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Houston at Marshall Football Picks & Predictions

Written by Jimmy Boyd

The Marshall Thundering Herd host the Houston Cougars Tuesday night in a Conference USA battle of first place teams in their respective divisions. Odds makers aren’t seeing much home field advantage coming into play here though and have listed Houston as an 8-point favorite.

Houston defensive end Phillip Hunt has been opponents’ worst nightmare this season. He racked up his ninth and 10th sacks of the season in Saturday’s big come from behind win at SMU. His 1.4 sacks per game average is tops in the nation. In 46 career games, Hunt has 33 sacks and 44.5 tackles for loss. This guy might just have a future in the NFL.

The guy responsible for much of his success, after all, is 15-year NFL vet Jim Jeffcoat, who is the defensive line coach.

The Cougars are 4-3 on the season and a perfect 3-0 in Conference USA play.

While I’ve given Hunt and the defense a little page time, it’s the offense that will really be striking fear into Marshall as they prepare for this game. Houston is second in the country in passing with 403.3 yards per game, third in total offense with 544.3 yards per game, and 12th in scoring at 39.3 points per game. And the running game gains a respectable 141 yards per contest.

In other words, Houston does not struggle to put points on the board and Marshall is going to have to be able to answer.

The defense has been vulnerable as opponents have averaged 28.6 points per game and 399 yards of offense per game against them. But Houston boasts a gambling defense which has mounted 15 takeaways and added 14 sacks.

QB Case Keenum is the big story for Houston this season, leading the country with a 407.9 total yards per game average. He has 23 touchdowns on the season. If you think the Cougars can outscore the Herd this week and cover the number in the process, bet Houston at Boomaker and receive a 20% cash sign up bonus.

If Marshall wants to have a chance at pulling off the upset this week, it is going to have to do a much better job at tackling. Marshall reportedly missed tackles on at least 10 plays that resulted in nearly 200 yards in its two-point heartbreaking loss to UAB on October 18. UAB QB Joe Webb ended up with 352 yards of total offense which does not look good with the No. 1 ranked total offense player coming to town this week.

Marshall ranks 11th in Conference USA in scoring at 19.1 points per game, averaging 332.7 total yards per contest. The Herd have done a good job of protecting QB Mark Cann, but they are a league-worst league-worst 13-for-20 inside the red zone.

The defense is giving up 427.6 yards per game.

This is a young football team, but they find themselves at 2-1 in Conference USA sitting atop the East with big wins over Memphis and Southern Miss. Marshall played Houston to a 35-28 game on the road a season ago. That was against a Houston team which tied for first in the West against a Marshall team which only won three games. So we do not expect the Herd to fold.

Marshall is going to need better play from Cann, who has thrown five picks and completed only 49 percent of his passes during Marshall’s three-game slide. We expect him to be better at home this week and for him to be looking in the direction of wide receiver Darius Passmore (appropriately named) this week. Passmore averages 103.4 receiving yards per game and 16.8 yards per catch. His big play ability will be crucial in this contest. If you think the Thundering Herd can take the Cougars down to the wire like they did last season, bet Marshall at +8 at Bookmaker.

Do your football betting with Jimmy Boyd this week to beat the NCAA football odds with ease. Last week’s college football picks went 7-2 last week with all three big Game of the Year plays hitting (Big Ten, NCAAF Vegas Line Mistake, NCAAF Sunday Night).

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