CFB Week 8 roundup: Penn State, Nebraska offenses are overrated
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Every week throughout the college football regular season, we'll be highlighting everything you may have missed from a betting perspective and how you can apply it to future slates.
Here's what stood out after an eventful Week 8.
Penn State, Nebraska have questions on offense
Penn State and Nebraska are two teams I thought would be good "over" plays this campaign, but my stance has quickly changed.
The Nittany Lions don't have a lot of balance this season. They obviously missed wide receiver K.J. Hamler as they struggled to push the ball down the field against Indiana on Saturday. The team's running back depth has also taken a hit, with injuries to both Journey Brown and Noah Cain. Quarterback Sean Clifford looked uncomfortable under the slightest bit of pressure, which resulted in 17 carries for 119 yards in the overtime loss.
After the total closed at 62, I'd have to downgrade Penn State quite a bit offensively.
As for Nebraska, there's just not much to work with. Head coach Scott Frost's game plan against Ohio State was to use second-string quarterback Luke McCaffrey as the primary tailback. Dual-threat starter Adrian Martinez didn't have anyone except Wan'Dale Robinson on the perimeter, and the Cornhuskers only threw past the sticks to him once all game.
I wouldn't be so fast to play the over on these two clubs.
Stick a fork in Pitt's secondary
No defense has flopped harder over the last three weeks than Pitt.
After allowing 30 combined points through their first three games, the squad has surrendered at least 30 points in each of their last four. The Panthers have been torched through the air during their four-game losing streak, allowing 10 touchdown passes of 25 yards or more.
With games against Clemson and Virginia Tech coming up, something tells me Pitt still has a couple of crooked numbers to let up. Feel free to play the Panthers' opponents against the spread heading forward.
Kentucky unders will be hot down the stretch
Kentucky's learned this past weekend that it's tough to put points on the board when your defense isn't recording pick-6's left and right. The defense masked a poor offensive performance against Tennessee in Week 7, but their struggles were on full display Saturday against Missouri.
The Wildcats' offense mustered just 145 yards in the 10-point loss. The unit has faced Mizzou and Ole Miss so far and isn't even averaging five yards per play on the season.
You can't make Kentucky's totals low enough, apparently.
Cincinnati is legit
With only so many programs in action, there have been a handful of clubs slipping into the rankings that may be undeserving. Cincinnati isn't one of them.
I was interested to see how the Bearcats would fare against a potent, spread-out SMU offense in their first real test of the year - and they passed with flying colors.
Cincinnati held a top-10 offense in yards per play to an otherworldly 3.2. The squad stood strong on the road in a game between two ranked competitors and out-gained the Mustangs by nearly 150 yards.
The Bearcats have not allowed an opponent to surpass the team total over yet this season. Although the defense still has Memphis, Central Florida, and others on the schedule, I'm confident this secondary can hold its own.
Alex Kolodziej is a betting writer for theScore. He's a graduate of Eastern Illinois who has been involved in the sports betting industry for 12 years. He can quote every line from "Rounders" and appreciates franchises that regularly wear alternate jerseys. Find him on Twitter @AJKolodziej.