BetUS $500 Match Bonus
Sign up for a new account with BetUS and deposit $500 or more to get a $500 match bonus!

$20 Free Play at Sportsbook.com
Your first bet is free when you open a new account at sportsbook.com!

Louisville Cardinals vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights Football Betting Odds & Spread

Written December 2, 2008 by Jason Lowry

This Thursday the two more teams will finish off their regular season, as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights host the Louisville Cardinals. The Scarlet Knights are likely headed to a bowl game, as they locked up their 6th win of the season when they handed Army a 30-3 win a couple weeks ago. The Cardinals didn’t have such luck in their last game, as West Virginia handed them a 35-21 defeat, as the Cardinals record dropped to a disappointing 5-6. If you are looking to do a little college football betting on the game this week, the oddsmakers have Rutgers coming in 10.5 point favorites over the Cardinals at Sportsbook.com

Louisville comes into this one losers of 4 straight games in which they have been a win away from becoming bowl eligible in each of them, as they started the season going 5-2. In their last game against West Virginia the Cardinals offense actually controlled the ball, as they ran 33 more offensive plays, but thanks to 5 turnovers this team shot itself in the foot. Quarterback Hunter Cantwell threw for 276 yards in this one, but had 3 big interceptions that really hurt this teams chances of putting needed points on the board. The running game did a pretty good job rushing for 198 yards with touchdown runs coming from Bilal Powell and Brock Bolen. This week the offense just needs to limit the turnovers, as they have the talent to compete with the Scarlet Knights in this one.

Now as much of the fault can fall on the offense for turning the ball over as much as it did, the defense had absolutely no answer for Mountaineer quarterback Pat White who out rushed the Cardinals by himself, as he had 200 yards on the ground, to go with running back Noel Devines 154 yards. White not only had touchdown runs from 66, 43, and 7 yards out, but also hooked up with Jock Sanders for a 25 yard touchdown. Now the Scarlet Knights don’t have the same type of quarterback that can not only run and pass, so the Cardinals have to hope the defense will do a much better job against the run this week, or its going to be a real bad finish to the Cardinals season. Bet Louisville +10.5 at Sportsbook.com

Now as bad as things have gone for the Cardinals over the last half of the season, its been going just the opposite for Rutgers, who have turned a 1-5 start into not only a winning season, but one of the biggest turnarounds the school has ever seen. With the win over Army the Rutgers have now won 5 straight games, and have a chance to finish tied for 2nd in the conference with another win this week. Against Army the Scarlet Knights got off to a great start thanks to a defensive touchdown, a 26 yard pass from Mike Teel to Shamar Graves, and 3 field goals from San San Te, all in the first half. The Knights racked up over 500 yards of total offense, with nearly all of them coming from the arm of Teel, who threw for 359 yards on 23 of 33 passing. Now the Cardinals were pretty good against the pass in their game against West Virginia, but that was mainly because they ran the ball at will. Look for the Knights to try and work the pass early, but turn to the run if they struggle moving the football.

The Knights defense made sure Army got nothing going in this one, as the Knights held them to just 219 total yards, as the Black Knights tried to run and run, but just didn’t have that much success. Now Army did run for 217 yards, but they ran it 47 times, and only had 2 yards passing the whole game. Its not going to be that easy against the Cardinals this week, as Louisville can move the football, but if the defense can get turnovers like West Virginia did last week, we don’t see this one being much of a problem for the Scarlet Knights. Bet Rutgers -10.5 at Sportsbook.com

Get the latest college football picks and the best NCAA football lines from Betfirms.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

No comments yet, but your thoughts are welcome!

Comments

Comments are closed.