Pick of the day 11/14

Tonight is the much anticipated match up in the Mountain West Conference. The 9-0 TCU Horned Frogs will host the 8-1 Utes of Utah. As the Frogs are near the end of the season with high hopes for the BCS, Utah looks to destroy those dreams as they nearly had the same thing happen to them a year ago in this game. Last year Utah was undefeated going into the game against TCU when they were evenly matched only to edge out the Frogs with a 4th quarter touchdown to keep the record in tact. The Utes went on to face Alabama who they blew out of the water in a BCS bowl game. The rolls are now reversed, and I think for all the right reasons. TCU has been outstanding to this point in the year. Although there records seem to be very close all of the advantages fall with the Frogs at there home field tonight where they are expecting to sell out for the first time since 2006. TCU has the 3rd ranked defense in the nation as they have won 7 of 9 games by at least 16 points holding opponents to 11 points a game. Their offense is 8th in the nation as they score 34.4 points a game compared to the much more concervative Utes who only score 16.6 points a game.
Utah although their record seems to be quite good has only faced 2 quality opponents this year losing to one of them. They had an early season loss to Oregon and an overtime win agains the Air Force Academy. Aside from those 2 games Utah has not faced opponents worth talking about and the wins they do have are not too convincing.
TCU on the other hand has wins against Virginia, Clemson, and BYU who was an early favorite in the MWC. Both Virginia and BYU were handled with TCU blowouts. The Frogs are lead by a confident QB Andy Dalton who has only 3 int's compared to his 16 TD passes. His receivers are spread out as they have 3 with over 22 catched on the season and multiple others with good performances thus far.
Utah will be looking to slow down this high powered offense by slowing the game down and limiting turnovers. If the Utes can stay on the field with long drives and convert when they have the chance they could hang with TCU as they have a strong defense. Utah has allowed less than 20 points in it's last 6 games. Unfortunately for the Utes TCU is going to have the sellout crowd along with ESPN gameday behind them to get themselves going. As weird as this sounds with 2 ranked teams in the same conference the line for this game is nearly 3 TD's, and it's obvious why when you look past the record and the ranking of the Utah Utes. Look for TCU to win this game easily. I think the Utes will keep it interesting for a while but in order for them to actually win they may need every possible break you can imagine. TCU should win and they will demand the attention of the nation if they can run away with this game. If they can get an early lead at all look for them to press and make this game look lopsided as it should be.