My picks and why

Well after Bowling Green on Tuesday I am 3-0 this week. I do pretty good during the week just Saturday messes me up.

East Carolina + 13.5 over Virginia Tech and also over 51

Va Tech had BCS title aspirations until losing their last 2 games. They played conservatively against N. Carolina. They can still be a high scoring team and have nothing to lose by airing it out tonight. E. Carolina scores much more at home.This is still the same VA Tech team that scored 31 on Miami. This is still the same VA Tech team that scored 48 on Boston College. Boston College is 6-3 & has outscored opponents (without VTech) 259-117. I'm looking for a much more wide open game than usual for both sides tonight. That will lead to either more offensive scoring and a closer game than the 13.5 points, defensive point opportunities, and/or better starting offensive field positions.

Northern Illinois -21 over Eastern Michigan

The Eagles have only come within 10 points of their opponents twice this season. They have faced three BCS teams - Northwestern, Michigan and Arkansas - and the two top teams in the MAC - Central Michigan and Temple. They lost to the last two of them that they played - Central Michigan and Arkansas - by a combined 84 points. In between those two games, the Eagles lost to Kent State by 22 and gave Ball State its first win of the season.

Northern Illinois has a win at Purdue earlier this season, 28-21. The Huskies nearly knocked off another Big Ten team on the road, Wisconsin, in the first game of the season, 28-20. After the win over Purdue, the Huskies hit a low point by losing 34-31 at home to Idaho. They also lost by a point, 20-19, at Toledo. The Huskies are on a two-game winning streak after notching wins over Miami of Ohio and Akron.

Northern Illinois is a strong running team. Chad Span and Me'co Brown both have over 100 carries and over 500 rushing yards. Span has 13 touchdowns and a 5.4 yards-per-carry average, while Brown has four touchdowns and a 4.9 average. The Huskies don't pass much but when they do, quarterback Chandler Harnish has 967 passing yards, six touchdowns and only two interceptions.

Eastern Michigan has the worst rush defense in the country. The Eagles have allowed 277.1 rushing yards per game, 27 rushing touchdowns and a 6.4 yards-per-carry average. The Eagles have the fourth best pass defense in the country, allowing just 146 passing yards per game. But that has a lot to do with the fact that teams are able to just run all over the Eagles and they don't need to pass the ball much.

Northern Illinois has won seven of the last eight games against Eastern Michigan. The Eagles have lost their last five road games.

Eastern Michigan is simply a bad team. The Eagles may be the worst FBS team in college football. Some teams lose games because they get unlucky. That's not the case with the Eagles. They truly are an 0-8 team. On the other side, Northern Illinois is better than its 5-3 record. The Huskies lost by a point to Toledo, by a field goal to Idaho, and by eight to Wisconsin. Eastern Michigan has the worst run defense in the country by far, and Northern Illinois is a very good running team. That's an ugly combination. This game will be very ugly for Eastern Michigan fans.

OUSOONER....great writeup!  I loved this game ever since lines came out.  Their are only 2 things that really scare me.

1.  QB is out...I know that they don't throw that much, so with that stated, they are going to be pounding the ball all game long and moving the ball up and down the field on E Micigan...The only thing I'm worried about is fumbles and capitalizing on TDS once they are in the red zone.  They are going to have take care of the ball and not settle for field goals.  Do you think the running game has the potential of breaking out some long runs?  If they can have some breakout runs of 35-50, I like th chances of them covering.  Otherwise, its going to be 12 play 7:00 minuute drives and it cold get scary come 4th quarter..with the time consuming drives....not to mention holding EMICHIGAN scorless.

2 The other thing is N Illinois hasn't really put up a lot of points per game.  That scares me.  If they had a few games where they really killed some opponents and things might look a little positive..Last week they covered the spread with a tochdown run with 3 minutes in the game.

Otherwise I really do like the N.Illinois team.  I just haven't decided to pull the trigger.  Great analysus.  Let me know your thoughts???

GL MAN