Jeff Alexander
Rangers -109
I'll gladly back the Rangers at home at basically a pick'em against the Astros on Friday. Texas is on fire at the moment, as they have won 5 straight and 7 of 8 overall. They are one of the best teams in baseball when playing at home, where they are 45-21 on the season (35-33 on the road). Rangers A.J. Griffin is coming off a great start at home against the Indians, giving up just 5 hits over 6 shutout innings. He was also really good in his lone start against the Astros this season, allowing just 2 run on 4 hits in 6 innings of a 7-4 win going up against Houston ace Dallas Keuchel. Texas as a team is 11-2 against the Astros this season with a 6-1 record at their home park.
Brandon Lee
Phillies -135
Philadelphia is worth a look here at home against the Braves on Friday. The Phillies have a clear-cut edge on the mound with Jeremy Hellickson facing off against Joel De La Cruz. Hellickson wasn't great in his last outing at New York, but that's just a blimp on the radar. Prior to that he'd allowed 3 runs or less in 10 of his previous 11 starts. He's poised for a big bounce back start against Atlanta. Hellickson has faced the Braves twice this year and has guided the Phillies to wins in both starts, posting a solid 3.08 ERA. De La Cruz has made 4 road starts this season and lost all 4, posting an ugly 5.59 ERA and 1.655 WHIP. Too much value to pass up on Philadelphia in this one.
Jack Jones
St. Louis Cardinals -114
This is a pretty good price to get the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of this series with the Cincinnati Reds Friday night. The Cardinals have a lot to play for right now as they are trying to hold on to the 2nd wild card spot in the National League.
The same cannot be said for the Cincinnati Reds, who are just 55-77 on the year and just looking to get to the finish line. That has been evident with their play of late as they have lost four straight while going 2-8 in their last 10 games overall.
Alex Reyes held his own in his only start this season, giving up just one earned run and two hits over 4 2/3 innings against the Oakland A's on August 27. He'll be opposed by Anthony Desclafini, who is primed for a letdown after pitching a complete game shutout in his last start against the Diamondbacks.
The Cardinals are 8-2 in their last 10 road games. St. Louis is 5-1 in its last six games following a loss. The Reds are 30-63 in their last 93 vs. a team with a winning record. St. Louis is 11-5 in the last 16 meetings.
Jimmy Boyd
Kansas State +15
Stanford was one of the more impressive teams down the stretch of last year. They also have one of the top players in the country in running back Christian McCaffrey.
I believe it has the Cardinal way overvalued in the opener. Kansas State is going to be a much improved team in 2016. Stanford likely wins this contest, but I think it’s much closer than a lot are expecting. Keep in mind the Wildcats have thrived as road dogs. They are 21-10 ATS as a road dog over the last 10 years.
While Stanford gets back Heisman frontrunner McCaffrey, they might take a step back offensively. The loss of starting quarterback Kevin Hogan isn’t getting near the attention it should. He played a big role in the Cardinal averaging 37.8 ppg last year. He completed 68% of his attempts with a 27-8 TD/INT ratio.
Stanford also loses three starters on the offensive line. That includes one of the best left guards in the country in Joshua Garnett. As well as 1st Team All-Pac-12 left tackle Kyle Murphy and starting center Graham Shuler.
Synder and the Wildcats have had ample time to devise a game plan to contain McCaffery. I like their chances of slowing him down. K-State has 7 starters back on defense and have added in some nice juco transfers. They also get back star senior strong safety Dante Barnett, who made just 1 start last year.
Stanford’s defense figures to be improved over last year’s poor numbers. However, they do have a big hole to fill at linebacker, where All-American Blake Martinez has departed. Martinez led the team with 141 tackles last year. The next best mark on the team was 57.
Kansas State’s offense will also be improved. Last year’s starting quarterback, Jesse Ertz was lost for the season in the first game. He’s back under center. They also added in a big time playmaker at receiver in juco transfer Bryon Pringle.
