2. Northern Illinois at Eastern Michigan
LINE Eastern Michigan -2.5
ATS PICK Eastern Michigan
It’s the MAC, so anything could happen and it wouldn’t be a total surprise.
Do I think Northern Illinois will win 48-3? Of course not, otherwise this pick wouldn’t be here. Could it happen? MAC might go MAC, like when Buffalo took a trip to Ypsilanti a few weeks ago.
Eastern Michigan has been the flakiest of the flaky. It all but got Herm Edwards fired with a stunning win at Arizona State, it came back to get blasted by Buffalo 50-31, it struggled against a bad UMass team, and then, just when it seems like everything was falling apart …
Eastern Michigan 45, Western Michigan 23. That was on the road against a desperate team. So what happened? It helped to get starting QB Taylor Powell back after he missed the UB and UMass games, and the EMU defense stepped up large.
Meanwhile, Northern Illinois isn’t anything like the team that won the MAC Championship last year. The offense is okay, but the defense can’t stop anyone from throwing, and that’s where Powell should come in.
The Huskies have yet to beat an FBS team, it had a hard time with the Eastern Illinois offense, and all five losses have come by three or more.
Now, if you’ll forgive me, I have some issues to work out …