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RATING 4 NEW ORLEANS (-7) over Dallas
NEW ORLEANS (-7) Dallas (521⁄2) 7:20 PM Saturday night NFL is back with a great opening match-up between the undefeated Saints and the fading Cowboys. New Orleans has vowed to play all season and home field advantage is not locked up just yet with Minnesota at 11-2. Dallas has lost back-to-back games, blowing a great opportunity last week as three early scoring chances resulted in just three points and allowed San Diego to get some momentum. Dallas closes with division games the final two weeks and although this team is heading in the wrong direction, a loss here would not eliminate playoff hopes. The Saints have failed to cover in five of the last seven games but this line could be kept in check. The Saints have been dominant at home this year and facing a team like the Cowboys will get the team’s attention. SAINTS BY 13

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While Fresno State remains one of the upper echelon teams in the WAC this is a team that continually fails to take the next step. In the last eight years Fresno State has had seven winning seasons but the Bulldogs have not topped nine wins since ’01, and nine is the best they can do this season. Fresno State Coach Pat Hill has a 4-5 record in bowl games but like the Bulldogs seem to do in the regular season, the results have been better playing as underdogs against major conference foes rather than as favorites. Fresno State has actually lost outright in the previous two bowl games as favorites including last year’s New Mexico Bowl, losing 40-35 to Colorado State. Wyoming finished just 6-6 but after a rough three game losing streak where the Cowboys scored ten points, this team rallied to win two of its final three games, with both wins coming on the road as underdogs. Wyoming won just five games against FBS competition and all of those teams finished with losing records but the Fresno State schedule rates even weaker for the season and the lone win against a winning team for the Bulldogs came against 7-5 Idaho. Wyoming was actually an 8-3 ATS team on the season while Fresno State has covered just seven times in the last 30 games as favorites. Statistically Fresno State is the far better team on offense producing 34 points per game and 435 yards per game but the defense has had issues. Despite winning four of the final five games of the season, Fresno State was out-gained and out-rushed in all five of those games. Wyoming was out-gained by nearly 100 yards per game on the season but blowout losses to BYU and TCU factored considerably into those numbers with over 300 yard differentials. Wyoming played fairly evenly with the rest of the schedule as the defense is much better than the overall numbers indicate. Look for this to be a bigger game for a Wyoming team that is excited to be in the postseason while Fresno State might have trouble rising to the occasion to finish the season strong. FRESNO STATE BY 4 RATING 2: Wyoming (+101⁄2) over Fresno State

Greg Schiano has a 3-1 record in bowl games with his lone loss coming in a close game as a big underdog. Rutgers has won its bowl game each of the last three years and the offense usually comes in firing, having scored nearly 40 points per game in the four postseason games. Rutgers has been a program happy to be in the postseason after a nearly 30-year bowl drought but this season the expectations were higher and many projected the Scarlet Knights to win the Big East. At 8-4 Rutgers never came close to those expectations and despite a strong year for the Big East overall, Central Florida enters this game having played the much tougher overall schedule. The Golden Knights enter this game having won five of the final six games with the lone loss coming at Texas. This location will clearly favor Central Florida making the trip across the state from Orlando and UCF was 9-2 ATS on the season as one of the most profitable teams in the nation. QB play has been a problem for Rutgers all season as freshman Tom Savage completed just 52 percent of his passes on the season. Savage will need to make plays in this game as UCF owns a stingy run defense, allowing only 84 yards per game on the ground. Central Florida has been the more productive offensive team and the strong defensive numbers for Rutgers were built on an incredibly weak nonconference slate that featured two FCS foes. Central Florida lost two close conference games early in the season but this team played extremely well down the stretch. Rutgers has been a strong bowl performer but this looks like a situation where UCF will be the more motivated Knights squad and can pull the upset. CENTRAL FLORIDA BY 6 RATING 3: Central Florida (+21⁄2) over Rutgers