4-1. Missouri blitzed the Arkansas Razorbacks, 48-14, in their last game of the season, crushing them on the road and stamping their ticket into a New Year's Six bowl.

On offense, the Tigers were one of the best teams in the nation. They averaged 6.5 yards per play, which was good for 17th in the country, showing their explosiveness. Most of that was done through the air, with QB Brady Cook throwing for 3,189 yards and 20 touchdowns with just six interceptions. While they were great anywhere on the field, they were nearly unstoppable once they got down to the red zone. Missouri ranked No. 1 in the FBS in red-zone efficiency, scoring on 98.2% of their drives down there.

Defensively, they weren't as good as their offense, but that would be hard to do with how great they are on that side of the ball. The Tigers ranked 53rd in yards per play allowed, which is still in the top half of the country, just not elite. They do have a great pass rush, averaging 2.9 sacks per game, which is 15th in the country.

Ohio State Buckeyes Outlook

The Buckeyes are perennially one of the best teams in the country and often make the CFP, but their loss against Big Ten rival Michigan in their final game of the season ended their hopes of making it this year. They just couldn't finish, which has been a problem for a couple of years now against the Wolverines. Ohio State finished 7-4-1 ATS, so they were pretty profitable against the spread. However, they suffered a huge loss since that game which has changed the line on this one significantly.

On offense, the Buckeyes won't have the services of starting QB Kyle McCord, who decided to enter the transfer portal. His loss is huge for this team, even though he wasn't that spectacular for them this season. Without his experience starting in this offense, they will be forced to start a backup in Devin Brown with little experience playing. So, because of this, you really can't take into account any offensive stats that they had this season. They will be a totally different, and likely less effective, offense.

Defensively, we can heap all the praise we want on Ohio State, which has gone from a bad defense last season to ranking third in the country in yards per play allowed. The transformation has been incredible to see in just one year, and they deserve a ton of credit for where this team is. They were the No. 1 defense in the nation against the pass, allowing just 147.4 yards per game through the air.

Missouri vs. Ohio State Best Bet

My Pick: Missouri ML (-117, BetRivers)

I bet Missouri +6.5 as soon as I saw the news that McCord would not be playing in this game and look how far this line has moved since then. I have some serious CLV here, but I honestly think that the Tigers are going to win this game outright. It's also possible that star WR Marvin Harrison Jr. won't play if he decides to enter the NFL Draft.