Stanford has failed to cover 4 straight in their first game of the season against a FBS opponent. With a new starting QB and inexperienced O-line, I look for that trend to continue.
Dave Price
Houston Astros +104
The Houston Astros are on a tear right now and look like they aren't going to be denied a spot in the postseason at this point. They have gone 10-2 in their last 12 games overall and I like this underdog price of +104 today against the Rangers as they stay red hot. Doug Fister is consistently undervalued as he's 12-9 with a 3.60 ERA and 1.290 WHIP in 26 starts, including 9-3 with a 3.07 ERA and 1.232 WHIP in 13 road starts. Fister has owned the Rangers of late as well, going 3-1 with a 2.40 ERA in his last 5 starts against them. He has given up 2 earned runs or less in all 5 starts. A.J. Griffin sports a 4.50 ERA in 5 lifetime starts vs. Houston and has a 4.39 ERA over 18 starts this year. The Astros are 10-3 in Fister's 13 road starts this year. Houston is 21-7 in its last 28 vs. AL West opponents.
Zack Cimini
St. Louis vs. Cincinnati
Pick: St. Louis
This is the third series in thirty days between the Reds and Cardinals.
The familiarity would seem to bode to the Reds side as ace Anthony Desclafani has a stout 8-2 record. On top of that the Reds have hit the ball well in those six contests (28 runs--4.6 RPG).
For the Cardinals they'll be relying on young ace Alex Reyes who will be making his second start of the season.
This is a spot where you follow the money. Familiarity may bode with the Reds at home but the Cardinals will rise to the top Friday off their veteran lineup.
SPORTS WAGERS
N.Y. Yankees +120 over BALTIMORE
Don’t look now but the Yankees are just 2½ games back of the Orioles and Tigers for the final Wild Card spot. The Designated Hitters (the Orioles) are not in good form with five losses in their past seven games. When Baltimore faces a pitcher/catcher combo that works them over, it usually turns into a long night. Baltimore’s group of free swinging all or nothing lineup is very beatable and that figures to bode well for Chad Green.
Green’s fastball averages 94 MPH with sink and run. He has an elite 13% swing and miss rate to go along with an elite K-rate of 10 K’s/9 over his 11 appearances (seven starts). Since being inserted into the rotation in early August, Green’s 3.64/3/3.22 ERA/xERA split is a top-3 in the AL. Green commands the plate with an easily locatable fastball. He knows how to pitch and attack hitters with all of his offerings. His slider, which features splitter-like action, and change-up are inducing plenty of swing and misses too.
Dylan Bundy has thrown three non-quality starts in a row (we call them disasters) and seen his average fastball velocity drop over one mph since he joined the Orioles rotation in mid-July. It’s no surprise that Bundy is running on fumes given an injury history that has limited his workload over recent seasons. It’s his second straight start against a Yankees offense that trailed only the Red Sox in scoring during the month of August. Bundy’s fly-ball lean profile of 35%/45% (groundball/fly-ball) helps to set his xERA at 4.44. Bundy’s WHIP of 1.34 is also above out threshold of 1.30 of acceptability. Camden Yards has been kind to Bundy thus far but his metrics insist that this is not a suitable park for his style. In the end, when favored, the Designated Hitters are high on our fade list for the final month of the season because this is the time of year in which pitching usually defeats hitting.
Atlanta +126 over PHILADELPHIA
If you are going to spot a tag in a baseball game, the Phillies are the very last team in the majors that is worth doing so with. Philadelphia is limping to the finish line with three straight losses and seven defeats in its last nine games. In those seven losses, the Phillies have scored one run or less five times. Over the past 15 games, Philadelphia ranks last or bottom-three in several key offensive categories that include, runs scored, team batting average, slugging % and OPS. By contrast, the Braves are playing loose and they’re having fun with three wins in a row and six victories in their past nine games. In a just completed three-game sweep over the Padres, Atlanta scored seven runs or more in all three games.
