For the first time in nearly a month, West Virginia fans were able to sing John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and have a smile on their face for the rest of the weekend as the Mountaineers edged out Cincinnati with a 45-42 win to improve to 4-3 on the year, while picking up their first Big 12 victory.
Next week's game against the TCU Horned Frogs will be the eighth and final leg of WVU's long stretch of games before a much-needed bye week. TCU is coming off a 17-6 win over their archrival Baylor, moving them back to .500 for the season.
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook
Spread: TCU -6.5
No surprise here to see the Frogs favored, considering WVU's defensive struggles — they have made every offense look like a well-oiled machine, and for TCU, it has to be a welcome sight for a unit that has really struggled to move the ball and put points on the board. Not that this is a terribly high line, but I figured it would be more in the 4.5 range. Who knows? Maybe it gets there by the end of the week. I can't imagine this spread getting up over a touchdown. The Mountaineers' offense, I would guess, is going to get a lot of respect, considering they are averaging 35.5 points in Big 12 play.
Over/Under: 58.5
To be honest, I have no clue what to expect in this game. WVU's offense is elite (8th nationally), as is TCU's defense (7th nationally). West Virginia's defense has been horrendous (137th), and TCU is 95th in scoring offense. Just going off what we've seen through four Big 12 games, it's probably more likely TCU's offense has a day and that this game gets into a shootout rather than WVU's defense stepping up and it being a rock fight. The final scores for TCU's games this season have landed at 25, 70, 38, 34, 27, and 23, giving an average of 36.2. For West Virginia, they have been 55, 59, 65, 65, 87, 84, and 87 — an average of 71.7.
The Mountaineers and Horned Frogs are scheduled to square off at 12 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and can be heard on Mountaineer Sports Network on the Varsity Network App.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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