Week 10 picks: Does offense travel?
We said offense, not "good" offense, which will be a departure from regular business at Wrigley. Plus, a pair of Group of 5 numbers have our attention.
Welp, that Pitt-Notre Dame write-up sure aged well last week, huh?
We are on to Week 10.
Navy -6.5 over Temple (FanDuel). Temple is 0-7 against the spread vs. FBS teams this season. The Owls are just 5-15 straight up and 1-11 in AAC play under second-year coach Stan Drayton. Navy is just 2-4 ATS vs. FBS teams, but new coach Brian Newberry’s squad is 3-4 overall and one win away from matching the program’s win totals of each of the last two seasons. Both teams are coming off an open date, and Temple has one extra day to prepare after last playing on Friday, Oct. 20, but considering that that was a 55-0 home loss to SMU, all that time off might not be such a good thing. The Owls are 126th nationally in total defense, 124th in yards per play against, 131st in scoring defense and 127th in rushing defense, giving up 206.5 ypg on the ground. That’s a terrifying combination against the Midshipmen’s triple option attack, as Navy averages 205.14 rushing yards per outing — even after being held to just 22 rushing yards against Air Force. Take the visitors to win by a touchdown or more in Philly.