Indeed, Philadelphia has a starting pitching edge here with Jeremy Hellickson over Joel De La Cruz. Big deal. Hellickson has been far more effective against heavy right-handed lineups, which the Braves are not. Furthermore, if the superior pitcher won every game, we would all be smoking cigars and sipping margaritas. What we know is that Hellickson has had plenty of blowups this year and throughout his career. His 33%/42% groundball/fly-ball split adds to his risk at this venue. We also know that in terms of current form, the Braves have a huge advantage and one that is greater than Philadelphia’s pitching edge.
Arizona -1½ +130 over COLORADO
This is such a good matchup for the Diamondbacks. First, there is Robby Ray, who has put up the best skills of any starter in MLB since the All-Star break with 12.5 K’s/9, 2.1 BB’s/9 and 50% grounders. While Ray still needs to attack hitters more early in counts (56% first-pitch strike rate) his ball% has dropped from 37% to 33%, and his swing and miss rate has jumped from 10.5% to 12.9%. Furthermore, Ray is one of very few pitchers in the history of Coors that seems unfazed by the park factors. Ray has an incredible 2.76 ERA over three career starts here and he’s never been better than he is right now. It gets even better.
Southpaw Jorge de la Rosa has a 10%/45% dominant start/disaster start split this season that is reflected in his uninspiring 5.09 ERA and 1.54 WHIP. Dude has walked 51 batters in 115 innings for a troubling BB’s/9 rate of 4.0. de la Rosa will throw the occasional gem but his velocity drop and age assures us of some abbreviated starts too. It may also surprise you to learn that the Diamondbacks lead MLB in OPS vs. LHP. Pitching mismatches aren’t everything but in this park for this one game, this pitching mismatch in the Snakes’ favor is one we are not going to overlook because it has a lot more moving parts than just statistics. Robby Ray has legit ace potential and is pitching like it while Jorge de la Rosa has one foot in the gutter.
SPORTS WAGERS
Toledo +4½ over ARKANSAS ST
Toledo has absolutely owned Arkansas State. In the past two meetings between both sides, Toledo has made mincemeat of the Red Wolves in post-season and regular season capacities. The first recent encounter was the Rockets 63-44 victory over Arkansas State in the GoDaddy Bowl to ring in 2015. Toledo would subsequently thrash Ark State, 37-7 when they played host to the Red Wolves at The Glass Bowl in early September of 2015. Toledo was a short favorite both times but is now getting four points despite outrushing the Red Wolves 554-51 in the first two meetings and returning the five backs responsible for 543 of those yards.
After beginning the 2015-16 season at 1-3, the Red Wolves would run through the Sun Belt conference, winning eight games in a row to go undefeated in conference play. Arkansas State didn’t make a habit of beating up on cupcakes either, as they took down traditional Sun Belt powerhouses such as Georgia Southern and Appalachian State in the process. These achievements afforded the Red Wolves a full a head of steam heading in to their New Orleans Bowl clash with in-state Louisiana Tech. However like Toledo, the Bulldogs and Kenneth Dixon would mop up Ark State on the ground in route to a 47-28 win. The Red Wolves will have revenge on their minds here. The revenge angle is overused and usually useless but the market can’t get away from it. Furthermore, Toledo welcomes in a new coach in Jason Candle, as Matt Campbell accepted the job at Iowa. The consensus appears to be that the loss of Campbell will shake things up, at least initially. While that may or may not be true, what it does do is give us inflated points. The MAC is the superior conference here and if past results mean anything, perhaps Toledo is a horrible matchup for the Hogs.
Toledo is coming in off a 10-win season. This Rockets bunch is the same team that went to Arkansas in the opening weekend of 2015 and handed the Hogs a loss. Let us not fail to mention that Toledo also traveled to MAC Champion Bowling Green and dominated the Falcons equipped with Matt Johnson at quarterback. Toledo’s resume speaks for itself. The Rockets are a dark horse to win the MAC and they just might do it. That quest begins here.
