Houston vs Tulane Analysis<\/h3>\n
The Green Wave was riding an early wave before Tulane hit an ugly stumbling block last week against Southern Miss. Perhaps Tulane was caught looking ahead to this week’s game in Houston, but nonetheless, the Green Wave’s perfect start took a detour last week as a 17.5-point favorite against the Eagles. It wasn’t a fluke win of any kind, either, as previously-winless Southern Miss out-gained and had more first downs than Tulane in that contest.<\/p>\n
Houston, meanwhile, has had a fairly pedestrian beginning to the season. The Cougars have dropped games against Kansas and Texas Tech, which looked like really poor results on the surface. But with a little bit of hindsight and with what the Red Raiders and Jayhawks have been able to accomplish since, neither of those losses look too shabby at the moment.<\/p>\n
Houston owns the sizeable 19-7 advantage historically in this series, with Tulane last winning in Houston back in 2014.<\/p>\n
Green Wave Shutting Opponents Down<\/h3>\n
Despite last week’s disappointing loss to Southern Miss, Tulane still ranks as one of the best defensive teams in the country this year, at least statistically, allowing just 102.5 passing yards per game, 11.7 first downs per game, 222.8 yards per game on average (all top-5 nationally), and own the country\u2019s 13th-best pass efficiency defense.<\/p>\n
Even in last week\u2019s loss to the Golden Eagles, the Green Wave kept a lot of those same underlying defensive numbers intact so should present a stern challenge to Houston here on Friday.<\/p>\n
Houston Hoping For A Repeat Of Last Year<\/h3>\n
The Cougars enjoyed an impressive 18-point victory over Tulane last year and they\u2019ll be hoping for more of the same this time around.<\/p>\n
After a competitive first half in that game in New Orleans last year, Houston pulled away in the second half, putting up a mammoth eight sacks on Tulane in that game also, the third-highest mark in conference history.<\/p>\n
With players still on this year’s panel who were there as part of last year’s ‘Sack Ave’ contingent like DL Latrell Bankston, the Cougars will be hoping d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu strikes again here on Friday.<\/p>\n
Houston vs Tulane Prediction<\/h2>\n
This is a difficult one to call here on Friday as Tulane has really been the better team up to this point on the year while Houston has simply failed to impress this season.<\/p>\n
Rice hung almost 100 more passing yards than the Cougars last week. Kansas had over a 100-yard rushing advantage against them the week prior. UTSA enjoyed an almost 100-yard advantage as well, and Texas Tech owned a mammoth 35-15 first down gap against them back in Week 2.<\/p>\n
All signs point to taking Tulane in this one, however a really poor 4-14 record against the spread vs Houston over recent seasons does give us some pause for concern, as historically at least, they just haven\u2019t matched up all that well against the Cougars in conference play.<\/p>\n
That aside, Tulane plus the points is the only way I could look to play this on Friday against Houston over in the American Athletic Conference.
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Happy Hour CFB Kickoff Show<\/h3>\n
Over the last two decades, several top-5 teams have lost their spot after a visit to Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium. Could Michigan be the next to fall? Join Dave Cokin, Tony Mejia and Ralph Michaels for the Happy Hour CFB Kickoff Show as we break down the College Football Week 5 betting slate from a variety of handicapping angles.<\/p>\n
![\"Happy](\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/3lncNlAfhDQ\/maxresdefault.jpg\")