The college football season features another weekend of games to consider in Week 4. Here are three matchups against the spread which look like great opportunities to make a winning betting play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Michigan Wolverines<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Odds: Michigan -20.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Michigan Wolverines are 3-0 on the season. They have looked good. However, their opponents \u2013 Western Michigan, Washington, and Northern Illinois \u2013 are not particularly imposing or powerful. Michigan finally enters Big Ten play, and the level of resistance it faces might be a lot more than it was the previous three weeks. Michigan should win this game. The Wolverines have posted three straight blowouts, which indicates they are doing what they expect to do when they take the field. However, Michigan will make a big jump up in weight class by facing a Rutgers team which is also 3-0 and has not allowed more than 14 points in any of its first three games of the season. Rutgers is playing strong defense, not turning the ball over, and displaying considerable discipline each time it takes the field. The Scarlet Knights are proving the old adage about \u201cfirst, do no harm.\u201d They are showing how much a team can gain simply by giving nothing away. If the Scarlet Knights don\u2019t give up cheap points or short fields, they make themselves tougher to play against. It\u2019s a simple enough concept, and coach Greg Schiano\u2019s team is managing to apply it every week. Rutgers does not have more talent than Michigan \u2013 no one would claim or even suggest that \u2013 but the Scarlet Knights are not the kind of team which will buckle or relent if Michigan gets an early lead. Rutgers will play 60 tough minutes. It probably won\u2019t be enough to win, but it will very likely keep this game closer than three touchdowns. Michigan\u2019s offense will likely face more obstacles and difficulties in this game than in any of the previous three games it has played. It will be an adjustment for the Wolverines, who need to know they will be in for an extended battle in this game. Michigan will win outright, but Rutgers will cover the very large spread, which feels like an indication that the betting public really likes Michigan and thinks the Wolverines are back to elite status, or very close to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick: Rutgers +20.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n West Virginia Mountaineers at Oklahoma Sooners<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Odds: Oklahoma -16<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Oklahoma Sooners did not perform well on offense last week against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. They scored only 23 points, which on most days would normally lead to a defeat. Oklahoma has established itself as the best team in the Big 12 over the past six years because it has developed quarterbacks and offenses and offensive lines better than any other team in the conference. Oklahoma has been able to win shootouts and high-scoring games. Defense has often been a weakness for the Sooners. If they scored under 30 points, they were in huge trouble. Now things might be changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oklahoma gave up just 16 points to Nebraska and bailed out the offense, which is sputtering under quarterback Spencer Rattler. Nebraska contained Oklahoma\u2019s passing game and prevented the Sooners from making big plays down the field. The Huskers played their safeties deep and emphasized not getting beaten on a long ball. The plan worked. Oklahoma has been hit hard by injuries to its running backs, and the effect of those injuries was evident this past weekend. The Sooners didn\u2019t want to overwork their few remaining healthy running backs. This made them one-dimensional on offense. Nebraska was regularly expecting pass plays since Oklahoma was not willing to run as consistently as it otherwise might have. Oklahoma won, but it was ugly and ineffective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sooners know how far short they fell of their normal standards. They know they left a lot of points on the field and didn\u2019t perform the way they expect to play. In their Big 12 Conference opener against West Virginia \u2013 a team which lost to Maryland earlier this season \u2013 Oklahoma should be very angry and intent on showing the nation what it is capable of. The Sooners are unbeaten, but they haven\u2019t looked good. They are not playing like a College Football Playoff team. Expect head coach Lincoln Riley and the rest of the Sooners to take a step forward in this game, putting the hammer to West Virginia and walking away with a very decisive victory which will enable them to cover the number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick: Oklahoma -16<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nebraska Cornhuskers at Michigan State Spartans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Odds: Michigan State -5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Nebraska-Oklahoma game really seems to have influenced the point spread on this game. Nebraska is a relatively small underdog here, despite having two losses on the season and having dropped one of its two games at a bad Illinois team which is likely to finish in last place in the Big Ten this year. Nebraska had the right game plan for Oklahoma, but the Sooners had some specific depth problems on their roster in general. More specifically, they were short at running back. Michigan State does not have that problem. The Spartans have breakout star Kenneth Walker, who rushed for 264 yards in the season opener against Northwestern. Michigan State is coming off a 21-point road win in Miami against the Hurricanes. Michigan State is definitely riding the wave right now, playing quality football and carrying the confidence form one game into the next. The Spartans are doing well on both sides of the ball. Instructively, they are punishing opponents for deficient coaching. They should expect to outflank the Nebraska tandem of head coach Scott Frost and offensive coordinator Matt Lubick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nebraska isn\u2019t nearly as good as it might have seemed against Oklahoma. Quarterback Adrian Martinez is turnover-prone. The passing game is very limited. The offensive line is not especially nasty. Michigan State should contain Nebraska\u2019s offense and establish the tempo it wants. It should be able to bust open a few big plays, but it can grind it out if it has to. Michigan State will cover the spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick: Michigan State -5<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The college football season features another weekend of games to consider in Week 4. Here are three matchups against the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19135,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19133\/revisions\/19135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}