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EagleBank Bowl Odds: Navy vs. Wake Forest Football Picks

Written December 17, 2008 by Jason Lowry

Navy Wake Forest Football

This Saturday the NCAA Football Bowl season gets underway, and today we are going to take a closer look at the EagleBank Bowl that has the Wake Forest Demon Deacons taking on the Navy Midshipmen at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. Now usually a bowl game is a chance for a team to take on an opponent that is equally matched that they have yet to see this season, but these two teams met back on Sept. 27th of this season, where Navy sneaked out a 24-17 win on Wake Forest’s home field. Now the Demon Deacons still hold the edge overall at 6-3, but its hard to go against a team that has already proven it can beat the other team. For those of you looking to do a little NCAA Football Betting this weekend, the oddsmakers have Wake Forest 3 point favorites over Navy at Sportsbook.com

Now when you get down to it, Wake Forest’s offense isn’t something many opposing coaches lose sleep over, as the Demon Deacons come in with the 100th best rushing attack, and the passing attack of Riley Skinner may have been accurate (62.8%), but it wasn’t all that productive, as Skinner had just over 2,100 yards passing with 12 scores and 7 interceptions. Besides Skinner the other two players that you can possibly count on making the big play in this game would be tailback Brandon Pendergrass and wide receiver DJ Boldin. Pendergrass was only able to rack up 528 yards on the season, but Boldin is no doubt the go to guy in the passing game, as he hauled in 77 passes for 782 yards and 3 scores. Now the Demon Deacons still managed to win 7 games this season, so they have proven it doesn’t take a great offense to win games.

Now the reason that the Demon Deacons were able to win games this season, was large part due to the play of their defense, as they allowed just 18.2 ppg. The Demon Deacons were lights out against the run allowing teams to manage just 3.3 ypc and a mere 114 ypg. The defense also gets after the opposing team, as they not only had 24 sacks on the season, but forced 35 turnovers as well. The star of the defense is no doubt linebacker Aaron Curry who led the team in tackles and tackles for loss, but also got great play from guys like senior Alphonso Smith, who led the team with 6 interceptions. Either way it will be the defense that wins Wake Forest the game this weekend, and that means slowing down Navy’s rushing attack that went off for 292 yards earlier this season. Bet Wake Forest Demon Deacons -3 at Sportsbook.com

Now for Navy to have a ton of rushing yards really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as Navy led the nation in rushing this season, and its pretty much all they do on the offensive side of things, as they averaged 298 yards a game. Both Shun White and Eric Kettani had big seasons running the ball, as White racked up 1,021 yards and 8 score, while Kettani added 932 yards and 4 scores. The Midshipmen also got some help out of Ricky Dobbs who might of only had 493 yards on the season, but had 8 scores in just the 7 games he played. The passing game hasn’t been asked to do much this season, but it does look like opening day starter Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada will be the starter after he came back to start the final game of the season in the Midshipmen’s 34-0 win over rival Army. Either way look for the Midshipmen to run, run and run some more in this one, as its all they do on this side of the ball.

Now even with all the yardage and time the offense eat up by running the football, it has not translated into a well rested and strong defense, as the Midshipmen’s defense gave up nearly 342 yards and 22 points a game. Now if you had to pick where this unit is the strongest it would be up front against opposing teams rushing attacks, but thats about it for strengths on this side of the ball. The defense has created 29 turnovers, and 6 of those came in the game against the Demon Deacons this season. Now this unit doesn’t get a ton of pressure on the quarterback with just 17 sacks on the season, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get a big game out of Matt Nechak, who had 8.5 tackles for loss and 4 sacks on the season. Navy has already shown it knows what it takes to beat the Demon Deacons, its just a matter of can they do it in the spotlight of the final game of the season. Bet Navy Midshipmen +3 at Sportsbook.com

Get the best NCAA Football picks, and the latest college football odds for all the Bowl games this season at Betfirms.

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