There are plenty of good matchups during week 9 of the college football season as we inch closer to conference championships and the playoffs.
The primetime games on Saturday are exciting and here are the best bets for the 12pm window
Ohio State vs. Penn State on FOX
100% the game of the day but we have to watch it at noon instead of having a “White Out” at Beaver Stadium. Ohio State won by 44 points last week and the spread was -30. It’s pretty impressive to win a game like that and by that much and have everybody say you played a bad game. I stated in the recap of last weeks best bets that it did feel weird they won by that much because Ohio State absolutely did not look sharp. They’re a dominant team though. When you get a chance just look at their offensive lineman they are monsters. The o-line has been good all year but to be fair to them they struggled to run the ball last week for the first time all year. Penn State has been slipping a little bit more in their run defense that started off so hot. To me Ohio State needs run the ball like they used to if they want to cover.
Penn State is home back to back weeks and the crowd is going to favor them heavily in this game at least for a little while. They looked good last week on both sides of the ball. Sean Clifford made some solid throws and their two headed rushing attack was brilliant. Michigan has a good defense and Penn State did not fair well against them.
They were away which is a fair argument but you can argue Ohio State has a better defense than Michigan led by Jim Knowles and Tommy Eichenberg. Sean Clifford like I’ve already said just isn’t that good of a college football QB and I think he’ll have some flashes in this game where he throws a couple single coverage sideline deep balls but consistently I don’t think he keeps them on the field. If Penn State can run the ball well then I think they cover easily to be honest. If the pressure can stay off Clifford and he’s not forced to throw often on 3rd down Penn State is in business.
The Bet: Stroud needs to bounce back after looking sluggish, Ohio State defense is legit and I don’t trust Sean Clifford. Ohio State -15.
TCU vs. West Virginia on ESPN
TCU comes into this game looking like a real contender. At least to everybody else. I was against TCU last week with Kansas State +3.5 and TCU yet again injured a QB and came back and won the game. Let’s look at the list of QB’s that have been hurt against them. Dillon Gabriel for OU, Jalon Daniels for Kansas, Spencer Sander for OK. St (he stayed in the game but he was not ok) and finally Adrian Martinez for Kansas State as well as the backup Will Howard. Now I like Max Duggan the TCU QB because he is tough as nails but he’s not a great QB.
I’ve seen plenty of his games to know he’s not very accurate and he doesn’t mind forcing passes over the middle. What I’m trying to say is TCU should not be undefeated. They have caught some breaks these past weeks and I while I think they are a good team I just feel like they will run out of gas soon enough.
West Virginia is in the type of year that a lot of Big 12 teams will find themselves in. They play well one week against a Big 12 opponent and then they get beat by another Big 12 opponent and so on. Just like the Pac-12, the Big 12 just beats each other up. Even when Oklahoma was dominant in college football they always had one random loss to someone in the Big 12 that’s just what the conference is. While they sit at 3-4 and their transfer QB JT Daniels has not been as advertised they play at home this week and the simple fact of it is that West Virginia at home vs. a ranked opponent is scary. If they can keep the ball on the ground with Tony Mathis and not force JT Daniels to throw too much West Virginia is in business.
The Bet: West Virginia at home is scary, TCU I feel is running out of gas. West Virginia +7.5.
Notre Dame vs. Syracuse on ABC
Notre Dame stinks this year there’s no other way to put it. I don’t understand how they didn’t go and try to find a better college football QB than Tyler Buchner to start the year. He is obviously hurt now but he is not the answer there. They currently have Drew Pyne as the QB and he’s been ok in his role. He certainly throws a lot to the best tight end in the country Michael Mayer as he should the guy is a beast. The defense hasn’t been stellar this year even with a defensive head coach and plenty of top recruits. It will be interesting to see how they attack the offense Syracuse runs with Shrader and Tucker both keen to run the ball.
Syracuse had a tough game to swallow last week when they lost to Clemson. It is fair to say though that the defense for Syracuse is good. They certainly will need to be good again as the one thing that Notre Dame has going for them is their size. We saw Syracuse fair well against a bigger team in Clemson as they have some monsters on the o-line and d-line.
Notre Dame is the same, as watching them this year when they play a team like BYU who just does not have the size on the line they got bullied. Shrader will need to be a little smarter this week and find ways to have consistent drives in the second half. Pressure was an issue late last week where I believed he could have taken off earlier, as he likes to run, instead of sticking in the pocket. Finally Syracuse needs to give the ball to Sean Tucker more as he barely touched it against Clemson and when he did he was very very good.
The Bet: Notre Dame’s size scares me as well as trusting Syracuse head coach Dino Babers but Syracuse is home and they have a shot to beat Notre Dame in college football which is massive for them. Syracuse -2.5.
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