Heart of Dallas Bowl 2015: Washington vs. Southern Mississippi TV Info and Odds
Streaking teams collide Saturday in the Heart of Dallas Bowl when the surging Washington Huskies take on the resurgent Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles.
The Huskies and coach Chris Petersen might have backed into bowl season with a 6-6 record, but they did so in dominant fashion by winning their last two games by a combined score of 97-17.
Southern Mississippi simply bullied its way to the postseason behind a top-ranked passing attack and two 1,000-yard rushers to reach 9-4, although the Eagles came up short in the Conference USA Championship Game.
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Call it one of the week's more interesting chess matches, as a solid Washington defense as of late takes on the explosive Eagles. Let's take a look at the most important info surrounding the contest.
Game Details
When: Saturday, December 26, at 2:20 p.m. ET
Where: Cotton Bowl, Dallas
Television: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Tickets: ScoreBig.com
Over/Under: 54.5
Spread: Washington (-8.5)
Team Injury Reports
| Dwayne Washington | RB | Ques Sat |
| Brandon Beaver | DB | Out for season |
| David Ajamu | TE | Out for season |
| Dane Crane | OL | Out for season |
| Austin Joyner | CB | Out for season |
| John Ross | WR | Out for season |
| Anthony Swain | LB | Ques Sat |
| Wil Freeman | DL | Out for season |
Injury reports courtesy of USA Today.
Piece by Piece
What a run for the Huskies.
Left for dead in the deep Pac-12 at 4-6, Washington went to Oregon State and banged out a 52-7 victory before hosting then-No. 20 Washington State and coming up with a huge defensive effort to pull off the 45-10 upset.
For Petersen, this is all about nailing down his first bowl win, in large part because of the boon it would create for the program as it continues its reconstruction.
"And so the most important thing for us to do, like I say, is play well in that game on the 26th. And that will be as good as recruiting as we can do down there as any—it will be better than 100 phone calls or 100 letters or any of those type of things," Petersen said, according to ESPN.com.
To do so, the running game will have to continue to protect quarterback Jake Browning, who didn't throw a touchdown in the team's 45-point outburst. So it goes when an offense features a back as talented as Myles Gaskin, who has 1,121 yards and 10 scores on a 5.6 per-carry average.
More important, though, will be the play of the defense that just shut down one of the nation's best passing attacks. The task now? Doing it again.
Hunting for the Rebound
The Eagles ripped off a six-game streak before the Conference USA title game, posting 32 or more points in every contest, three of those outputs at a minimum of 56 points.
Southern Mississippi met its match against Western Kentucky, though, losing 45-28.
To avoid the same fate, quarterback Nick Mullens needs to take better care of the football after throwing a trio of interceptions in the title game. That shouldn't be too hard, however, considering he's completed 63.4 percent of his passes this year with 4,145 yards and 36 touchdowns to 12 interceptions, giving the Eagles the 12th-best passing attack in the FBS.
The rushing attack isn't a slouch, either:
| Jalen Richard | 185 | 1098 | 5.9 | 64 (TD) | 14 |
| Ito Smith | 155 | 1088 | 7.0 | 75 (TD) | 8 |
In theory, the balance should help the Eagles keep Washington off the field, but coach Todd Monken hasn't been shy in praising the opposing defense's ability to prevent big plays.
"You watch on tape, do a great job of creating pressure without giving up of explosive plays, which is a sign of a really good defense," Monken said, according to Adam Jude of the Seattle Times.
If the Eagles want to get rid of the bitter taste the title game left for weeks, generating big plays against an improving defense looks like the key.
Prediction
Las Vegas favors Washington here in a big way, and it's not hard to see why.
The Huskies played on a different tier this year than the Eagles did, and it'll show Saturday. Petersen's team took down ranked USC and Washington State teams and played others such as Boise State close.
Washington's defense has shown what it can do in recent weeks, and Southern Mississippi hasn't shown enough to suggest it can stop a player as lethal as Gaskin.
On Saturday, Gaskin is going to run wild and post one of the week's bigger stat lines as Washington takes a huge step forward.
Prediction: Washington 44, Southern Mississippi 28
Statistics courtesy of ESPN unless otherwise specified. All betting information courtesy of Odds Shark.
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