Note: We are going to split this one up and play Toledo on the money line +167 for one unit and Toledo +4½ for 1.1 units to win 1 for a total risk of 2.1 units.
Ball State +190 over GEORGIA ST
The start of a new season brings plenty of coaching changes and in many cases there is an overreaction to a change that the markets views as a negative one. Out the door for the Cardinals is Pete Lembo, who has spent the past five years at Ball State. Lembo had plenty of success at Ball State, as he guided the Cardinals to a 10–3 overall record in 2013, including a second straight bowl appearance when Ball State played in the GoDaddy Bowl. It marked only the second time in 89 years of football that the Cardinals have played in back-to-back bowl games. He was also the first Ball State head coach in the school's history to win 30 games in his first four seasons at the helm. Combine Lembo’s departure with the Cardinals awful season a year ago (losers of eight of their past nine games) and the result is a great buy low opportunity. The coaching change, viewed in the market as a negative one, actually comes at the perfect time.
Enter the enthusiastic Mike Neu, a former Ball State quarterback that was the MAC Offensive Player of the Year in 1993. He was also the quarterbacks coach for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League. The Ball State job is his first as a head coach and he has plenty of weapons to work with. Riley Neal will line up under center after a promising freshman campaign in Muncie. Last season Neal took over for quarterback Jack Milas at halftime of a loss at Texas A&M and two weeks later earned the starting spot for the rest of the year. Neal showed that in the air and on the ground he can be a top MAC quarterback. His freshman year peaked with a 393-yard 4-touchdown performance against Northern Illinois.The Cardinals return their top three running backs from a season ago, led by Darian Green who was tops in the MAC, averaging better than 121 all-purpose yards per contest. Ball State’s defense also has plenty of talent. Last year was just one of those seasons where everything went wrong for the Cardinals. They are actually a very good squad that underachieved and could not recover.
Georgia State is from the weaker Sun Belt Conference. The Panthers went 6-5 last season before losing to San Jose State in the Autonation Cure Bowl. This is a squad that lost to Charlotte and Liberty also. However, the Panthers did beat Ball State (31-19) so naturally one of their calls to schedule games was to Ball State again. That is likely to backfire. Nick Arbuckle, the Georgia State quarterback who shredded the Cardinals for 412 yards through the air in that win, has graduated. His replacement is Emiere Scaife. While we give the Panthers credit for their continued ascent up the Sun Belt landscape, they are still a new member to FBS football. The Panthers went 1-23 in their first 24 games before last year’s improvement. They are still not in the same class as Ball State so let’s look at that for a moment. That game last season between these two was played at Ball State. At the time, the wheels were starting to come off the Cardinals but they were a 14-point favorite. Less than a year later with the same personnel, the Cardinals are taking back points against a Panthers team that is forced to hand the reins over to a new QB that has been sitting on the bench for two years. Emiere Scaife did play eight plays in total over the past two years and attempted eight passes. He completed none and now there is a 19-point (!) swing in the number because of one result? That's value. Ball State outright gets this call.
Kansas State +12½ vs STANFORD
Stanford does not need much of an introduction here. It is the class of the West Coast and when we last saw them they were running away with another Rose Bowl win, 45-16 over Iowa. With how successfully their season ended it’s easy to forget how miserable 2015 started for Stanford. Coach David Shaw scheduled a tough game against Northwestern and he got burned badly when the Wildcats won outright 16-6 as a 10-point dog. We'll give Shaw some credit for trying to challenge his team early when most major programs are happy to beat up on any poor marshmallow that will show up and get thumped by 30 just for the TV time. This pesky dog may not be as accommodating. The Cardinal will once again lay double digit points to start the season. Stanford has never been a defensive power, which is one of several things that make these points so appealing. Lost in all the attention that running back and Heisman candidate Christian McCaffrey is getting is the loss of starting quarterback Kevin Hogan to the NFL and now freshman Keller Chryst has big shoes to fill. He’s also being asked to cover two near TD’s in his first start.
