Saturday -- Part 1 (9/22/07)

Not sure about Murdoch's status for posting as he is a busy man this weekend (i.e. he got engaged), although he did give me a winner on OU last night (I will admit I was skeptical). But, hopefully I can continue our good Saturday luck with three early games:

First up, take East Carolina +24 against West Virginia. I know it is hard to bet against W.V. this season (especially with their late game covering ability), but this EC team just seems to know how to slow down WV's attack. EC has held WV to under 200 yards rushing 2 years in a row (losing 27-10 and 20-15 when they were getting 21 and 24 points respectively). WV is due for a letdown...this is the week.

East Carolina +24 (**)

Next, take Houston -6 1/2 at home against Colorado State. This Houston team is loaded on offense as was shown again last week in their rout (and they only scored 3 points in the second half b/c they took their foot off teh pedal). Colorado State has lost 9 games in a row (5 on the road by an average of 11 points) and now they are only getting 6 1/2 against one of the nations most explosive attacks? Ridiculous. Houston BIG.

Houston -6 1/2 (***)

Finally, I have my third 4* game of the year (1-1 b/c Virginia sucks). BYU will ROLL Air Force this Sat. There are a lot of reasons that this line is only 11...but, none of them hold any water. AF is getting a lot of credit for beating TCU and staying undefeated even though they were absolutely dominated in that game and TCU was still not recovered from Texas. BYU is undervalued b/c they have lost 2 straight (both on road) even though they outgained both by 300 yards. In contrast, AF has been outgained by 300 yards in their last two wins. And lets not forget that BYU has dominated the last 3 meetings winning by an average of 19 points (including hanging 63 on AF in the last game at BYU). Simple facts: BYU is the better team, they are at home, angry over their last two road losses, and playing an overvalued team. Nuff said.

BYU -11 (****)