Whenever North Texas is involved, the over deserves serious consideration; this matchup against Rice is no exception. The Mean Green have an offense capable of putting up points in bunches, but the other side of that equation is a defense that struggles to stop anybody. And yes, that includes Rice. I'm not expecting the Owls to win this game, but they don't need to win for this ticket to cash. They simply need to take advantage of a North Texas defense that has made offensive production considerably easier for its opponents. The Mean Green can score 50 on any given night, which changes the arithmetic entirely when we're dealing with a total of 64.
If North Texas gets anywhere near that kind of output, Rice only needs to contribute a couple of touchdowns to put this number in serious jeopardy. Of course, the total isn't particularly cheap. The bookmakers know exactly what kind of offensive environment they're dealing with, which explains why we're starting in the mid-60s. But there's a reason for that. North Texas games have the potential to turn into offensive explosions with the Mean Green capable of doing much of the heavy lifting themselves. However, on the back-end of that is a defense that gets bailed out by the high-octane scoring machine, and unless their defense suddenly produces a masterpiece, I struggle to see enough resistance to keep this game under.
Rice Owls vs. North Texas Mean Green prediction: Over 64.5 (+102) available at time of publishing. Playable to 65.