Kansas State is often dangerous when taking points in a high profile game. Last season, the Wildcats covered games against Oklahoma State, TCU and Baylor as a seven-point pooch or more. They also beat West Virginia 24-23 in the final game of the season as a 6½-point dog. The Wildcats struggled on offense last year but injuries played a major factor in that. Still, they were able to compete in some tough games. Bill Snyder has been a mainstay at K-State for over 25-years and knows how to prepare for every situation. The Wildcats might have the most underrated defense in the Big 12 and their linebackers could be the best in the conference. They'll bring speed and toughness. The return of safety Dante Barnett, who missed most of last season with an injury, should give their young secondary a big boost. So, once again we turn to inflated points for our choice, as you will pay a premium to back the #8 ranked Stanford Cardinal against ho hum K-State. Early season college football rankings influence the line but they are usually inaccurate and it honestly doesn't get much better as the year goes on. The Selection Committee is made up of former players and old coaches that get just as caught up as the rest of the country in the blue-blood programs that are supposed to be great. That’s an angle we’ll continue to attack and we make no exceptions here.
NOTE: This line was at +14½ early Friday and it has dropped to 12½ at the time of this writing. Therefore, we are going to wait to pull the trigger here in hopes of it coming back. We do not recommend playing a bad number so if it comes back, we'll play it. If it does not, we likely will not play it but either way, we'll update after dinner. For now....No bets.
Pass CFL
Nelly
Arizona Diamondbacks - over Colorado Rockies
Generating strikeouts at Coor's Field is pretty important and few have done that better than Robbie Ray who owns an 11.2 K/9 rate in a breakout season. He has been one of the few bright spots in a miserable Diamondbacks season, sporting a 3.50 FIP on the year currently having allowed three or fewer runs in seven of his last eight starts. Jorge De La Rosa was once one of the few pitchers that had better numbers at Coor's Field but he has struggled both home and away this season. His season ERA is 5.09 and he owns a 3.99 BB/9 rate that has been dangerous in a ballpark where extra-base hits are commonplace. Over his last nine starts De La Rosa has averaged just 5.8 strikeouts per nine innings while allowing 50 hits in just 46 innings of work. As bad as Arizona has been at home the Diamondbacks are close to .500 in road games despite almost always featuring underdog pricing and Arizona is actually 18-17 vs. left-handed starters compared to a 15-22 mark for the Rockies. Colorado is just 10-16 since early August after once climbing back into the wild card picture and this could be a taxed squad after Wednesday's double-header. Arizona has won four of the last seven in Colorado and the ceiling on Ray is much higher tonight.
Micah Roberts
Colorado St vs Colorado
Play: Colorado St +8.5
I keep trying to figure out why this number is so high. These two squads no matter how bad the program may be in always play close -- 3 of the last 4 decided by 5-points or less. And I don't see any reason to believe that Colorado miraculously got better in the off-season to make this is an 8.5-point spread. This is a neutral field game, not a Boulder. I have the Buffs only 2-points better than CSU. QB Nick Stevens returns and he'll have a good day against CU's defense like everyone else.
Dr Bob
STANFORD (-15) 26 Kansas State 15
The star at Stanford is obviously RB Christian McCaffrey, who broke the NCAA record for all-purpose yardage last season, but don’t underestimate the value of departed four year starting quarterback Kevin Hogan. Hogan’s stats didn’t get a lot of notice because he didn’t put up big passing numbers. But, big passing numbers is not the way to judge a quarterback. Passing efficiency is how to measure a quarterback and Hogan averaged 9.7 yards per pass play or more in 8 different games last season, including the final 3 victories over Notre Dame, USC, and Iowa in the Rose Bowl. McCaffrey was great but Stanford’s rushing attack was 0.5 yards per rushing play better than average last season (5.6 yprp against teams that would allow 5.0 yprp to an average team) while the Cardinal pass attack was 2.5 yards per pass play better than average (8.5 yppp against teams that would allow 6.0 yppp), which ranked among the best in the nation. New quarterback Ryan Burns will do a fine job, as the coaching staff will work in a lot of easy throws to McCaffrey and Bryce Love, who combined to catch 60 of 69 passes thrown to them last season for an average of 13.0 yards per attempt. Stanford also uses the tight ends a lot, which is comforting to inexperienced quarterbacks.
