Cincinnati at Rutgers Odds

Written by Jack Jones

The Cincinnati Bearcats sit in first place in the Big East conference. They control their own destiny the rest of the way, but they’ll be visiting a Rutgers team Saturday that is only a half-game behind in the standings. In fact, there is a four-way tie for second place in the Big East. Cincinnati has won five straight meetings with Rutgers, including a ridiculous 69-38 home victory last season. The Bearcats racked up 661 total yards, including 366 passing and four touchdowns from Zach Collaros, and 213 rushing and four scores from Isaiah Pead.

Odds makers believe the Bearcats will win a sixth straight in this series, installing a line of Cincinnati -3 over Rutgers and a total set of 47 points.

Cincinnati

The Bearcats have faced a pretty soft schedule for the most part this season. Cincinnati (7-2, 3-1 Big East) has started to get into the meat of their schedule over the last few weeks. They were able to escape with back-to-back 3-point road wins over both South Florida and Pittsburgh, but they weren’t so fortunate last Saturday. West Virginia won at Cincinnati 24-21 in a hard-fought battle throughout. The Mountaineers took a 17-7 lead into halftime, but the Bearcats responded with 14 straight points to hold a 4-point edge in the fourth quarter.

Shaun Alston’s 1-yard touchdown run with 8:52 to play proved to be the game-winner for WVU. Cincinnati had a chance to tie it at the end, but Tony Milano’s field goal attempt was blocked. Give credit to the Bearcats for clawing their way back after losing starting quarterback Zach Collaros to an ankle injury. Munchie Legaux played well in his place, throwing for 144 yards with an interception, while also rushing for 77 yards and a score. Pead led the way with 113 yards and two touchdowns for the Bearcats.

Cincinnati ranks 39th in the country in total offense (423.0 yards/game) and 48th in total defense (367.8 yards/game). They are 30th in rushing offense (193.6 yards/game) and 2nd in run defense (80.0 yards/game). Their offense has suffered a big hit the rest of the way as Collaros is out for the season with a broken ankle. He had thrown for 1,860 yards and 14 touchdowns to eight interceptions, while also rushing for 242 yards and eight scores before getting hurt. Pead (934 yards, 10 TD) is going to have to carry the load for this offense Saturday as Legaux looks to build off of a solid performance.

Rutgers

Quietly, the Scarlet Knights find themselves right in the thick of the Big East race after bouncing back from a disastrous 2010 campaign. Rutgers (7-3, 3-2 Big East) has reeled off back-to-back home wins to really put themselves in a good position. After topping South Florida 20-17 in overtime on November 5th, they avoided a letdown last week by crushing Army 27-12. This was a 6-6 game at halftime, but the Scarlet Knights would go on to score 21 points in the second half to run away with it.

Quarterback Chaz Dodd completed 17 of 27 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions. Thirteen of those completions went to Mohamed Sanu, who finished with 129 receiving yards on the day. Those 13 grabs helped Sanu set the single-season record in the Big East for receptions. He now has 94 catches for 973 yards and seven touchdowns on the season, and aside from quarterbacks, you could argue that there is no one player in the country more important to an offense than Sanu.

Rutgers ranks just 100th in the land in total offense (322.3 yards/game), and 113th in rushing (90.4 yards/game). They have been winning behind a stop unit that ranks 18th in the FBS in total defense (319.3 yards/game), including 10th against the pass (175.2 yards/game). Dodd is completing 56.7 percent of his passes for 1,075 yards with nine touchdowns and six interceptions. He has clearly won back his starting job over Gary Nova. Jawan Jamison is their leading rusher with 547 yards and four scores.

Betting Trends

The Bearcats are 11-5-1 ATS in their last 17 games following a S.U. loss. However, they are just 3-8 ATS in their last 11 road games, and 1-8 ATS in their last 9 November games.

The Scarlet Nights are 7-3-1 ATS in their last 11 games overall, including 5-1-1 ATS in their last 7 vs. a team with a winning record. But Rutgers is just 1-4 ATS in their last 5 meetings with Cincinnati.

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