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NCAA Football Mid-Major Free Betting Picks: Florida Atlantic Owls Week 2

by Chris Vasile - 9/9/2021

College football picks N'Kosi Perry Florida Atlantic Owls Week 2 predictions

I think my favorite days of the football season are the five days leading up to a team’s Week 2 game. During those days, you hear the most ridiculous statements and overreactions you will ever hear throughout the football season. People will say that Team X is toast and won’t win a game all season long, while others will be quick to anoint a team the next National Champion. The one basic principle that I try to follow throughout a long football season is that no team is as good or as bad as their last game. Each game is its own entity and should be treated as such.

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Just because a team scored three points (Clemson) doesn’t mean they are going to struggle to put up points all season long. Just because a team put up 47 points (Michigan) doesn’t mean they are the 2019 Kansas City Chiefs. Just because a team gave up 400 yards rushing (FAU) doesn’t mean they are going to continue to allow those kinds of numbers throughout the rest of the season. However, the Owls better figure that issue out relatively quickly, because Georgia Southern is coming to town with a mighty fine triple-option rushing attack.

In this weekly feature at Doc’s Sports, we will follow the Florida Atlantic Owls football program, with a bet or a pass every week, using Doc’s Sports unit betting system, in order to show that specialization on one mid-major program can yield profitable betting results.            

As far as last week’s results go, we hit FAU +23.5 for a solid two units of profit. It wasn’t pretty, but the Owls found a way to get through the backdoor and get the cover after scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter for their only points of the game. On to this week!

Week 2 vs Georgia Southern

As of writing this, the Owls have been tabbed as seven-point favorites, with the total set at 48. This line opened at Owls -4 and has since been bet up to the touchdown mark, which makes sense given how shaky Georgia Southern looked in their opener despite beating Gardner-Webb by five points as 28-point favorites.

The Owls had a rough go of things in the opener against a Florida Gators team that is simply better than them. They were shut out at half, and it took a 14-point fourth quarter for us to get the backdoor cover. Thankfully, Georgia Southern’s defense is not that of the Gators, and we expect FAU to move the ball on this team and put up plenty of points. The Owls were led in the Week 1 loss by N’kosi Perry, who had 266 passing yards and one passing touchdown. The running game didn’t help the cause as two running backs combined for just 104 yards on the ground and never really factored into the equation. Thankfully for the Owls, the way to attack the Eagles’ defense is through the passing game as they gave up 365 passing yards to an FCS team.

Defensively for the Owls, they are going to have their hands full with the Eagles rushing attack. They allowed the Gators to rush for 400 yards and now have to face a team that just ran for 365 yards. If they can’t get that triple-option figured out early, it could make for a long day at the office for the defense.

We know what Georgia Southern is going to bring, and it’s a run-first attack that mixes in the play-action pass and quick pass and catch routes. They are likely going to win the time of possession based on their style of offense. However, if the Owls can stay disciplined to their assignments, the triple-option could struggle.

Series History: These two teams have met once before, and that was just last year with Georgia Southern coming away with an easy 20-3 victory.

Georgia Southern at Florida Atlantic College Football Picks

This game features two teams with extremely contrasting styles. The Owls would like to throw the ball all over the field. And with the way the Eagles’ defense was shredded by FCS team Gardner-Webb, the Owls should have success at moving the ball downfield with chunk plays. However, the Eagles’ triple option is no joke, and the Owls just gave up 400 rushing yards in their last game. I believe whichever defense can get a critical stop late in the fourth is going to win this game. With that said, I think seven points is too many, and I’ll take them here in this contest.

Selection: 2-Unit Play. Take Georgia Southern +7 (-110) over Florida Atlantic (Saturday, September 11 at 3:30 pm).

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