Temple Owls at Cincinnati Bearcats Betting Pick
Cincinnati is up to #6 in the nation as they head into a Friday night matchup at home against Temple. The Bearcats might not be on upset watch as 29 point favorites at BetUS and -28.5 at BetOnline.
Covering a betting line this big may be a concern for the Cincinnati Bearcats, though, as they are in a letdown spot after an emotional win over Notre Dame in South Bend last week. Plus, Temple isn’t that bad at 3-2 on the season, beating Memphis in their last game.
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Owls With a Tough Road Trip
Much like Cincinnati, Temple is in a bit of a letdown spot of their own after beating Memphis 34-31 last week when sportsbooks had them as +11 point underdogs. The Owls were down 17-0 at one point in that game but rolled back, scoring 34 of the next 40 points. D’Wan Mathis went 35/49 for 322 yards in that game with 3 TD and 0 INT.
The Owls look like they have the offense to at least cover the +29 point betting spread. Moneyline betting is not available for this game but totals wagering on the 54 points O/U would seem to be begging for the ‘over.’
Mathis has thrown for an average of 307 yards the past two weeks with 5 TD to 0 INT and also ran for 53 yards in the win over Memphis.
Temple’s defense made some nice adjustments last week and, although they gave up a ton of yards, they did a nice job of holding Memphis to 31 points. Seth Henigan threw for 305 yards and 4 TD while Rodrigues Clark had 92 yards rushing on 16 carries, but this is also a Tigers offense that averages 476.6 ypg, which is 18th best in the nation and puts up 37.4 ppg (24th).
Big Spread for Bearcats
Cincinnati looked good on both sides of the ball in their 24-13 win over Notre Dame in South Bend last week. The #7 Bearcats were road favorites over the #9 Fighting Irish last week, easily covering the -2.5 betting line.
With UCF’s (Cincinnati’s opponent next week) QB Dillon Gabriel out indefinitely with a broken collarbone, the Bearcats look poised for another fairly easy undefeated season and a possible berth in the CFP.
The Owls are not an offense to be overlooked, but Cincinnati’s defense sure looked good in last week’s game holding Notre Dame to 84 yards rushing and 257 through the air. The Irish don’t have the offense they did when Ian Book was running things, and the Bearcats proved that by making coach Brian Kelly shuffle through three different QBs.
Cincinnati has now held three of their four opponents to 14 points or less this season, the other being a 38-24 win at Indiana in Week 3.
Desmond Ridder sparkled vs. the Fighting Irish with 297 yards passing and 2TD with another score on the ground. Ridder has 9 TD to 2 INTs this season and is 3rd in the nation in Heisman Trophy betting odds (+1200).
Temple at Cincinnati Pick
There’s just too much going on for the Bearcats to cover the -29 points this week.
They’re coming off possibly the biggest win in program history while looking ahead to UCF, which is their 2nd to last major challenge of the year ahead of a November 20th home game with SMU.
Temple has put together a couple of good offensive weeks as well. The Owls won’t win, but it’s going to be hard to beat them by 30+ points.
Betting Pick: Temple +29.0 points