UConn Huskies (1-5 SU, 0-6 ATS) vs. East Carolina Pirates (5-1 SU, 4-2 ATS)
College Football Week 9
Date and Time: Thursday, October 23, 7:00pm EST
Where: Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium – Greenville, NC
TV: ESPN
by Bob, Football Handicapper, Predictem.com
Point Spread: UCONN +27.5/ECU -27.5
Over/Under Total: 55
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This Thursday night, tune into ESPN to check out a college football week nine contest between the UConn Huskies and the East Carolina Pirates. This game is between two American Conference teams. East Carolina enters at 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference, while UConn will be heavily underdogged coming in at 1-5 overall, and 0-3 in the American Conference.
The line opens with East Carolina as a 27.5 point home favorite, while the total points are set at 55 total. East Carolina has done well against the spread this season, going 4-2. UConn on the other hand, has not. You think their 1-5 overall record is bad, they are 0-6 against the spread. This is a pretty big spread at 27.5, so lets take a moment to break this game down and see just who is the smarter play.
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East Carolina comes into this game at 5-1 overall. Their only loss in the 2014 season was to South Carolina by a score of 33-23. Even that game was closer than the final score, the Pirates had chances to win it in the 4th quarter, but just did not make the plays. The success of ECU has been due to their passing game. Right now, the Pirates are the 4th best passing team in all of college football, averaging over 370 yards per game. Quarterback, Shane Carden has gone off this season. Through six games, he has already thrown for over 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns. The most impressive thing to me is the fact that with all those passing attempts, he only has four interceptions thrown. Not only do the Pirates throw the ball well, they also have a top 50 running offense and a defense that is only allowing 23 points a game. The two most impressive wins this year for ECU was their wins over Virginia Tech and North Carolina. The North Carolina game was a huge eye opener when they scored 70 points on the Tar Heels and totaled over 700 yards of offense. I could see East Carolina running the table the rest of this season and going 11-1. The key to this game is to score fast and often. If they jump out to an early big lead on UConn, I do not believe the Huskies have the heart nor talent to come back.
I sure hope the University of Connecticut is enjoying that basketball national title, but they will never see one in football…at least no time this century. This team is bad. Very very bad. The Huskies come in with a 1-5 record overall, and 0-6 against the spread. The lone win for UConn was a 19-16 nail biter over Stony Brook. Since that time, UConn has lost four straight, and I do not see them getting many more wins this season. Statistically, UConn is even worse than their 1-5 record. They are ranked 109th in passing offense, 124th in rushing offense, and 127th in points scored. I usually try to point out areas that teams have a chance to cover a spread, or a certain stat you can rely for them to have a slight advantage over their opponent. There simply isn’t anything I can say…UConn is outclassed and the only chance they will have is to somehow grind out long drives and not go three and out. I am not talking about UConn winning this game, they are not doing that, but if they want to cover this 27.5 point spread, they MUST have some long drives that keeps the high powered Pirates offense off the field.
Bob’s Pick to Cover the Point Spread: Like I said, UConn is not going to win this game, that is a done deal. However, with that said, they could potentially stay within four touchdowns of the Pirates. East Carolina could come in on cruise control and just get out with an easy win, or UConn could somehow come in fired up and looking for an upset and keep it closer than expected. Okay, lets get real, East Carolina is a really good team, and UConn may be the worst in all of FBS football. I like East Carolina to come in and put up 50 or so on the Huskies. I am going with a prediction of 52-10 for the Pirates. PICK EAST CAROLINA -27.5 AND OVER THE POSTED TOTAL OF 55 POINTS