Nevada Favored By 10 1/2 At Home Over Louisiana Tech

NFL News - October 8th, 2009 - Written by Scott

Nevada will look to increase their fourth straight game ownership over Louisiana Tech on Friday as they host the Nevada Wolf Pack in their WAC conference opener. After starting the season 0-3, Nevada got their first win of the year last week as they routed UNLV 63-28. Louisiana Tech (2-2, 1-0) is coming off their 27-6 win over Hawaii. Nevada won last year's meeting 35-31. Both teams feature run oriented offenses and concentrate on controlling the clock. This game could could turn into a defensive struggle with not a lot of scoring. Tech must find a way to shut down the running attack of Nevada.

The Louisiana Tech offense is anchored by their offensive line. They returned all five starters from last year and have done a nice job of blocking and protecting quarterback Ross Jenkins. Jenkins has passed for 759 yards and 3 touchdowns on the year. He had his season low in passing yardage last week and only threw for 97 yards. This was due to running back Daniel Porter finally getting his rushing game going against Hawaii. On the year, he has rushed for 294 yards and 4 touchdowns. Defensively, if the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs can stuff the Wolf Pack's rushing game, this would force Nevada to turn to their passing game. For the first time this year, they finally were able to control their opponents running game and held Hawaii to just -7 yards rushing. They will be highly tested this week against the Wolf Pack.

Nevada's offense is without a doubt led by their running game. Last week against UNLV, they rushed for 559 yards (773 total yards) and had 3 rushers surpass the 100 yard mark, including quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick is the second leading rusher on the team with 295 yards. He also broke out of his passing slump last week and completed 15 of 18 passes. On the year, he has thrown for 754 yards and 3 touchdowns. Luke Lippincott leads three running backs who have rushed for over 100 yards for the Wolf Pack and has rushed for 336 yards this year. The offense did commit 4 turnovers last week and they have 14 total on the year. They will need to limit these against the Bulldogs.

Bodog Sportsbook has Nevada favored by 10 1/2 in their matchup with Louisiana Tech. The payout for Nevada is at -115 and for Louisiana Tech it is -105.

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