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Stanford Cardinal at Wake Forest Demon Deacons (Saturday – 12pm ET)
Stanford has a couple of exciting home wins over Hawaii in Week 0 and then a second half comeback against Georgia Tech last week. Both of those teams that the Cardinal defeated have been much worse than expected so far this season. When Stanford has stepped it up in class in ACC play, it lost at home 45-6 to Miami and then 35-7 at Duke.
I think the road game at Duke holds a lot of weight. It’s Stanford’s only other road trip this season, and they flew to North Carolina for a noon eastern kick and looked awful. After going from east coast two weeks ago, to back west for a late night kick, the Cardinal now turn right around and play an early game in North Carolina again. Not to mention, this time around they are coming off a big win at home over a poor team. Stanford is also still battling injuries on offense, and the offensive line play has been very poor.
Meanwhile, Wake Forest has been exceeding expectations this season. The Demon Deacons are 3-1, and have looked strong against the top of the ACC the last couple of weeks. Wake hosted Miami for a Friday night game two weeks ago, and dug out of a 24-7 halftime hole to make it a ballgame against one of the top teams in the country. Ultimately, Wake lost by a final of 33-20. But the Demon Deacons covered, showed good fight in the second half, and really limited Miami’s offense compared to any other competition the Canes have faced this season.
Wake took that momentum into last week and got a huge win as a road underdog at Louisville. After a poor season at UNC, Gio Lopez looks the part at QB, and the offense is more dangerous than expected. The defense is also very capable. Even with the letdown potential off the win over Louisville, Wake’s in a fine spot to back here.
Stanford is in a terrible spot, coming off a big win of its own and flying across the country for its second early kickoff in three weeks. Wake is the far superior team, and should dominate the game. I lean to Wake at -14 and would pass on laying any more than that. This would likely be a small play for me at shorter than -14.
CFB Lean: Wake Forest -14 (-110)