The challenge for Burns will be throwing the ball down the field to take advantage of single coverage against teams that will no doubt put an extra safety close to the line of scrimmage to defend McCaffrey. If Burns can’t burn opponents with play action passes down the field then the Stanford rushing attack won’t be as effective. Opponents respected Hogan too much to put an extra man in the box too often and Burns will have to earn that same respect for the Cardinal offense to be close to as good as it was last season. Stanford was 1.2 yards per play better than average offensively last season but they figure to regress a bit without Hogan (I rate that unit at +0.7 yppl heading into this season).
The Stanford defense, meanwhile, should improve after what for them was a down season. Last year’s Cardinal defense was inexperienced and lost a lot of talent from the dominating 2014 unit that was from an incredible 1.7 yppl better than average. Stanford’s defensive rating was 1.3 yppl worse in 2015 at just 0.4 yppl better than average (5.6 yppl allowed to teams that would combine to average 6.0 yppl against an average defensive team). This year’s edition should be closer to the strong 2012 and 2013 defenses, but not nearly as good as 2014, as I expect significant improvement defending both the run and the pass.
If these teams played last season my model would have favored Stanford by 18 points but the Wildcats have closed the gap after their string of four consecutive strong seasons ended in 2015 with a disappointing 6-7 campaign. Kansas State was out gained by over 100 total yards per game and by 1.4 yards per play after 3 consecutive seasons in which they were between +1.5 yppl and +1.6 yppl better than average (compensated for opponents faced). I trust that veteran coach Bill Snyder will make the necessary changes to get his team back to the positive side of the yards per play ledger and my algorithms forecast significant improvement on both sides of the ball for the Wildcats.
Improving on last year’s pedestrian offense will be pretty easy with starting quarterback Jesse Ertz likely to be a considerable upgrade from backup Joe Hubener, who had to step in last season after Ertz was injured on the first series of the season. I don’t think Ertz will be nearly as efficient as recent quarterbacks Colin Klein and Jake Waters were (an average rating of 2.5 yppp better than average from 2012 to 2014), as those two were blessed with having stud WR Tyler Lockett to throw to. But, Ertz should be about a yard per pass play better than last year’s pathetic -0.8 yppp rating. The rushing attack figures to be about the same (0.4 yards per rushing play worse than average) but overall I expect the offense to go from being 0.6 yppl worse than average to just 0.1 yppl worse than average this season.
The Kansas State defense will also rebound after a rare bad performance in 2015. Kansas State’s defense actually wasn’t as bad as the 6.4 yppl allowed would indicate, as the Wildcats faced a schedule of teams that would combine to average 6.1 yppl against an average team. Seven starters return and JC transfers have been brought in to plug holes (as is the tradition under Snyder) and I expect a return to levels pretty close to the 2012 to 2014 editions of the K State defense. Those teams allowed between 22 and 23 points per game each of those seasons while rating at between 0.7 and 0.6 yppl better than average. I rate this year’s defense at 0.5 yppl better than average.
Kansas State figured to be a much improved team and my ratings favor Stanford by just 10 ½ points in this game. Part of that lower than expected projected margin is based on the slow pace of this game, as fewer than 120 plays are predicted (140 plays is average excluding kneel downs). The slower paced the game, the harder it is for a big favorite to extend the lead and both of these teams play at a really slow pace. I’ll lean with Kansas State plus the points and the Under.
