Bryan Leonard

704 Drexel at Pittsburgh

The Dragons are predicted in the lower echelon of the Colonial this season. They are bringing back four starters from a 14 win team. But the 14 victories have been the most in the past five seasons. 

Pittsburgh is expected to be in the lower half of the Atlantic Coast, a much stronger conference. But Jeff Capel has increased the victories from 8 to 14 to 16 last year. After dropping the season opener to St Francis PA, we look for a major bounce back today. This is a team on the upswing, and despite the fine guard play of the Dragons, we lay the points with the Panthers.

PLAY PITTSBURGH

221 Texas Tech at Oklahoma State

The Red Raiders have cashed four straight in this series by margins of 20, 38.5, 3.5 and 11 points. Although just 1-8 SU on the road under Matt Wells, we like the matchup here for the visitor. 

Oklahoma State started the season on fire, winning four straight before losing to Texas 41-34. Since that defeat the Cowboys have been outgained by Kansas State by 115 yards, and Oklahoma by 246 yards. In fact, the Sooners actually doubled the Oklahoma State yardage. 

These two clubs are much closer in talent than this number says, give us the Red Raiders plus the points.

PLAY TEXAS TECH

198 Northern Illinois at Western Michigan

The Husky defense hasn’t shown any semblance of stopping the opposition thus far. Allowing point totals of 49, 40 and 31 points in three straight losses. Northern is being outgained on the ground by 2.1 yards per attempt, as this team is losing the battle in the trenches badly. 

Western has scored 58, 41 and 52 points in its three contests. Producing yardage totals of 484, 437 and 628. The Bronco defense is the weakness allowing 4.8 yards per carry, but the Huskies haven’t shown any ability to run the football and shorten the game. Add in the fact that the host is playing with revenge for a 17-14 season ending loss as a 9 point favorite. And we have a fired up squad that can name the score.

PLAY WESTERN MICHIGAN

211 San Jose State at Boise State

The Broncos are on a 14-20 spread run playing on the blue turf. This is a team that has played much better on the road the past few seasons. Yet many remember when Boise State was simply automatic at home over a decade ago. From a game score standpoint these two teams are relatively even, with the Spartans with a slight edge. We have major concerns about a Boise State defense that was shredded against the run vs Air Force and BYU, the only two teams with an sense of a running game. The Broncos permitted 629 rushing yards in those games, about 6 yards per carry. San Jose State has run the ball much better as of late. 

When looking at net yards the Spartans are up 231 on the season, while Boise State is actually down 51 yards on the year. We also see the Broncos returning home from the islands and a late game victory at Hawaii. While the Spartans had a bye week. 

San Jose State has lost 14 straight games in this series, but have a really good chance to get that monkey off their back. We see no reason why the host is laying this number when you compare these teams head to head.

PLAY SAN JOSE STATE