2011 was supposed to be a breakthrough season for June Jones and the Mustangs. \u00a0It was looking that way a month ago after consecutive wins against TCU and UCF but with 3 losses in their last 4 games the season has has become less meaningful- in part due to Houston\u2019s perfection. <\/p>\n
SMU Mustangs vs. Houston Cougars SMU<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0The opponents that dealt them the losses (Southern MIss, Tulsa and Navy) were respectable but the way the offense sputtered was surprising. \u00a0SMU scored just 27 points in those three losses combined.<\/p>\n They are going to need to score a lot more than that to beat this juggernaut Houston team. \u00a0They have a great weapon in powerful running back Zach Line but the passing game hasn\u2019t been as prolific as expected. \u00a0This team leaves too many points on the table. \u00a0They are 48th in yards but only 64th in points scored. \u00a0Against Houston you have to convert…period. \u00a0Unless you have the kind of defense that can slow the Cougars down. \u00a0The Mustangs don\u2019t.<\/p>\n It has been a while since the Mustangs have beaten Houston and SMU doesn\u2019t like it as they are both conference and in-state rivals. \u00a0They consider themselves a potentially desirable addition to the power conferences but as long as the Cougars keep handing it to them they will always be a secondary consideration in those discussions. \u00a0There is little reason to think they will do anything this weekend that will make people think differently. \u00a0[soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Houston<\/strong><\/p>\n I know Conference USA is not the SEC but Houston is on a crazy run right now. \u00a0Obviously they are undefeated, but they are also on a 5-0 ATS run during which they haven\u2019t scored less than 56 points. \u00a0They rang up 73 points for the second time this season last week and are averaging an awesome 54.7 points per game. \u00a0You have to score at least 36 points to beat these guys since they haven\u2019t scored less than 35 in any one game. \u00a0Those are numbers that would be hard to repeat, even on TecmoBowl.<\/p>\n Normally it is the passing game that does all the damage but last week against Tulane the Cougars dominated on the ground too. \u00a0They rushed for more nearly 300 yards and averaged more than 10 yards per carry. \u00a0That was against the Green Wave so don\u2019t go thinking these guys would run all over that other school in Louisiana – LSU – but it does show that this team might be a bit more complete than the national media gives them credit for.<\/p>\n Houston has dominated SMU and should continue to do so again this weekend. \u00a0Of the five games they have won in a row only one has been by less than 10 points and judging by the posted number this week many think even that might be a stretch. \u00a0SMU is capable of disrupting the Cougars but with everything going into this game it doesn\u2019t seem probable that they will muster the effort to do so.<\/p>\n ATS Pick: \u00a0SMU +19.5 SMU Mustangs vs. Houston Cougars + Handicapping Preview. I know Conference USA is not the SEC but Houston is on a crazy run right now. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":24567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45723","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=45723"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45791,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45723\/revisions\/45791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRobertson Stadium – Houston, TX
\nSaturday November 19 – 3:30PM
\nMoneyline: \u00a0Houston -1200, SMU +775
\nSpread (ATS): Houston -19.5
\nOver\/Under: 75
\nOdds courtesy of 5Dimes<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nOver\/Under Pick: \u00a0Over
\nScore Prediction: \u00a0Houston 49 – SMU 35<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"