Louisville Cardinals at Syracuse Orange Betting Odds - Free Pick

Louisville Cardinals at Syracuse Orange Betting Odds - Free Pick

David Schwab
Date: September 9, 8:00 pm
Location: Carrier Dome
TV: ESPN

Betting Odds

Point Spread: Louisville -14.5
Total: 69

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The Louisville Cardinals will try and continue their climb in the national rankings when they open conference play this Friday night against the Syracuse Orange at the Carrier Dome. This ACC tilt is scheduled to get underway at 8 p.m. (ET) and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN 2.
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Louisville at Syracuse Game Overview
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Louisville opened its season in an impressive fashion as a 38.5-point home favorite last Thursday night with a 70-14 romp over Charlotte out of Conference USA. The Cardinals took the game OVER the 58-point total line on their own behind a dominating offense that racked up 28 points in each of the first two quarters to put this game away by halftime.
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Sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson completed 17 of his 23 passing attempts for 286 yards and six touchdowns while adding another 119 yards and two scores on 11 rushing attempts. All told, Louisville gained 391 yards through the air and 272 yards on the ground in this mismatch. The Cardinals’ defense did its part by shutting out the 49ers in the first half. Even with many of the starters on the bench in the second half, this unit only allowed 208 yards off total offense on the day.
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Syracuse hosted Division IAA Colgate out of the Patriot League in its season opener last Friday and rolled to a 33-7 victory as 22-point favorites. There was no posted total line for this game. Despite losing eight of their last nine games in 2015 straight-up, the Orange did go 5-2 down the stretch against the spread. The total went OVER in five of those seven games.
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New head coach Dino Babers found his team down 7-0 early in the first quarter before Syracuse got things going with 33 unanswered points. Eric Dungey got the start at quarterback and he threw for 355 yards and two touchdowns while completing 34 of 40 attempts. The Orange used a running back-by-committee approach with five players combining for 117 rushing yards on 35 attempts. The defense also stepped up its game after that early touchdown by holding Colgate to a total of 146 yards on offense.
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Louisville at Syracuse Game Betting Trends
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The Cardinals are 4-2 ATS in their last six games and they have gone 8-4 ATS in their last 12 games on the road. The total has gone OVER in five of their last six games.
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The Orange are a perfect 5-0 ATS in their last five home games and the total has gone OVER in five of their last seven games played at home.
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Head-to-head in this ACC tilt, Louisville has won five of the last six games SU and it has a 4-1 edge ATS in the last five meetings. The total has stayed UNDER in four of its last six road games against Syracuse.
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Louisville at Syracuse Free Pick

Both teams showed the ability to move the ball downfield against an outmatched defense in their season opener, but in this matchup Louisville has just too much firepower behind Jackson at quarterback.

Laying double-digit points in a conference matchup on the road does come with some degree of risk early in the season, but the Cardinals are at the top of the food chain in the ACC against a Syracuse team that is still a couple a seasons away from being competitive as this level. Take the Cardinals to win both SU and ATS on Friday night as my “best bet” pick in this game.

Free Pick: Take the Louisville Cardinals -14.5
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