Will Big 12 Win Match-Ups Against Power Five? Vegas Big 12 Predictions for Week 3 Here.
Saturday Blitz Vegas Big 12 Predictions Week 3
Kansas Jayhawks at Duke Blue Devils
Line: Duke by 14.5
In a battle between two basketball powers, the Kansas Jayhawks travel to Duke Saturday with the football programs in very different shape. Duke is loaded in David Cutcliffe’s seventh year and is trying to prove that last year was not a fluke with so much talent back. Doing that hasn’t been very hard so far as the Blue Devils are 2-0 with blowout wins over Elon and Troy, but they probably haven’t been as great on defense as they would have liked so far. To go 3-0 they’ll continue to rely on Anthony Boone, who appears to be another quarterback Cutcliffe has developed.
Kansas, meanwhile, is desperately trying to stay afloat with Charlie Weis at the helm, and struggling against Southeast Missouri State in its opener last week was not a good look for that. After a 34-28 win, the Jayhawks mainly need to improve their depth on defense and learn how to stay aggressive on offense. That showed because they did build a 34-7 lead there before the comeback happened and simply let the other team back in the game.
Prediction
Kansas will get a heaping dose of Boone, and Cutcliffe’s offense will be able to exploit the Kansas defense in the first half instead of waiting until the fourth quarter. This will be a fairly comfortable win for Duke as the team moves to 3-0 on the backs of its offense, particularly its quarterback.
Duke: 41 Kansas: 24