Louisville furthered its intentions on crashing the BCS party with another easy victory last Saturday at Temple.
But the 5-0 Cardinals couldn't quite cover as 34-point favorites, and consequently dropped a spot in the rankings, to No. 8.
This week Teddy Bridgewater and the 'Ville look to make that ground back up when they host 4-1 Rutgers for a Thursday night game at Papa John's Stadium (7:30 pm ET, ESPN).
In the early college football betting the Cardinals, Sportsbooks of the last three games in this series, the last two by a total of five points, were favored by 17 over the Scarlet Knights, whose only loss this year came by one point at Fresno State.
The Cardinals sport records of 5-0 and 3-2 ATS heading into this matchup, while the Scarlet Knights sit at 4-1 and 2-3 ATS on the season. The over under records are 1-4 for the Cardinals and 3-2 for the Scarlet Knights.
View Rutgers Scarlet Knights vs Louisville Cardinals Odds and Stats.
The Cardinals were listed as 16.5-point favorites at sportsbooks such as Sportsbook on the college football lines. The total was 54 early in the week at Sportsbook.
It's a betting matchup between the No. 8-rated Cardinals and the No. 59-ranked Scarlet Knights, according to the NCAAF Power Rankings here at Odds Shark. Predictive-scoring models run on this game indicate a potential 62-39 result in favor of the Cardinals.
In their last action, Rutgers was a 55-52 Sportsbook on the road against Southern Methodist. They failed to cover the 3.5-point spread as favorites, while the combined score (107) was profitable news for OVER bettors. Justin Goodwin tore up the turf for 149 rushing yards in the latest Scarlet Knights game, a 55-52 win over the Mustangs at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. In Louisville's last outing, Teddy Bridgewater threw for 348 yards to lead the Cardinals over Temple 30-7 at Lincoln Financial Field.
How They Match Up:
Offensively, the game matches up Louisville's No. 12-ranked offense (44.4 PPG) against a Scarlet Knights defense that ranks No. 72 at 27.6 PPG. The Cardinals passing attack has averaged 333 yards per game, more than the Scarlet Knights give up through the air (306.2 YPG on average).
Defensively, the Scarlet Knights feature the league's No. 21-rated road run defense, allowing 105 yards per game. Louisville, meanwhile, ranks No. 82 in rushing offense at home.
A few Scarlet Knights at Cardinals trends to consider:
Rutgers is 1-3-1 SU in its last 5 games on the road
Rutgers is 2-4 ATS in its last 6 games when playing Louisville
Rutgers is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games when playing Louisville
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Rutgers's last 7 games when playing Louisville
Louisville is 9-1 SU in its last 10 games at home
Louisville is 4-2 ATS in its last 6 games when playing Rutgers
Louisville is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games when playing Rutgers
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Louisville's last 7 games when playing Rutgers
Next up:
Rutgers at Houston, Saturday, October 26th
Louisville at Central Florida, Friday, October 18th
