BOB BALFE
CFB
Pittsburgh -4.5 over Duke
Gamblers will look back to week 1 when the Seminoles and their freshman QB threw all over this Pitt Defense which actually is pretty good. People soon found out that is no ordinary freshman under center for FSU. Duke is a young football team that is now on their backup quarterback only 3 games into the year. Pitt has weapons on offense and they have a very capable quarterback. Again, this is a Duke team in a rebuilding year and the loss of Boone is going to slow things up. Take Pittsburgh.
Michigan -20 over UConn
You can breakdown Michigan’s close win against Akron as much as you would like. They simply just thought they had to show up to win that game and it almost cost them. UConn is not balanced. They are last in the nation at running the ball. This Huskies team has a couple decent receivers, but again when the defense knows the ball is going in the air it’s a different story. Simply put Michigan has too good of a coach to play down to the competition two weeks in a row. This is a statement game. If they are not covering this spread by the end of the half I would be shocked. Michigan will not let off the gas in this game. Take the Wolverines
Maryland -6 over West Virginia
WVU has owned Maryland in the past so why are the Terps a decent size favorite? Simple. They are the better team. Maryland gets after the QB and in fact has the most sacks in the nation. This is WVU offense that is in rebuild mode to begin with and the WVU defense is below average. Today is the day Maryland gets to beat their rival at home in front of their home fans. They have to win this game. The Terps have 5 or 6 running backs who are having very good seasons so far. They have the more dominate offensive weapons on the field and by far are the better defense. Take Maryland.
New Mexico State 42.5 over UCLA
UCLA has been on an emotional rollercoaster the last few weeks. They had a player pass away and came out flat in Nebraska only to turn it on and dominate that game the final 3 quarters. They now are back home and will be playing their first home game since their player’s death. It will be emotional and simply put this is a classic letdown game parlayed with UCLA probably allowing their freshman to get a lot of playing time If they do get a big lead they will pull their starters. There is no reason to run up the score today. New Mexico State will be going with a QB change today, but they really are not that bad in the air. This defense is brutal. I expect UCLA to run away with this early, but I think this point spread is just a little too high. Look for UCLA to run a basic vanilla offense just to get out of the game injury free. If New Mexico State can score a touchdown at some point I think they cover. Take New Mexico State.
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