GoodFella
NY Mets -157
The Mets are playing some of their best ball of the season right now. They're coming off a loss yesterday. However, they had won 7 of 9 ballgames before last night's loss to the Fish. They are just 2 games behind St. Louis for the final wild card spot in the National League. Every game for these Mets is like a playoff game, as there are 5 teams battling for the 2 wild card spots in the N.L. On the flip side, the Nationals have a huge 9.5 game lead over the Mets in their division with just 4 weeks left in the regular season. The Nats send out youngster AJ Cole. He gave up 3 runs in 5 2/3 IP in his last start. Tonight will be just his 3rd start of the season. Cole has a 4.97 ERA this season & I do expect these Mets to get to him eventually. The Mets send out their stud Noah Syndergaard. He is filthy and has been very, very good of late. In his last 2 stars; 15 IP, 1 run, 4 hits, with a 13/4 k/BB ratio. He's actually allowed 2 runs or less in 5 of his last 7 starts. This is a huge game for these Mets tonight, with their stud ace on the mound. Frankly, tonight's game is much more important to the Mets, than it is to the Nationals. I fully expect Syndergaard to out pitch Cole & hand the ball off to the best arms in the Mets bullpen to close the game out. I like the Mets at this price & in this spot on Friday Night.
Ben Burns
Pittsburgh -183
The Pirates are pretty heavy favorites here but given the matchup, I believe the steep price is warranted. Taillon didn't enjoy pitching at Milwaukee last time out but he dominated the Brewers when he faced them here at Pittsburgh in July. Overall, he's got a 3.07 ERA and 1.068 WHIP in seven home starts. On the other hand, Guerra came back to earth by giving up four runs in four innings at (normally pitcher-friendly) Petco last time out. While the Brewers average 3.8 rpg (.241 avg) on the road, the Pirates average 4.6 (.269 avg) at home. I look for the Pirates to bounce back, improving to 26-19 (+7.4) the past 45 times that they were off three or more consec. losses.
Brad Wilton
Friday night comp play on Temple at home to cover against Army.
Hats-off to Army for "playing 'em close" last season, as 7 of Army's 10 losses last year came by 7-points or fewer. Jeff Monken's methods are surely getting results, but can he do it again this season is the question?
I don't see it happening here in Week One, as Temple has something pretty special cooking under 4th year coach Matt Rhule. The Owls have won and covered their last pair of season openers against stiffer competition - at Vanderbilt in 2014, and home against Penn State last year! Temple has also won and covered the last 6 series meetings against Army between 2008-13.
The Owls return 7 starters back on a defense that allowed just over 20 points per game last year, so don't expect the Black Knights triple-option to find open ground all that often at the Linc tonight. Throw in senior QB - Phillip Walker, and senior RB - Jahad Thomas moving the chains on offense, and eventually the Cherry and White will get on top of this impost. Temple with only Stoney Brook on their schedule for next week, so 100% focused effort here leads to an easy 3 touchdown win.
1* TEMPLE
Jeff Benton
Your Friday freebie is the Cardinals and Reds to open their weekend set in the Queen City Under the posted total.
St. Louis comes to town having played Unders in their last pair, and 4 of their last 6 overall, while Cincinnati has held Low in each of their last pair of contests.
Rookie Alex Reyes will make his second career start for the Redbirds, and thus far in his 14 innings pitched at this level, he has allowed just one earned run to cross, and has whiffed 17 batters!
Anthony DeSclafani is coming off a complete game, 4 hit shutout of Arizona his last trip to the hill, and he owns a 2.96 ERA for the season. The Under stands at 8-4-3 when he starts this season.
DeSclafani's last start against St. Louis came on August 10th when last these division-rivals met, and the game ended in a 3-2 Redbirds win. That one stayed Under the total, and tonight's stays Under the total as well.
3* ST. LOUIS-CINCINNATI UNDER