The Houston Cougars beat UCLA and covered but it wasn\u2019t the most inspiring opening performance. \u00a0Despite knocking out the Bruins starting QB they didn\u2019t win the yardage battle and didn\u2019t do much in the second half as they held on for a 38-34 victory. \u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Houston Cougars vs. North Texas Mean Green The spread started at HOU -3 but was down to -1.5 by gametime showing little confidence in the Cougars. \u00a0That effort might have justified that opinion.<\/p>\n When the Cougars got word that QB Case Keenum was coming back visions of a 6000 yard season danced in coach Kevin Sumlin\u2019s head. \u00a0Two years ago the Cougars averaged 42ppg and they were looking for a return to that prolific level. \u00a0Keenum threw for a quaint 310 yards connecting with Tyron Carrier 10 times for 138 yards. \u00a0The more impressive part was averaging more than 5 yards per carry on the ground keeping the Bruins defense honest.<\/p>\n Nothing has changed for Houston on the defensive side as they gave up more that 550 yards, mostly with a backup QB at the helm. \u00a0They especially got pounded on the ground giving up more than 230 yards to a team that averaged just 170 years ago. \u00a0If Houston had a defensive pedigree there might be need for concern but this team just uses its defenders to let Keenum and the offense take a breather. \u00a0Houston hasn\u2019t faced off with North Texas since \u201898 – the Cougars won 31-9.<\/p>\n The North Texas Mean Green lost convincingly in their season and conference opener at Florida International. \u00a0They come home this weekend to host Houston in a battle of low profile Texas schools. \u00a0Not much went right as they were losing to the Golden Panthers 28-0 at the end of the first quarter. \u00a0Over the final three quarters they played them more even (19-16). [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n For North Texas to have success they need RB Lance Dunbar to be effective. \u00a0Everybody knows this and FIU was really able to bottle him up holding Dumbar to 33 yards on 18 carries. \u00a0Take out one 14 yard scamper and they really had his number. \u00a0Dunbar should find it easier to get untracked against Houston and they have to like that they got solid QB play Derek Thompson and Brent Osborn, both of who are low on experience.<\/p>\n Last year North Texas was pretty solid against the pass only twice giving up more than 300 yards through the air. \u00a0Houston will test them all game long with a group of small, quick receivers like FIU\u2019s T.Y. Hilton who NT could not cover at alllast week. \u00a0There was little that was seen last week to think that the Mean Green are going to have any more success this week. \u00a0They should generate some more offense but on defense it might be a disaster.<\/p>\n HOU are 1-7 ATS in their last 8 games on turf. ATS Pick: \u00a0Houston -22.5 The CappersPicks.com college football weekly predictions pages! We KNOW you will find our FREE weekly college football picks<\/a>, tips, betting advice, strategies, CFB gambling articles and more to help you become the best College football bettor on your block!!<\/p>\n The Houston Cougars vs North Texas Mean Green will both be trying to pick up a win in Week 2 on Saturday when they battle at Mean Green Stadium. Odds have Cougars listed as 22-point favorites the game\u2019s total is 64\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":26022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[28750,164,287,324,51919,51918,51920,51921,51922,763,771,1168,1294,1337,51923],"class_list":["post-42808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-28750","tag-betting-lines","tag-cfb-picks","tag-college-football-odds","tag-cougars-mean-green-lines","tag-cougars-vs-mean-green-predictions","tag-houston-cougars-vs-north-texas-mean-green","tag-houston-north-texas-spread","tag-houston-vs-north-texas-free-pick","tag-ncaa-football-betting","tag-ncaa-football-previews","tag-sportsbook","tag-vegas-picks","tag-week-2","tag-week-2-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42808"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42817,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42808\/revisions\/42817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMean Green Stadium – Denton, Texas
\nSaturday September 10 – 7:00PM
\nMoneyline:
\nSpread (ATS): Houston -22.5
\nOver\/Under: 64
\nOdds courtesy of 5Dimes<\/a><\/strong>
\nGrab The In Depth ATS Betting Report – Click Here!<\/a><\/p>\nHouston<\/h3>\n
North Texas<\/h3>\n
Trends:<\/h3>\n
\nHOU are 2-7 ATS in their last 9 road games.
\nOver is 16-5 in HOU last 21 games in September.
\nNOTEX are 2-6 ATS in their last 8 home games.
\nOver is 14-5 in NOTEX last 19 home games.
\nNOTEX are 9-24 ATS in their last 33 games on turf.<\/p>\n
\nOver\/Under Pick: \u00a0Over
\nScore Prediction: \u00a0Houston 56 – North Texas 21<\/strong><\/p>\nREVIEW OUR BEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL CAPPERS – CLICK HERE!<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"