Cincinnati vs Pittsburgh Betting Preview: Panthers Favored Over Bearcats

The Cincinnati Bearcats and Pitt Panthers will both be looking to improve to 2-0 in the early going when the team meets Saturday. Cincinnati completely waxed Eastern Kentucky 66-13. The Panthers cruised past Wofford 45-7. The Cincinnati vs Pittsburgh betting preview shows the Panthers favored by 7.5 with the total sitting at 48.

Emory Jones With Monster Day in Cincinnati Debut

The Bearcats’ season opener quickly turned into the Emory Jones show, as the senior quarterback threw for five touchdowns and ran for two more. The Bearcats easily covered the 20.5-point spread against Eastern Kentucky. Cincinnati sent the game over the total of 55.5 by itself, scoring 42 first-half points and 24 more in the second.

Cincinnati left Jones on the field a bit longer than expected considering the score. Jones’ final touchdown pass of the game late in the third quarter made it 52-10. Brady Lichtenberg was 4 for 4 passing with a touchdown and also ran for one.

The Bearcats totaled 667 yards of total offense, while Eastern Kentucky tallied 302 yards. The Bearcats threw for 438 yards and rushed for 229. The Colonels had 177 passing yards and 125 on the ground. Eastern Kentucky had three turnovers compared to one for the Bearcats.

Panthers Take It Easy on Wofford

The Pitt Panthers called off the dogs early against the Terriers, which made for some anxious moments for those who took Pittsburgh and gave the 37.5 points. The Panthers led 28-0 at halftime and 38-0 late in the fourth quarter. Pittsburgh scored to make it 45-0, but Wofford got a 75-yard touchdown pass with 1:15 remaining. The Terriers kicked the extra-point instead of going for the 2-point conversion and Pitt backers had a half-point cover.

The Panthers had a 491-126 yardage advantage, with the Terriers getting 75 of those yards on the late touchdown pass. Pittsburgh had more than 41 minutes of possession. Pittsburgh was pretty balanced, rushing for 217 yards and throwing for 274.

The Panthers had four different players score rushing touchdowns and two threw for touchdowns.

Cincinnati 34, Pittsburgh 10 (2012)

In the last meeting between the Bearcats and Panthers, Cincinnati took advantage of a couple of early Pitt miscues to build a quick 14-0 first-quarter lead and never looked back. The Bearcats led 24-3 after three quarters. The stats were surprisingly fairly even. Cincinnati had a 464-415 yardage advantage.

What to Expect

The Bearcats will quickly find out the Panthers aren’t Eastern Kentucky in NCAA football this weekend. But the Panthers will also be taking a pretty big jump in class. It will be most noticeable offensively. The Bearcats are going up against a pretty solid Pittsburgh defense. The Panthers’ stop unit is what has them in a lot of the college football bowl projections.

The Bearcats won’t do anything differently against the Panthers. They just won’t have nearly the same success. But Cincinnati will ride the arm of Jones as long as it can this season. It’s hard to trust the Bearcats’ running game despite 229 yards on 43 carries against Eastern Kentucky. The Bearcats had a 54-yard run to boost their stats. But that was the only rush for more than 13 yards. That could be trouble against the better defenses they’ll face.

The Panthers had three running backs with a long gain of more than 20 yards. That’s what you expect against an outmatched opponent. Pittsburgh was good, but not great, in the passing game. But Pitt was in no hurry to pour it on against Wofford. Thirteen players had receptions in the game, so a lot of the third- and fourth-string players saw a fair amount of action.

There are some decent matchups this Saturday. This game would probably rank pretty close to the middle of the pack, perhaps a bit higher. It’s not near the top of the college football today schedule in terms of “must-watch” games. But there are plenty of others a lot worse.

Who to Bet On?

The Cincinnati vs Pittsburgh betting preview notes the Panthers are just 4-7 against the spread when favored by 7 points or more at home since the start of the 2021 season. That includes the win over Wofford to open the season. The Bearcats have only been an underdog of 7 or more once in the last two seasons. That was against Alabama in the college football playoffs when they lost 27-6 as 14-point underdogs.

The Cincinnati vs Pittsburgh betting preview shows the Panthers are 10-1 in totals when favored by 7 or more at home since 2021. That’s probably a trend worth riding, so will take the over 48 in this game.

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