Thursday, February 9th, 2012
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will look to rebound when they tackle the Pittsburgh Panthers in a college football game on Saturday night in prime time. Kick off time is scheduled for 8PM Eastern Time with regional television coverage provided by ABC. The LVSC college football odds makers set the opening point spread in this contest and the home team Pittsburgh Panthers opened as a 6 ½ point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has come in on the home favorite, as the Pittsburgh Panthers are currently a 7-point favorite. The total is currently lined at 57 for the college football bettors to wager into. College football money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Pittsburgh Panthers at –260 with the road underdog Notre Dame Fighting Irish bringing back +220 to win straight up without the points on their side.
Notre Dame is coming off an egg on their face loss to Navy last week 23-21. The Irish despite moving the ball through the air on the Midshipmen were only able to cash 3 touchdowns on their defense but had 3 turnovers that were costly. Notre Dame despite seeing the Navy triple option every year allowed 348 yards rushing last week. The Irish had problems running the football with just 60 rushing yards on 20 attempts. Jimmy Clausen was able to knife through the Navy defense last week as he hit on 37 of 51 passes for 452 yards two touchdowns and an interception. Notre Dame’s defense allows 386 yards per game this season and just under 23 points a game. A positive the Irish can bring into the Pittsburgh is the fact the Panthers lone loss on the season came to a good passing team in NC State who upended Pittsburgh 38-31 way back in September 26th. Pittsburgh is 8-1 on the season and has their sites on a Big East title, which would grant them an automatic bid into a BCS Bowl game. With West Virginia and Cincinnati on deck for the Panthers this game is somewhat meaningless for Pittsburgh because with a loss late in the season to West Virginia or Cincinnati it would be unlikely that the Panthers would earn an at large bid into a BCS bowl game. With that being sad it could be possible that we see less carries in this game for freshman running back Dion Lewis. Lewis had already 203 carries in his freshman stanza for the Panthers for an impressive 5.6 yards per carry average and 12 touchdowns. One would expect a lot more passing from Pittsburgh senior quarterback Bill Stull who has delivered with 67% completion percentage with 17 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. The Panthers have been good against the run allowing just 106 rushing yards but allow 204 through the air.
Tony T’s Opinion: When a total is posted in this game I may look to play it over should this game make my card. The Panthers need to preserve freshman running back Dion Lewis and save him for these important Big East games to close the season. Jimmy Clausen will test this Panthers secondary that gave up 322 passing yards in defeat to NC State. I expect a high scoring shootout game here with Pittsburgh going away from the run in order to be fresh for West Virginia and the big one on December 5th against Cincinnati.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Notre Dame Fighting Irish is 10-3 to the under in their past 13 road games
The Wagerline consensus has 65.7% of the CFB bettors on Pittsburgh –7
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