Ohio will hit the highway and take a trip to Louisiana to meet the Ragin’ Cajuns in an out-of-conference affair. Let’s analyze this Thursday night matchup and keep cashing our college football picks!
Thursday, September 16, 2021 – 08:00 PM EDT at Cajun Field
The Bobcats (0-2 SU, 0-2 ATS) have gotten off to a rocky start with losses to Syracuse and Duquesne by scores of 29-9, and 28-26, respectively. The latter was a bitter pill to swallow considering the college football odds at many of the best online sportsbooks were dealing Ohio as 28 ½ point home chalk. The Bobcats just couldn’t get it in gear and allowed the FCS entry to climb back in the game after failing to score in the second and third quarters.
Sophomore quarterback, Kurtis Rourke, was 14-of-22 for 168 yards and a touchdown while the rushing attack produced 139 yards and a pair of touchdowns. However, the Ohio defense continued to allow the Dukes to get within field goal range and the Duquesne kicker, Brian Bruzdewicz, was happy to oblige by going for 4-for-4 with two extra points. It was the first victory over an FBS team in Duquesne’s history.
“We just need to be more disciplined as a defense,” Ohio defensive back Kai Caesar said. “We had penalties in the back, we had penalties in the front. Those are things we do work on in practice and we just have to stay true to our technique and our game.”
As for the head coach, Tim Albin, he preferred to look on the bright side of things after the shocking loss, “I got a lot of confidence in Kurtis and the offense. We played a lot of receivers today. Offensively, the execution was good and we were executing as a unit. That’s what we’re going to have to do.”
After dropping a 38-18 decision to Texas, Louisiana (1-1 SU, 0-2 ATS) was poised for redemption with a gimme game over an outclassed FCS team, Nicholls State out of Thibodaux, Louisiana. But things didn’t go quite as planned and the Cajuns almost fell victim to the same malaise as Ohio when the Bobcats lost their game to a small FCS school as four-touchdown favorites.
But unlike Ohio’s loss to Duquesne, Louisiana was in control for most of the game and the final score was a bit misleading as the Colonels scored the final two touchdowns against an almost disinterested Cajuns’ defense. When the dust settled, Louisiana sealed a 27-24 victory but never came close to covering the number as 26-point favorites. Senior quarterback, Levi Lewis, threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns while linebacker Kris Moncrief had a 67-yard pick-six as the only score in the third quarter.
The offenses on both teams were functioning fairly well last week but then again, the defenses each was facing were of the FCS variety so what else would you expect? It was the defenses that bent a bit too far as Ohio was defeated by the Duquesne field goal kicker for the most part while Ohio seemed to fall asleep in the fourth quarter, allowing Nicholls to draw close.
And while I appreciate Louisiana’s Levi Lewis’s “sharing is caring” approach to passing, completing to a stunning 11 different receivers, I’m not sure if Louisiana is worthy of laying double digits, let alone nearly three touchdowns, to any FBS team. In fact, I was rather shocked that the line was so big here because the Cajuns have not exactly covered themselves in glory after their first two games.
I think the big-ticket item moving this line is the perceived mismatch at the quarterback position but Kurtis Rourke is a typical game manager and will not commit the critical mistakes that are common of quarterbacks trying to do too much. That bodes well for a cover here because it means Ohio is not going to be giving away golden field position to Louisiana and play catch-up all game long.
I would feel like a chalk-eating simp if I laid this many points with a team that barely eked out a win over an FCS team and is now expected to blow out an FBS rival. Hey, maybe Ohio really is that bad and so devoid of pride that they will lay down again this week. But I don’t think so because losing to an FCS team as a 28 ½ point favorite are the kinds of losses that get the head coach fired. And entering this contest, everybody on that Ohio squad knows a poor showing here could see them with an interim head coach sooner than later.
Free College Football Pick: Ohio +20 (-108) at Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.