No. 6 Stanford Cardinal (-20) at Duke Blue Devils, Total 59 |
Stanford travels on the road for the first time this season to take on the Duke Blue Devils from the Atlantic Coast Conference Saturday inside Wallace Wade Stadium. The Cardinal opened up the season with a resounding 57-3 win as 30-point home favorites over the San Jose State Spartans, while going over the posted total of 60.
It’s been an exciting run in Palo Alto, CA, even if former head coach Jim Harbaugh bolted to the NFL. Stanford has won nine games in a row dating back to last season, while quarterback Andrew Luck is just five touchdown passes away or tying former Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett for third on Stanford’s career list.
The team scored a lot of points in the opener, but Luck went 17 of 26 in the contest and didn’t connect on a pass of over 17 yards. Running back Stepfan Taylor was also held in check by averaging just 14 yards.
The 57 points scored was still the 11th time in the last 27 games that the team has scored 40-plus points in a contest. Stanford is averaging 41.5 points a game over its last 14 contests.
The college football betting public will also find that the Cardinal have been lights out in the first half, outscoring foes by a considerable 328-93 margin in their last 14 games.
Stanford is 5-2 ATS as a road favorite and the ‘under’ is 5-2 in those contests.
Duke dropped a 23-21 contest to Richmond last week as 11-point home favorites, but handicappers are quick to point out that the school out-gained the Spiders by a 379-288 margin. The story of the game was two lost fumbles that turned into 10 second-quarter points for its opponent.
Quarterback Sean Renfree is expected to be one of the top signal-callers in the ACC, opening the season 23-of-33 passing for 201 yards. He connected with wide receiver Conner Vernon eight times for 78 yards.
The Blue Devils own a 23-126-6 all-time mark against ranked opponents, with their last such win coming back in 1994.
Offensively, the team has been solid during the David Cutcliffe era, scoring 30 or more points in 13 of the 37 games he’s been on the sidelines. The ground game really got going last week despite of the loss, as the Blue Devils were one of six ACC teams to rush for over 175 yards in the opening week.
Duke is 5-1 ATS as an underdog of 10.5 to 21 points and the ‘over’ is 3-2 in those games.
Bettors will likely back the Blue Devils due to their 4-1 ATS mark versus winning teams, while the Cardinal are 8-11 ATS when favored by 10.5 to 21 points.
