Northern Illinois vs. TCU Bowl Game Preview and Pick

The Northern Illinois Huskies come into this game as winners of their last 2 games as their defense pitched a shutout in the season finale.

The TCU Horned Frogs come into this game as winners of 7 straight to end the season. Their average margin of victory in their last 3 games was over 35 points per game.

The Huskies, the third place team in the Mid-American West Conference will be making their 2nd bowl appearance in the last 5 years.

The Horned Frogs, 2nd place finisher in the Mountain West Conference, will be making their 4th bowl appearance in 5 years. They are 2-1 in their 3 previous bowl appearances.

These two teams have no recent meetings and did not have any common opponents this year.

Despite having a winning record, Northern Illinois is only 4-7 against the spread while TCU has been very kind to their supporters with an 8-3 ATS record.

The Huskies are led by Senior QB Phil Horvath who sports a 58.4% completion rate and has thrown for 1,932 yards this season. He has thrown for 11 touchdowns with 9 interceptions this season.

The Horned Frogs are led by Senior QB Jeff Ballard who has a 61.4% completion rate and has thrown for 2,122 yards this season. He has 12 touchdowns and has thrown 5 interceptions.

Northern Illinois averages 180 yards rushing per game and their defense allows 116 yards rushing per game. TCU has huge rushing advantage by outrushing their opponents by an average of 192-68.

The Huskies rank 43rd in scoring offense in Division 1 (out of 119 teams) by averaging 27.0 points per game. TCU is ranked 34th in scoring offense by averaging 28.6 points per game.

Northern Illinois is ranked 35th in total yards per game with 388.5 yards per game. TCU is ranked 18th with an average of 402.1 yards per game.

The Huskie defense is ranked 42nd giving up an average 19.8 points per game. The Horned Frog's defense is ranked 5th giving up an average 12.8 points per game.

Northern Illinois' defense is ranked 73rd in total yards by giving up an average of 348.8 yards per game. TCU is ranked 4th giving up only 249.5 yards per game.

Northern Illinois averages 6.0 yards per play while giving up an average of 5.5 yards per play. TCU averages 5.8 YPP while giving up only 4.2 YPP.

The Over/Under is 3-8 in Utah's games this season, 6-5 in TCU's games.

The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com rank the Huskies #83 at 66.02. TCU ranks #33 at 78.78.

Most sportsbooks opened with TCU -10 with a total of 46. The line has been betup to TCU -11.5 and the total is up to 47. At the time of thiswriting the betting public was backing TCU by a margin of 64%-36%.