College Football Week 8 Odds, Picks & Predictions: Navy vs. Houston (2022)

Let’s take a look at the College Football Week 8 odds, picks, and predictions for: Navy vs. Houston.

And check out our other College Football Week 8 game previews:

• Tulsa vs. Temple
• UAB vs. Western Kentucky
• Syracuse vs. Clemson
• UNLV vs. Notre Dame
• Texas vs. Oklahoma State
• Ole Miss vs. LSU
• Purdue vs. Wisconsin
• Mississippi State vs. Alabama
• Minnesota vs. Penn State
• Washington vs. California
• UCLA vs. Oregon
• Rutgers vs. Indiana
• New Mexico vs. Fresno State
• Louisiana-Monroe vs. Army
• East Carolina vs. UCF
• Ohio vs. Northern Illinois
• Vanderbilt vs. Missouri
• Hawaii vs. Colorado State
• Duke vs. Miami
• FIU vs. Charlotte
• Wake Forest vs. Boston College
• Ohio State vs. Iowa
• Georgia Southern vs. Old Dominion

Check out Thor Nystrom’s Week 8 College Football Power Rankings >>

College Football Week 8 Odds, Picks & Prediction: Navy vs. Houston

For me, Houston is one of the nation's biggest "sell" teams, while Navy is becoming more of a "buy" team by the week. And the Cougars match up poorly here.

Houston is one of the nation's most snake-bitten health teams. Coming into the year, the defensive line was considered the team's biggest strength. But it lost by margin its best player for the season when EDGE Derek Parish, whom HC Dana Holgorsen has referred to as a first-round prospect, was lost for the season to an injury.

Houston, which seemingly suffers a significant injury every week, found out that freshman WR Matthew Golden is its most-recent casualty this past week. The WR corps - the offense's strength heading into the year - is now suddenly scary-thin in depth.

Even with the sample of Houston's front-7 at full strength, the Cougars still have, season-wide, an atrocious run defense (which very probably is worse now). Houston ranks No. 110 in defensive rushing success rate, and dead-last in the nation in defensive power success rate. Which tells you its defensive front is getting pushed backwards against the run consistently.

You see where I'm going. Navy needs to move the ball through rushing efficiency. The Midshipmen cannot afford TFL in the run game. Houston isn't going to make many of them.

On the other side of the ball, Navy's run defense is stout. That's going to incentivize Houston to pass, especially since Houston's RB depth is shot due to injuries. And while I expect Houston to have some success in the short- and intermediate-passing games, they're going to need to work the ball down the field with prolonged drives to score. Navy allows explosive receptions (No. 129), but Houston doesn't really generate those (No. 97).

In fact, allowing explosive plays on defense is Navy's singular greatest weakness (dead-last in the nation at No. 131). But Houston's offense as a whole isn't built nor equipped to fish for those (No. 104).

Navy is 2-4. But in its last four games, it has victories over solid outfits ECU and Tulsa. Navy is very good at keeping the score close in games it loses. This year, it has lost only one game by more than one possession.

Houston is very close to packing it in for the season. If the Navy of the past few weeks shows up, the Midshipmen are going to win this game.

The pick: Navy +3

Prop Bet Analyzer: View top rated props and historical prop performance by player >>

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