...
...
Read Article
Army vs. Navy Best Bets and Free Picks - Dec 11, 2021
Updated: | First published:
Written by Prospector Sam, Contributor
I know I said I wasn’t going to give you any more college football articles until the “real” games started again, but you should know by now that following a plan isn’t exactly my strong suit. And, while Army-Navy has absolutely no significance in the landscape of the sport, it somehow still feels extremely meaningful so I’m gonna go ahead and dive headfirst into this one.
The College Football season continues on Saturday December 11, 2021, and, as always, Dimers.com has simulated Army vs. Navy 10,000 times to determine where the value lies for football bettors across the United States.
With CFB betting picks, probabilities, odds and predicted scores featured each and every week at Dimers, check out our top plays for this weekend's action.
This week's CFB best bets and odds are proudly brought to you by DraftKings Sportsbook who will give you $100 in free bets if either team scores!
Basically, you place a bet $1 on the moneyline (we recommend Army, but it doesn't matter whether the bet wins or loses) and if there's JUST ONE score for the whole game, you get $100!
College Football: Army vs. Navy Preview
Now, let’s be clear, this is not a veiled choice so that I can spout off some spiel of patriotism or political buzzwords. I don’t talk about that stuff with this character and it’s not really relevant to this game anyways. What I will say is this: I have the utmost respect for any human being who is willing to put themselves in harm's way to protect others, and every person who joins the military qualifies. These kids are a couple of short years away from graduation and a full time life as a soldier leading other men and women, and I humbly tip my cap to them out of respect for that decision.
As for the game itself, it seems to perfectly fit the nature of the schools. You’re going to hear a ton all day about the number of consecutive unders hit, and that has a lot to do with the fact that both play an extremely disciplined (and boring) style of football. Probably a good thing for their overall career path, but not always good for viewing, so don’t go into this expecting fireworks. That said, it’s still an extremely interesting chess match in a stadium filled with thousands of students from each school where this is the most important game of the year, and it makes for a fun watch. And, in order to express our pure patriotism, what better than to go out and gamble our hard earned money on a bunch of 20 year olds who are about to go off and fight wars so that I can pretend to be a cartoon man gambling on sports in the safety of my own home (oof, that feels even worse when I write it than it did in my head).
Here’s my favorite bet for the game.
💰 Best Bet
BET: Army -7.5
One of the best parts about this matchup, setting aside the final score, is how close it tends to be. That makes sense, since it’s hard to pull away when there’s only 30 total points being put up, but everyone likes an exciting finish no matter how we get there. Unfortunately, I don’t see it here. This Army team has been impressive all season, beating solid teams like Western Michigan and Liberty while putting up a fight against Wake Forest and Wisconsin. Their success has come primarily from their ability to score points despite relying exclusively on their run game for yards, and the 35.5 PPG average tells that story pretty clearly.
Navy, on the other hand, just aren’t quite ready to compete against their rivals. This team has only won 3 games and Lavatai, their first year starting QB, has hamstrung them a bit when running the triple option by making poor decisions. More importantly, Navy’s run defense just isn’t particularly great either. They gave up over 130 yards per game on the year against teams who don’t exclusively run the ball, and against Army that number could get high pretty quick unless they step up their play and close out running lanes more effectively. The line, which is -7.5 for the Black Nights, feels extremely high when the total is just 34.5, but Army is the far better team and knows how to win football games. I think they handle this one by around 10, and I’ll be tuning in with a nice cold lager and a bald eagle on my shoulder to enjoy it.
MORE: Army vs. Navy simulator
Prospector Sam is a cartoon man that handicaps as well as anyone on the planet. No one knows exactly who The Prospector is, but what is known is how well he does from sports betting.
Advertiser disclosure