Pittsburgh vs Virginia 11/2/18 NCAA Football Odds, Preview and Prediction

The Pittsburgh Panthers will take on the Virginia Cavaliers at the Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Panthers are coming off a win over Duke and have alternated losses and wins in their last four games. On the other hand, the Cavaliers are riding high on a three game winning streak and will look to solidify their lead in the ACC’s Coastal Division.

After losing back to back games to UNC and UCF, the Pittsburgh Panthers have bounced back with two wins in their last three outings. In their most recent game last October 27th, the Panthers won a wild contest against the Duke Blue Devils 54-45.

With Virginia owning the 20th best run defense in the nation, Carter and leading running back Qadree Ollison will be put to the test. Ollison has ran for 795 yards with seven touchdowns this season. Sophomore quarterback Kenny Pickett will also have to step up for the Panthers. Pickett is completing 60% of his passes and has passed for 1,156 yards this season with  eight scores and five interceptions.

The Virginia Cavaliers have been better than expected this season. The Cavaliers enter this game coming off consecutive wins over Miami (FL), Duke and North Carolina. With a conference record of 4-1, they sit atop the ACC Coastal. They need to beat Pittsburgh who is 3-1 in conference play, to keep their lead.

Quarterback Bryce Perkins has completed 63.1% of his passes for 1,623 yards with 15 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. Against a Panthers defense that gave up 396 passing yards the last time out, Perkins should have a good night for himself on Friday. Jordan Ellis leads the Virginia running game with a total of 683 rushing yards this season with eight touchdowns. The Cavaliers balance in passing and running should be their edge against a run-heavy Panthers unit.

Pittsburgh is 1-8 SU in their last 9 road games while Virginia is 5-1 SU in their last 6 games and 5-0 SU in their last five games at home. However, Virginia is only 1-4 SU in their last five games against Pittsburgh.

The Panthers have won five out of the last eight meetings between these schools including the last three overall. But this is a different Virginia squad and it is playing better than expected. The Cavaliers are ranked 22nd by the coaches and 23rd by AP, marking the first time since 2011 that they got a national ranking.

Pittsburgh’s strength is its running game which is 22nd in the nation in rushing yards per game average at 227.9 yards. However, don’t forget that the Cavaliers have the 20th best rush defense in the college football and they are giving up just 113.3 yards on the ground this season.

The Panthers are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games played but only 3-4-2 in their last 9 road games. Pittsburgh is also just 2-5-2 ATS in their last 9 games after an SU win. On the other hand, the Cavaliers are 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games, 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games at home and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 conference games.  Head to head though, Virginia is only 1-4 ATS in their last five games versus Pittsburgh.

The total has gone under in 8 out of the last 9 games played by the Panthers. The under is also 6-0 in Pittsburgh’s last six games against teams with winning records and the under is also 25-13 in the last 38 conference games played by Virginia.