BEST LINE: Bet365 +120

Posted at 1:10 PM EST.

Both Kansas State and West Virginia enter on low notes with West Virginia perhaps being the lower of the two after losing two straight including its last game at Texas by 17 points to a Longhorns’ team in rebuild mode. Bill Snyder's Wildcats are coming off a bye after the ‘Cats were thumped on the road 41-20, at the hands of the now top-five ranked TCU Horned Frogs. Seemingly the barometer of measure for both teams is how they fared against that fabled Big-12 leader. West Virginia lost narrowly on a last-second field goal that allowed TCU to escape 31-30. However, numbers lie and this same rationale was applied to many predictions of the outcome of the aforementioned TCU/West Virginia contest. TCU had lost to Baylor on the road by three (61-58) while West Virginia defeated Baylor in Morgantown by two touchdowns (41-27). By virtue of this, an assumption emerged that West Virginia would defeat TCU but that was proven to be a falsehood.

So let's throw away the numbers and look at the current scenario. West Virginia is currently riding a two-game losing streak. Seemingly all the hot air has been let out of this ballooning Mountaineers offense. Much has been said about the Mountaineers shut down defense but we’re not buying that either. The Mountaineers' defensive resume is built on shutting down the sad-sack offenses of Towson and Kansas, plus an upset of a Baylor team that turned in the sloppiest, most self-destructive and unfocused performance of the Art Briles era. Prior to that, the other five opponents on West Virginia's schedule? By their own standards, all of them had well-above average days against a Mountaineers defense that the overall season stats claim is a solid unit. Four defenses have held down each of Alabama, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma better than West Virginia's did. Five defenses had better days against Maryland, six against Texas Tech. Don't get fooled into thinking that West Virginia is some complete team ready to contend for anything beyond a minor bowl berth. This bunch is more likely to lose the rest of their games than win even one more. 

Kansas State on the other hand, has an outside opportunity to still vie for a Big-12 title if a few things go its way. Furthermore, the Cats can still potentially win out and earn a bid to a New Years' Six bowl game and that incentive is enough to keep this fiery Kansas State team motivated. The ‘Cats have had a week to recover and know they can win on the road, as they were able to knock off Oklahoma in a 31-30 stunner. Kansas State's own rushing attack is pretty pedestrian and to bag a road win Jake Waters and Tyler Lockett will have to carve up the Mountaineers through the air and that’s precisely what we’re suggesting will take place. A fair fight this is not and so we’ll play the Wildcats outright.