Jason Radowitz (83% in CFB) adds five more best bets for Week 6’s most popular games.
We’re almost halfway through the season. It’s Week 6 and I’m 15-3 in my last 18 college football bets. There’s some big match-up’s this week that could make or break some seasons, featuring 14 Iowa and 19 Michigan on the early slate.
Looking ahead to next week, the match-ups are crazy. But for now, we’ll work with this week’s schedule. If you’re looking for the Auburn/Florida match-up, you can find it here in its own separate article.
14 Iowa (4-0) @ 19 Michigan (3-1) at 12:00 EST
Iowa is undefeated. Okay, it’s not that impressive. They’ve beat Rutgers, Miami Ohio and Middle Tennessee. But they also took down Iowa State on the road in close thriller. Iowa thrived on the road in a big rivalry game behind Nate Stanley who has thrown for eight touchdowns and no interceptions through four games.
Iowa’s defense has been fantastic this season allowing all four teams to score under 18 points. But they’re last in the nation in tackles for a loss. They’ve been a brick wall against the run and have a solid secondary to go with it. They’re a disciplined team. No penalties and no turnovers. That’s a winning team if you ask me. Stanley has completed 64 percent of his passes this season.
On the other hand, Michigan’s offensive line hasn’t been very good this year and if Iowa puts a stamp on Michigan’s run game, they’ll have to rely on Shea Patterson who has had his ups and downs this season as the quarterback for Michigan.
Iowa has won five of their last six against Michigan and to be honest, this might be the best Iowa team Michigan will see in the last couple of years. Michigan is coming off a big win against Rutgers, but before that they struggled mightily against Wisconsin and Army.
Michigan and Iowa will keep this game close. I’ll take Iowa on the road. I want the points. I’m not saying Michigan won’t win, I’m just saying it’ll be close like the Iowa State game. Give me Iowa +3.5.
11 Texas (3-1) @ West Virginia (3-1) at 3:30pm EST
The Texas Longhorns are traveling to Morgantown, West Virginia for their game against the Mountaineers. Texas had a bye week last week, but before that, Texas snuck by Oklahoma State 36-30 as Sam Ehlinger led Texas in their victory after throwing for four touchdowns on 281 yards passing.
West Virginia also got their bye week last week after defeating the pesky Kansas Jayhawks 29-24. Austin Kendall, the West Virginia quarterback has thrown for 871 yards, six touchdowns, but also three interceptions.
It’s safe to say that Texas has much more talent than West Virginia this season with Sam Ehlinger as quarterback. West Virginia lost to Missouri 38-7 but have won both of their home games this season. The line is set at -10.5 to Texas.
Texas considers their corners to be one of the top units in college football. I respect it. They’ll have to get it done on Saturday defensively but I think Texas will be just fine losing 10.5 points.
25 Michigan State (4-1) @ 4 Ohio State (5-0) at 3:30pm EST
I’m sure you all watched Ohio State against Nebraska last weekend. A primetime beating from Ohio State. Justin Fields has been ridiculous to start the season, throwing for 16 touchdowns without an interception. His QBR is third in the nation sitting at 95.4. Oh and he also has seven rushing touchdowns.
Here’s the argument: Ohio State hasn’t faced a TRUE defensive test like Michigan State. Now’s the time to see really how good Ohio State’s offense is. However, Indiana scored 31 points on Michigan State last week. Ohio State will look to dissect Indiana’s offense and have a game-plan ready for Michigan State this week.
There wasn’t much spotlight on the Indiana game, but when Michigan State is under the bright lights, their defense comes to life. The defense is allowing fewer than two yards per carry. Ridiculous.
Michigan State’s offense has been a little bit better this season, thanks to an offensive line that looks stronger than previous years. Brian Lewerke is starting to mature into a solid Big Ten QB. But there’s no way he can compete with Ohio State offensively. He’ll need his defense to keep them in the game.
The line is sitting at -20.5 for Ohio State. I think Michigan State plays enough defense to where they’ll stay in this game. If I’m getting 20.5 points, you can give me Michigan State. Michigan State has went 3-5 against Ohio State in the last eight match-ups. Two of those losses were by one point. You see what I’m saying. Take the points.
Pittsburgh (3-2) @ Duke (3-1) at 8pm EST
I can’t really say I expected to put this game in the most popular games to bet for the week. But here we are. Pittsburgh took a loss to Virginia in their first game of the season. Since then, they’ve been very competitive, losing to Penn State by seven, beating UCF by one, and beating Delaware by three.
That Delaware one isn’t impressive, but the other two? Very impressive. They could’ve won that game against Penn State.
Duke is coming in confident after putting together a three-game win streak against three lousy opponents, but they were blowouts. They scored over 40 points in each of their last three games and look to be over the Daniel Jones hangover.
Pittsburgh is scoring 19 points per game on offense and allowing 21 on defense. Quarterback Kenny Pickett has thrown for three touchdowns and two interceptions. But thanks to Pittsburgh’s defense, they’ll slow the game down, which means less possessions for Pickett.
If Duke has it their way, they’ll look to scoring points. A lot of points. Duke is scoring 34 points per game and it’d be higher if their first game of the year wasn’t against Alabama. Quentin Harris has thrown for 10 touchdowns and two interceptions.
Both teams are allowing 21 points per game. But Duke is averaging almost two more touchdowns on offense (against worse opponents). However, Pittsburgh hasn’t been on the road since the first game of the year where they had their worst game of the season. Duke will get this win at home with the spread -4. I’ll take it.
California (4-1) @ 13 Oregon (3-1) at 8:00pm EST
California and Oregon have played 82 games against each other. Each team has won 41 of them. Interesting, right? Oregon has won the last two meetings. Oregon won their last meeting last year by the score of 42-24.
California has had an interesting season so far. They upset Washington on the road, almost lost to North Texas and Ole Miss and then lost a close one to Arizona State. Now their starting quarterback is hurt putting pressure on Devon Modster to keep the California dream alive. Last week, when he came into the game for Garbers, he threw 35 percent completions along with an interception. But it’s always hard coming into the middle of the game. Expectations are a lot lower. But not this week. They expect big things from Modster, the junior quarterback.
Oregon is on a three-game winning streak after defeating Stanford on the road 21-6. They look good. Their only loss was against Auburn in the final seconds of the game. And now we realize just how good Auburn is this season. Oregon is the 13 team for a reason. They’re good and might win the Pac-12 when it’s all said and done. Oregon has won each game by at least 15 points, after they defeated Stanford on the road. In Oregon’s home games, they’ve won by at least 32 points.
Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert decided to stay with Oregon for one last year instead of moving on to the NFL Draft. He’s been very good throwing for 14 touchdowns and no interceptions. Herbert is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, if not the best.
Herbert or Modster? Easy decision. I’m fine taking Oregon -18 at home. They produce at home. They’re deadly at home.
