First Half Play in Baylor vs. West Virginia

Baylor vs. West Virginia, 7:00 ET

I finally had a solid week in college football. I went 4-1 but now the goal is to get all of the sports I'm working on to have success at the same time. It seems easier said than done, but nonetheless, it is still a goal. Thursday night starts yet another week of college football for me and we see Baylor take on West Virginia.

Baylor was a school that at the beginning of the year, I would've thought that this game would be no contest for them against West Virginia. They have fallen short of my expectations, and I'd imagine most of the rest of the college football folks. They are coming into this game at just 3-2 and their two losses were at the hands of ranked teams. They fell out of the top 25 in the most recent rankings after being as high as 10th this year. They aren't terrible by any means, and outside of those two losses to the ranked opponents, they've won games with relative ease. I also think they battled pretty admirably against Oklahoma State in their most recent loss. Quarterback Blake Shapen was able to throw for a season-high 345 yards with Monaray Baldwin hauling in 174 of those yards. They will have a bit of a challenge as I think the West Virginia defense is slightly better than you'd expect from a 2-3 team.

I just mentioned the West Virginia defense is a little better than their numbers indicate - I'm not saying they are world-beaters or anything, but the team has some nice defensive pieces. The problem seems to come when they are broken down, they are broken down badly. Against Kansas, they allowed 55 points but their offense was able to hang with them for most of the game. The last time they played, they took on Texas, and the final score shows they lost by 18, but a trick play and a tipped pass that resulted in a touchdown made the final look worse than it was. They were able to hold Texas to just 10 points in the second half and scored 14. So, despite the breakdowns in the first half, they did a nice job of making adjustments.

Both teams are coming off of extended rest and extra time to manage the game plan for the opponent. Normally, I'd say that means the teams will be better prepared defensively, but I think both offenses have the edge over the defense in this game. West Virginia is no pushover, and I'm sure Baylor wants to get back into the rankings. I expect Baylor to come out a little more prepared and in attack mode. I'm going to take Baylor -2.5 in the first half of the game at -115.

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