Syracuse football: Orange line stays close in road battle with Pitt

After the hot start to the year, the Syracuse Orange have cooled off a bit and come back down to earth it seems. The squad is still ranked in the Top 25 after the defeat to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Dome. Righting the ship against the Pittsburgh Panthers in the locale formerly known as Heinz Field is something that past precedent says is a daunting task. It seems if you check with the folks over at DraftKings SportsBook, it’s not as uphill of a climb as it could be.

The line opened on Sunday afternoon at Syracuse -1, with the Orange being slight favorites. It has seemed to settle as of print at Pitt -3. A decent amount of movement, but still with the Orange as only three point dogs on the road. That field goal is standard home field advantage, so it seems this one’s about a pick’em.

The over-under was set at 50.5, which seems valid. Both teams can put some points on the board. There are some injury questions on the Syracuse front that could both help Pitt hit their part of the over and hinder the Orange’s quest for more points, so again a tough prospect here.

We’ve played our totally-not-rival friends from Pittsburgh at least annually since the bygone years of 1955, with a smattering of games prior to that as well. The all time series sits at 42-31-3 in favor of the Panthers. The last time the Orange won in Pittsburgh, Paul Pasqualoni and Walt Harris were the coaches and Troy Nunes was the quarterback back in 2001. That’s nine straight home wins for the Panthers since that day. The Orange will look to change that this weekend.

What are your early thoughts on how it goes? Do we think the Orange can cover? Let us know in the comments.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.