Ohio vs. Pittsburgh: 5 Trends

Ohio (+160) @ Pittsburgh 

Saturday, September 7th, 11am EST

BetQL Rating: ★★★ (Ohio +160) 

Ohio is 7-1 straight up in their last eight games.

Frank Solich’s Bobcats have been a roll dating back to last season. Not only have the Bobcats won seven of eight, each of the seven wins have been by at least 21 points. 

Ohio is 16-7 in their last 23 games played on a Saturday.

In the MAC conference, teams often take the field during the middle of the week, and the Bobcats have fared well with a regular week of rest and lining up on Saturday. The last two seasons, the Bobcats played six games on days other than Saturday. A traditional start to the season could prove beneficial. 

Frank Solich is 48-28 after a game where Ohio forced 1 or fewer turnovers the week before.

The Ohio defense is a stingy group and the fact they were only able to have the ball bounce their way once last week vs. Rhode Island could lead to good fortune this week. A tough Bobcats defense could turn opportunistic this week based on Solich’s track record. 

Pittsburgh is 1-4 straight up in their last five games.

The Pitt program under Pat Narduzzi feels like it has hit a wall. A poor finish to 2018 and a bad 30-14 home loss to Virginia to open the season has Pitt in a rut. The last win the Panthers can hold onto is a mid-November win against ACC bottom-feeder Wake Forest. 

The total has gone under in 20 of Pitt’s last 28 games.

Narduzzi does know defense and his Panthers have generally had a stout unit on that end of the field. However, part of this trend also factors in that Narduzzi has struggled to employ an efficient offense and with a shaky returning quarterback in Kenny Pickett, points may continue to be hard to come by. 

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