BYU at Central Florida
Poor BYU. They lost star QB Taysom Hill in the 2nd quarter of their home loss to Utah State this past Thursday night. At least there will be a chance in this one as they'll have the entire week to attempt to recover from such a major loss in preparation for their flight to Orlando. The Cougars will now have to become a little like UCF, a team that's still dealing with life without Blake Bortles. Both of these teams are going to need to rely on their defense to win them games and at least hope their offenses don't lose the game if nothing else. I'll take the Knights at home.
My Call: Central Florida 21, BYU 19
Middle Tennessee at Marshall
Rakeem Cato is the best QB in the nation that nobody talks about. In Middle Tennessee, he gets to face a pass defense that ranks near the bottom of the FBS in terms of yards per game given up and TD passes thrown. The Blue Raiders have made up for that somewhat with 8 interceptions and being a middle of the road team in terms of sacks, but this formula just won't work against a QB like Cato. The Herd will likely give up some points to a very good Blue Raider offense, but they'll score plenty more to make up for that deficiency.
My Call: Marshall 49, Middle Tennessee 31
Cincinnati at Miami (FL)
Points should be a plenty in this one for the Hurricanes against a Cincinnati defense that doesn't defend the pass or the run well at all. True freshman QB Brad Kaaya and star running back Duke Johnson will have a lot of fun. Gunner Kiel should put up some decent stats of his own, but they won't be enough to overcome a lack of defense. Canes by plenty.
My Call: Miami (FL) 41, Cincinnati 27
West Virginia at Texas Tech
First thing I wanted to look at when analyzing this is how well West Virginia runs the football given that Texas Tech is the worst in FBS defending the fun. Turns out they are only middle of the pack as far as FBS teams go, but I think that's a bit misleading as one of their games was against a stout Alabama run defense. They've been adequate otherwise. And it also turns out that the Mountaineers aren't bad at defending the pass. Texas Tech isn't either, but that seems to be more a function of their run defense being gutted than anything else. Gotta go with West Virginia here. Clint Trickett should be able to get his yards through the air and that should open things up for the run game. The Red Raiders should score some points themselves, but they'll come up about 10 points short.
My Call: West Virginia 38, Texas Tech 28
Illinois at Wisconsin
2014 hasn't been that fun a year for the Badgers thus far, but they should have a grand old time of it against an Illinois team that plays no defense and just lost their starting QB for the season. The Badgers can learn from Nebraska in regards to what to do against Illinois. Give it to your star running back (in this case, Melvin Gordon) and let him do the rest. Wisconsin will take that advice, use it and get a blowout victory as a result. To me, the biggest mystery of this one is if Illinois coach Tim Beckman will quit or be fired after this one.
My Call: Wisconsin 38, Illinois 17
Indiana at Iowa
A pair of contrasting styles will go at it in this one. And that usually makes for a very interesting type of game. Iowa likes to slow it down, pound the ball, be physical and play defense while Indiana's plan is to try and outgun you for the win. I've got to take the team I have the faith in to get a stop when it's needed. That would be the Hawkeyes in this case.
My Call: Iowa 31, Indiana 24
Northwestern at Minnesota
Big 10 play has been a welcome sight for Northwestern, topping Penn State and Wisconsin in consecutive weeks. Minnesota has only played one Big 10 game thus far, beating a Michigan team that's a welcome sight for just about any team these days. Given that the Golden Gophers aren't a powerhouse offensively, why not go with Northwestern to keep the streak going? I don't exactly have a ton of faith in them though, so I'm thinking it'll be pretty close.
My Call: Northwestern 24, Minnesota 17
Boston College at North Carolina State
Battle of Florida transfers at QB in this one. It's Tyler Murphy on the Boston College side and Jacoby Briskett on the NC State side. I can't say I necessarily have a ton of faith in either of these teams, so this will end up being my first throw of the dart pick of the week. And the dart ended up hitting NC State, so we'll make them the selection by a few points.
My Call: NC State 27, Boston College 23
Louisville at Clemson
One of these teams has a very good looking young QB in Deshaun Watson and is at home. The other is still trying to figure it out offensively while relying on their defense to win them games at this time. That can work against teams like Syracuse, but it won't work against a decent enough Clemson team. The Cardinal defense will keep them in it for a while, but the Tigers will figure it out and take control in the second half.
My Call: Clemson 27, Louisville 17
Houston at Memphis
Why I didn't pick Memphis to beat Cincinnati this past week, I have no idea. I talked up about how much I liked them and still didn't have the guts to pick them? Unbelievable. Well, I'm not making that mistake this week. Okay Tigers, you've got my vote of confidence this week. Now go win!
My Call: Memphis 34, Houston 20
Washington at California
Cal games tend to be very high scoring and without much defense played. I don't see any reason why this one will be any different. The two questions for me are will the scoreboard in Berkeley explode and who wins? I'll say no, the scoreboard holds up and that Washington wins. Can't say I'm too confident about this pick either though.
My Call: Washington 55, California 52
Penn State at Michigan
Unlike the Cal/Washington game, it should be the defenses that dominate this one. Gotta be honest, if either team breaks 20 points, I'd be surprised unless one or both of these teams are making mistakes that give the offenses short fields. Penn State appears to be somewhat less of a mess than Michigan is at the moment, so I'll take them by a point.
My Call: Penn State 14, Michigan 13
LSU at Florida
Hostile road environment was a huge problem for LSU at Jordan-Hare Stadium as they had a true freshman QB making his first career start. That couldn't have made the QB situation any more clear for coach Les Miles. Fortunately for Les, Florida coach Will Muschamp has a few issues himself to work out. Incumbent starter Jeff Driskel was downright terrible against Tennessee and although true freshman QB Treon Harris was able to rally the Gators to a 10-9 victory in Knoxville, he is now suspended indefinitely on allegations of sexual assault. That very likely means it's back to Driskell for Florida. For me, this game comes down to field position and the team that can avoid making the big mistake or two. Until finding out about the Harris suspension, I was actually going to go with the Gators. Now though, I'm leaning towards LSU.
My Call: LSU 13, Florida 10
Air Force at Utah State
Got no real thoughts on this one, except that Air Force fans should be happy I picked against their team the last two weeks and Air Force proved me wrong. Well, I'm picking against Air Force again here. Time for Falcon fans to anticipate another win. I appear to be their good luck charm.
My Call: Utah State 34, Air Force 31
Colorado State at Nevada
Time for another fling of the dart. It hit Colorado State.
My Call: Colorado State 27, Nevada 24
No comments:
Post a Comment