Well, we all managed to survive last week’s heatburn inducing a game against the Minutemen. However, some of our wallets were not feeling as lucky. Mine in particular was hurting bad as I got a little too carried away this past weekend with the excitement of the NFL returning and I made some foolish bets that I am now regretting come this fine Monday morning. Fortunately, one of the things I have to give myself credit for was to fade the UMass game at the last second. As tempting as the spread may have been, there was something in my gut that told me to walk away from the table on this one. If I only heeded this advice for the rest of my parlays on Saturday and Sunday....
Anyways, enough of my wallowing. Truth of the matter is, if Jurkovec did not go down so early in the game I don't envision a scenario where BC could not have covered the spread. Nonetheless, things happen all the time in sports and with Jurkovec getting injured so early, you could pretty much kiss your BC -37.5 good-bye. Either way, gotta give props to Denis Grosel who was firing on all cylinders and was ready for the opportunity to step-in to fill the QB void. What concerned me most was the defense’s performance. With all of the penalties and the amount of points they gave up to a UMass offense (who only put up 7 points against Pitt AND was not starting a Freshman at QB in that game), I cannot help but analyze these opening lines a tad more scrupulously.
Fast-forward to this upcoming Saturday, BC remains the favorite against the Temple Owls at a -16 spread. Temple is 1-1 so far to start the season with them getting absolutely smacked around by Rutgers in their season opener 61-14, but then following that up with an expected win against Akron. The issue this week gambling-wise is that so much of this is contingent on variables that we do not have much information on in regards to the BC lineup. Coach Hafley should find out the status of Jurkovec on Tuesday, but things are looking bleak for Jurkovec based off of his recent Instagram post showing him with wrap around his wrist. Additionally, we cannot rule out the fact that Zay Flowers looked pretty banged up despite returning later in the contest against UMass. Plus, defensively, this team is gradually showing more-and-more that they have some creases to iron out.
Given these variables, I would lean in taking the points with Temple at +16. I still expect BC to win the contest and so does Vegas with -800 odds for the Money Line. As for the O/U, it is currently set at 60 and I do not intend on playing with this one. I have no idea what to expect of Temple’s offense and BC’s defensive performance last week scares me away from going down this betting route. If you want to play with fire, go with the under.
Final Prediction: BC 28 - Temple 17 | Temple +16 | Under 60
Bonus Round: Here are some other early opening lines in Week 3 I am liking the looks of out of the gate:
- Virginia Tech vs, West Virginia (-3) - Peter’s Pick: VT +3
- Coastal Carolina (-11) vs. Buffalo - Peter’s Pick: CC -11
- Alabama (-14.5) vs. Florida - Peter’s Pick: ‘Bama -14.5
- FSU vs Wake Forest (-6.5) - Peter’s Pick: Wake -6.5
- Auburn vs. Penn State (-6.5) - Peter’s Pick: PSU -6.5
- Whatever team Colorado State and Addazio are facing (this week Toledo), bet on them. This method has not let me down yet!