Jason Radowitz (20-13 in CFB) previews if Ohio State is really a 28 point favorite and his best bets for two Friday match-ups.
I had a little bit of a bounce back performance last week. I’m now 20-13 on the year (since Week 2) in all of my college football picks. There’s two games I’m looking at this week. Some divisional match-ups that will be interesting. Here are my two best bets for Friday.
Pittsburgh (4-2) @ Syracuse (3-3) 7:00pm EST on ESPN
Is Syracuse good or not? We’re in Week 8 and I still don’t know. They took a beating from Maryland and Clemson early in the season but it seems they’ve finally regained their identity. They beat Western Michigan by 19, beat Holy Cross by 38, and lost to NC State by six.
In the game against NC State, Syracuse got sacked eight times. When Eric Dungey’s time was over at Cuse, the Orange relied on Tommy DeVito. It hasn’t been the same. Syracuse has extreme home-road splits and they’ll be home where the dome has treated them well lately. If Cuse doesn’t win this one, you can kiss a bowl game goodbye.
Syracuse has been pretty brutal on offense against quality opponents defensively. Pittsburgh is a disciplined team that should also have some fun on defense against Cuse.
I can’t sit here and say Pittsburgh is going to definitely win this game. They’ve been as inconsistent as ever this season. Will we get the team against Penn State, UCF, Duke, Delaware, Virginia. All these games had plenty of differences.
While I would love to take Pitt -3.5, I’ll stick with the UNDER 51. Syracuse will have trouble scoring and I’m not so sure Pitt will have it easy offensively. I’m more confident with the UNDER.
UNDER 51 -110
(4) Ohio State (6-0) @ Northwestern (1-4) 8:30pm EST on BTN
The spread is 28 points in favor of Ohio State. Ohio State has a big game coming up next week against Wisconsin. This game has “trap” written all over it.
Northwestern has been bad. Don’t get me wrong. But they just lost to Nebraska in a defensive thriller. Lost to Wisconsin by 9 on the road. Lost to Mich State by 21. What I’m saying it, they haven’t lost by 28 before. The most points they’ve allowed this season is 31 points. The spread sits at 28.
Ohio State is destroying their opponents. They beat Cincinnati by 42, Miami (OH) by 71, Nebraska by 41, Michigan State just recently by 24.
But Northwestern’s defense is very good. Underrated to say the least. At home, I expect them to cover this game and be just fine. Of course either way you look at it, it’s a gamble. Ohio State’s offense could be the top offense in college football. Their defense could be the best too. But Northwestern should find a way to keep this game somewhat close and lose by less than 28.
+28 Northwestern (-110)
