Houston at Tulane Line
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
The Houston Cougars will look to keep their perfect season alive when they go on the road to take on the struggling Tulane Green Wave. The Cougars improved to 9-0 overall and 5-0 inside Conference USA with a dominant 56-13 win at UAB this past Saturday. The Green Wave come in off a 24-45 loss at SMU and have now lost seven straight since beating UAB 49-10 back in the third game of the season. The Cougars have won eight straight in the series by an average score of 39-16.
Taking a look at the week 11 college football spreads, oddsmakers currently have Houston favored by 34-points over Tulane.
Houston:
The Cougars latest blowout win over UAB is nothing new for this team. Houston has won their last four games by an average of 42.5 points per game. The Cougars have been one of best teams in the country against the spread, covering seven of their nine games.
However, I wouldn’t be so quick to consider this week’s game against Tulane a lock. While Houston looked impressive in their win at UAB, their three other road wins this season have come by an average of just 11 points. Two of which were games they failed to cover. The Cougars simply have to show up to win this game, and it’s going to be be very hard for them to not look ahead to their two upcoming games against SMU and Tulsa.
Not to say the Cougars won’t cover, but I wouldn’t consider a huge play. In their eight straight wins over Tulane, only one of them has come by more than 30 points. They definitely have the offense to cover a huge spread. Senior quarterback Kase Keenum is re-writing the record books nearly every time he steps on the field. He threw for 407 yards and two touchdowns in their latest win over UAB, just one week after throwing for 534 yards and nine touchdowns against Rice.
The other thing that really makes the Cougars a scary pick is you just don’t know what you are going to get out of their defense, especially on the road in a meaningless game. Even if Houston holds Tulane to just 23 points, that means the offense will have to score 58 points to cover, something they have only done twice this season.
Tulane:
While the Green Wave were dominated in their last game at SMU, they did manage to cover the 26.5-point spread. Tulane knows they have no chance of winning this game and really have nothing to play for with just three games left on the schedule. Still I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they put out one of their best efforts of the season. With no chance at a bowl game, this is arguably the biggest game of the season for the Green Wave and the last time they will have the opportunity of playing in front of their home fans.
Tulane isn’t going to keep Houston from putting up a ton of points in this game, but they should be able to at least move the ball on offense. The Green Wave come in averaging just 351.7 yards of total offense a game, but are going up against a Houston defense that has had its troubles this season. The Cougars are giving up just over 400 yards of total offense a game in 2011, and have been suspect to big plays all season long.
Junior quarterback Ryan Griffin just threw for 214 yards and two touchdowns in the win over SMU. He has shown the ability to be a difference maker with four games of at least 250 passing yards. The other player that could be in for a big performance is sophomore running back Orleans Darkwa, who is averaging 4.3 yards per carry.
Betting Trends:
Houston is 4-13 ATS in their last 17 games as a road favorite.
Tulane is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games after accumulating less than 275 total yards in their previous game.
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