Eastern Michigan at Michigan Line

Written by Kyle Hunter

eastern-michigan-michigan-odds-091809 The Michigan Wolverines are coming off a triumphant fourth quarter comeback at home against Notre Dame. Tate Forcier led the team by completing 23/33 passes for 240 yards and rushing for 70 yards as well. Michigan fans are overjoyed about the way Forcier seems to be jumping right into the system that Rich Rodriguez runs and excelling from day one. Maybe even more important than the passing game is the fact that in both their season opener vs. Western Michigan and the Notre Dame game Michigan has shown the ability to run the ball with both Brandon Minor and Tate Forcier. Denard Robinson also brings an extra dimension to the offense when he is brought in, so defenses definitely have plenty to think about against the Wolverines.

Eastern Michigan has had two tough losses to start out the season. A last second loss last week at Northwestern was particularly hard to take for the team. Northwestern converted a 49 yard field goal with 6 seconds left to win the game after Eastern Michigan had come from behind to tie the game 2:40 remaining. The Eagles hiring of former Michigan assistant Ron English in the offseason added a little bit of intrigue to the matchup this weekend. English used to be Michigan’s defensive coordinator so we will see how much of a factor that plays into the game plan for both teams in this matchup. Dwayne Priest is a talented tailback for the Eagles and Andy Schmitt is a veteran quarterback for the team.

Michigan is clearly a team that has improved immensely from last year to this year, but the one question mark remains the defense and how good they can be. In the season opener against Western Michigan they looked great, but they had a rough week against the high powered Notre Dame offense last weekend. If Michigan is going to go very far this year it will take the defense stepping up when it has to. Eastern Michigan may have a difficult time testing the Michigan defense because of their relatively average offense that doesn’t have a ton of firepower.

The line on this game opened with Michigan as 22.5 point favorites, but it has since moved up to Michigan as 24 point favorites according to the latest college football lines. Last weekend not withstanding Eastern Michigan has typically had a tough time against the spread versus the Big Ten Conference, failing to beat the spread in 8 of their last 11 matchups. The over/under in this game is set at 54.5 points, which seems a bit high considering Eastern Michigan is liable to have trouble scoring many points in this one. This game is likely to look quite a bit like Michigan’s season opener versus the other directional Michigan team, Western Michigan. I believe Rich Rodriguez’s team will come out with a lot of confidence looking to put away the Eagles quickly before they start to believe they actually have a chance to win. If you are going to play this game I would have to think that Michigan minus the points is the way to go.

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