College Football Betting - Navy Midshipmen vs. Army Black Knights (Saturday 12:00 PM ET)
Make it 12 years now since Army went to a bowl game. The Black Knights come into this annual rivalry game with a 3-8 record but there have been some reasons for optimism as even though the results show another losing season, it could have been much better.
Three losses against Temple, New Hampshire and Akron by a combined 85-20 to start the season could have sent Army reeling but it did not give up as it fought hard the rest of the way and put up some very respectable efforts.
Army went 3-2 in its next five games with the two losses against Texas A&M and Buffalo coming by only seven points total.
The Black Knights then dropped their last three games but two of those were close and on the season, four of their losses were by single digits.
The reason for the turnaround was that the defense started playing great and currently the defense is ranked 44th overall including a very solid 32nd against the run.
This is pretty good considering Army finished 117th against the run last season.
Navy is heading to a bowl game for the 6th straight season but unlike past seasons, it just has not seemed as dominant.
The Midshipmen are 1st in the country in rushing offense which comes as no surprise but their average is 57 ypg from last season and that is a huge dropoff.
Through five weeks this year, they were averaging 335 ypg and now the average is at 292 ypg as teams were able to slow down the ground attack. Navy has been outgained in four of its last six games.
Navy has dominated this rivalry with wins in the six meetings and it has been able to cover five of those.
With the records sitting at opposite ends again this season, it is no surprise that the public is all over the Midshipmen yet again.
Navy has won the six meetings by an average score of 28.2 ppg but this is easily the best Army team coming into the season finale over those six games.
The Black Knights are getting outscored by just 6.6 ppg and outgained by only 31.6 ypg.
Pick: Army +11 (-105) available at 5Dimes.com.
- Matt Fargo
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