Game: Troy Trojans at Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Odds: Trojans +17, Chanticleers -17
Total: 50.5
Coastal Carolina suffered its first loss of the season last week losing to Sun Belt rival Appalachian State. It was also the Chanticleers’ first regular-season loss since the 2019 season. Tonight, they look to get back to the business of winning and will face Troy (4-3) at home.
The Trojans have won their last two straight. They have beaten the teams they were supposed to and lost to the teams they were supposed to lose to. Troy also has not covered the spread in each of its last four games. In the series with Coastal Carolina though, they have kept the last two games very close. Last season, the Trojans covered as 12-point home underdogs. The final score was 42-38.
In 2019, the Trojans were a 1-point road favorite but lost to the Chanticleers 36-35. Where Troy has been good this season is on defense. The Trojans give up 19.6 points per game and have yet to allow an opponent to score 30. That may change tonight.
Coastal Carolina has one of the best offenses in the country. Head coach Jamey Chadwell’s offense averages 508.5 yards per game. That is sixth in the nation. The Chanticleers also score 44.7 points a game. That ranks third behind only Ohio State and Alabama. Quarterback Grayson McCall leads an offense that has surpassed 50 points in four of its seven games this season.
Coastal Carolina extends a lot of drives. Chadwell’s team hits 56.9 percent of its third-down conversions. That also ranks third in the country behind, you guessed it, Alabama and Ohio State. While Troy has been good on defense this season, they have yet to face an offense like Coastal Carolina.
Troy will also be challenged on offense. The Trojans average 25.3 points per game and just over 354 yards of offense. The big issue the Troy offense has is turnovers. The Trojans have lost five fumbles and have thrown five interceptions so far this season. If the turnover bug bites tonight, forget it.
The Chanticleers have been a double-digit favorite plenty of times this season. In six games as double-digit chalk, Coastal is 4-1-1 ATS. They are 4-2-1 ATS overall and 8-2-1 ATS in their last 11 Sun Belt Conference games. Troy has failed to cover in each of its last four games. The Trojans were favored in three of them.
Tonight’s total of 50.5 is the lowest in this series since the two teams began playing each other in 2017. All four games in the series so far have gone Over the posted total. Interestingly, the final score has gone up each year in this game. It began with 59 in 2017, 66 in 2018, 71 in 2019, and 80 points last season.
This season, both teams have trended Under. The total has gone Under in four of Troy’s last six games and nine of their last 11 on the road. For Coastal, the Under is 4-1 in the team’s last five games.