College Football Odds: Syracuse Orange vs. Pittsburgh Panthers
The winner of this Big East matchup will become bowl eligible. The loser will be packing its bags for the winter holidays.
Oddsmakers expect Syracuse will continue its lackluster play. The Orange were defeated last weekend at home against Cincinnati, which was without its starting quarterback Zach Collaros. The 30-13 final score prevented ‘Cuse from covering the NCAA lines as a small underdog.
The Orange were once positioned to compete for the conference title but have since dropped four games in a row (0-4 ATS).
“It is tough to explain how upset everybody is. Just mentally, after another loss like that, it is just tough to deal with,” senior Dan Vaughan said after the Cincinnati loss.
The offense doesn’t do much other than wait for something good to happen. Syracuse made some changes on that side of the ball during the bye that before the Cincy game but they didn’t seem to help at all.
The defense is playing just as poorly. Syracuse couldn’t stop the Bearcats ground game and gave up 189 rushing yards. The secondary has been maligned all season because of injuries and suspensions. The Orange rank 99th in pass defense at 258.2 yards per game allowed.
But it’s not like Pittsburgh has the tools to attack that unit. Tino Sunseri has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the conference all season and is coming off a very poor performance at West Virginia.
The Panthers were defeated in Morgantown 21-20, dashing their Big East title hopes, but they did manage to cover the NCAA lines as touchdown dogs. They are 4-0 ATS in their last four outings.
A maligned offensive line that has lost four starters this year gave up 10 sacks to the Mountaineers. Pitt ranks dead last among 120 FBS teams in sacks (4.8 per game).
That line needs a tourniquet to stop the bleeding but the other line has been a force all season. The Panthers rank fifth in the country in sacks with 36, including four of Geno Smith last weekend. Ryan Nassib is an athletic quarterback but he gets dropped on average 2.4 times per game.
A decimated O-line, a struggling quarterback and an injured running back have made for a disappointing first year for head coach Todd Graham. This game will be highlighted by Senior Day and with a bowl game on the line we expect the Panthers to go all out.
When these Big East foes faced each other in October last year, Pittsburgh pounded the Orange 45-14 as 2.5-point road chalk. The favorite is 6-2 ATS in the last eight matchups of this series, which Pitt leads 33-30-3 overall.
