Houston vs. Louisville College Football Spread/Handicapping
When the Conference USA teams joined the American Athletic it was supposed to make it a pretty diluted league this season – but I doubt Louisville is thinking that right now. They have already been beaten once by former CUSA champ in Central Florida and if they are not careful another one, Houston, will beat them up too.
Houston Cougars (7-2) vs Louisville Cardinals (8-1)
Saturday November 17
Papa Johns Stadium – Louisville, KY
7:00PM
Moneyline: Louisville -700, Houston +500
Spread: Louisville -15.5
O/U: 57.5
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The Cougars are really good this season as they have added some key balance to their pass happy ways by actually playing some defense.
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That will come in handy on the road Saturday night.
Houston
The Cougars are looking really good this season. Sure they have the couple of losses, including last week at UCF but those were by a total of just 6 points (a 1 pointer to BYU is the other one) so it is not like they are that far off.
They can still chuck it around the yard successfully but with their defense playing well they are playing tougher than what we are used to seeing, winning games where their offense isn’t running up a point a minute.
I know it wasn’t against the highest calibre of competition but any team that can go on the road and win three weeks in a row should not be so easily discounted.
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They played UCF just about as tough as the Cardinals did except they were the visitors in that contest.
Of course the Cardinals are favoured in this one but I was really surprised that they are giving away so many points.
Louisville
Louisville has rebounded from their loss to UCF with a couple of easy conference wins the last couple of weeks. Though their championship aspirations are pretty much dashed they still have a pretty good chance to play in a good bowl game if they can finish strong, plus they have that whole Teddy Bridgewater for Heisman thing to keep up their focus.
Against UCF the Cards seemed to not be able to match their intensity and I am concerned that this week could be the same thing.
There is no doubt the Cougars are going to amped up for this one and they should be playing fast and loose like they have nothing to lose.
The Cardinals have very impressive defensive numbers but they gave up nearly 450 yards to UCF and Houston probably has the more explosive offense of the two with some really good playmakers on the outside that could cause matchup problems.
The key will be if they can rattle Houston freshman QB John O’Korn. If so this could be another Louisville rout. If not I expect a fight to the finish.
Spread Pick: Houston +15.5
O/U Pick: Over
Score Prediction: Louisville 38 – Houston 34
