{"id":10984,"date":"2010-11-25T13:30:37","date_gmt":"2010-11-25T18:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10984"},"modified":"2010-11-25T13:30:37","modified_gmt":"2010-11-25T18:30:37","slug":"big-east-football-picks-west-virginia-mountaineers-at-pittsburgh-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/big-east-football-picks-west-virginia-mountaineers-at-pittsburgh-panthers-10984\/","title":{"rendered":"Big East Football Picks: West Virginia Mountaineers at Pittsburgh Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Virginia Mountaineers at Pittsburgh Panthers
\nFriday, 11\/26\/10, 12:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ABC
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 41
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 38.5
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -140 \/ West Virginia +120<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Pittsburgh<\/a>
The Pittsburgh Panthers are slight home favorites in hosting the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Backyard Brawl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

West Virginia is solely focused on gaining a victory in this year\u2019s Backyard Brawl due to possibly heading into the final week tied for the Big East lead.\u00a0 \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s all about winning and losing,\u201d said linebacker J.T. Thomas.\u00a0 The Mountaineers have compiled a solid 58-16 record over their last 74 games and produced a 30-10 mark in the Big East over that span.\u00a0 Much of that success can be contributed the team forcing 278 turnovers since the start of the 2001 season, ranking fourth nationally in that category.\u00a0 This year\u2019s defense is the only FBS unit that has not allowed more than 21 points in a game this season.\u00a0 West Virginia is 9-10 ATS versus conference opponents and the college football lines page has them listed as an underdog.<\/p>\n

The Mountaineers defense is not only the best in the Big East but it also ranks fourth nationally in total yards allowed.\u00a0 West Virginia has posted a 47-4 record when holding an opponent under 100 yards rushing, which will be a major part of the team\u2019s game plan.\u00a0 In last year\u2019s 19-16 victory in Morgantown, the team pulled off a win despite allowing 155 yards rushing to Panthers star running back Dion Lewis.\u00a0 Luckily, the offense finished with 205 rushing yards of its won and totaled 369 yards of offense in total.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh comes in off a 17-10 win over South Florida and is now ready to collide with its rival in the 103rd installment of this highly-contested series.\u00a0 \u201cMy freshman year, I didn\u2019t understand what the Backyard Brawl was.\u00a0 It seemed like it was jsut another game with a little bit of hype around it,\u201d said defensive end Jabaal Sheard.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a fight in the back yard.\u00a0 Everything goes.\u201d\u00a0 The two teams have split the last 10 games in the series, but the Panthers have won two of the past three meetings. \u00a0 Pittsburgh has also compiled a 26-11 record over its last 37 games, the program\u2019s winningest stretch since the 2001-04 seasons.\u00a0 The squad is 4-0 ATS when playing against a team with a winning record.<\/p>\n

The Panthers will be paying tribute to 11 seniors who will be making their final appearance at Heinz Field on November 26.\u00a0 Pitt\u2019s victory last week also made the program bowl eligible for the third consecutive season.\u00a0 Since grabbing a 13-9 victory in this rivalry in 2007, the team has garnered a 15-5 record in Big East games.\u00a0 Also, the team\u2019s seven losses over the past two seasons have been by a combined 50 points, an average of just 7.1. points per game.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in knowing that the Mountaineers are 4-0 ATS in November, while the Panthers are 4-1 ATS as a home favorite.<\/p>\n

The college football handicappers at Maddux Sports is ready for a huge week of winning selections!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West Virginia Mountaineers at Pittsburgh Panthers Friday, 11\/26\/10, 12:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ABC Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 41 Current Total:\u00a0 38.5 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -140 \/ West Virginia +120 West Virginia is solely focused on gaining a victory in this year\u2019s Backyard Brawl due to possibly heading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[3978,559,2044,3977,615,449],"class_list":["post-10984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-backyard-brawl","tag-big-east","tag-dion-lewis","tag-heinz-field","tag-pittsburgh-panthers","tag-west-virginia-mountaineers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10984"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10986,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984\/revisions\/10986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}