Bernard Thomas / The Herald-Sun via AP
Duke’s T.J. Rahming (3) battle Boston College’s John Johnson (9) for a first down during an NCAA college football game in Durham, N.C., Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015.
Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015 | 2 a.m.
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Duke minus-12.5 at Army: $770 to win $700
There’s only one reason this point spread isn’t higher — Duke’s name value. Despite coach David Cutcliffe rattling off more than 20 victories since 2013, the Blue Devils are still perceived as a subpar football program.
They’re not. They should thump Army.
There also appears to be major hesitation with relying on Duke to score many points. Those concerns are also somewhat unfounded given the level of competition it’s faced.
True, the Blue Devils have managed only one offensive touchdown in two of their last three games but they were against Boston College and Northwestern. A compelling argument could be made that those are the two-best performing defenses in the nation, and no possible argument could be mounted that they’re not both in the top 10.
Duke had no problem in putting up 34 in an upset win against Georgia Tech between the two low-scoring outputs. Army is the team that might not be able to score here.
Duke’s defense is stingy, allowing less than 4 yards per play to rank in the nation’s top 10. The Black Knights have done some nice things the last two weeks, snapping a five-year road losing streak at Eastern Michigan and following it with a cover at Penn State.
But let’s not forget they also lost to Football Bowl Subdivision bottom-dweller Connecticut and Football Championship Subdivision Fordham. Duke will be the best team Army has played by a significant margin.
Current Standings (as of July 1): Brewer (17-13, $10,660), Bern (12-13, $10,230), Keefer (9-23-1, $3,721)
Lifetime standings: 2014-15 Champion Bern (94-86-1), Keefer (93-107-3), Brewer (86-100-2)
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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