Houston vs East Carolina 10/23/21 College Football Picks, Odds, Predictions

The Houston Cougars meet the East Carolina Pirates Saturday in Week 8 AAC college football action from TDECU Stadium.

The East Carolina Pirates will look to bounce back from a 20-16 loss to UCF last time out. Holton Ahlers leads the Pirates, throwing for 1,485 yards, 8 touchdowns and 6 interceptions on 59.9% passing while Keaton Mitchell leads the Pirates in rushing with 639 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns on the ground. Tyler Snead leads East Carolina’s receiving group with 28 grabs for 362 yards while another pair of receivers for ECU have 200+ receiving yards and five more receivers have at least 100 receiving yards for the Pirates this season. On defense, Ja’Quan McMillian leads the Pirates with 37 total tackles while Suirad Ware has a team-high 3 sacks this season.

The Houston Cougars come into this one rested after a bye week looking to add to a 40-22 win over Tulane in their last matchup. Clayton Tune has thrown for 1,258 yards, 10 touchdowns and 6 interceptions on 69.7% passing while Alton McCaskill leads the Cougars with 403 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground. Nathaniel Dell leads Houston’s receiving group with 35 catches for 477 yards and 3 touchdowns while five other Houston receivers have at least 100 receiving yards this season. On defense, Donavan Mutin leads the Cougars with 35 total tackles while Logan Hall has a team-high 4 sacks and three other Cougars have 3.5 sacks this season.

East Carolina is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 conference games and 3-1-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the over is 8-1 in their last 9 games against a team with a winning record. Houston is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 home games and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the over is 11-5 in their last 16 games following a win.

I get the case that could be made for the over as historically, these two teams for the last few years have been associated with little to no defense. However, East Carolina’s played in some low-scoring games this season and Houston’s ratcheted up the defensive efforts quite a bit this season. Give me the under as this total’s still too high even in the high-50s.