North Carolina vs Syracuse Prediction, Spread & Best Bets (Friday, Oct. 31)

• The Syracuse Orange are 2.5-point home favorites against North Carolina on Friday night
• Both teams are riding 4-game losing streaks
• See below for my North Carolina vs Syracuse prediction, best bet and odds

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Sunday’s ACC tilt between the North Carolina Tar Heels (2-5, 0-3 ACC) and the Syracuse Orange (3-5, 1-4 ACC) will be a skid stopper.

Both teams come into action each trying to break a 4-game slide, but the books have Syracuse as a slight home favorite in the college football odds.

With both teams largely struggling to score, my North Carolina vs Syracuse prediction targets the total.

Kickoff is scheduled for Friday night at 7:30pm ET fro the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, with ESPN2 carrying the broadcast.

North Carolina vs Syracuse Prediction

There hasn’t been much to celebrate in the short Bill Belichick era at UNC.

The Tar Heels have dropped four in a row, including three straight ACC contests, including a 17-16 OT defeat against the 16th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers.

Offense continues to be a problem for the Tar Heels, as they’ve now gone four straight games scoring 18 points or less.

They are last in the conference in passing offense, averaging just 169.7 yards per game, almost 20 yards less than what Virginia Tech puts out — the only other school averaging less than 210 yards passing in the ACC.

The Tar Heels have six TD passes in seven games so far this season.

At one point this year, Syracuse was cruising, at 3-1 after beating up on the Clemson Tigers. And then the wheels came off. They’ve been blown out in four straight, most recently a 41-16 whipping from no. 7 Georgia Tech.

It’s no coincidence that the drop off in offence can be attributed to QB Rickie Collins stepping in for the injured Steve Angeli. In Angeli’s four starts the Orange were putting up 35.8 points per game.

With Collins navigating the offense, Syracuse has lost four straight, and hasn’t even hit 19 points in a game, averaging 10 points a contest. Collins has thrown seven interceptions during the slide, against just four TDs.

North Carolina vs Syracuse Odds

The interactive table above will automatically update as the college football odds move over the course of the day.

There’s been little line movement for this one, with the spread settling at 2.5 points, with most books opening and 1.5 and gradually moving upwards.

Syracuse are listed as short -130 favorites on the moneyline, which started out in the -110 range, while the Tar Heels are the +115 underdog, with the odds expanding from the +100 range.

The total checks in at 45.5 points and that’s where most of the movement has come. The total was as high as 48.5 points and moved to as low as 44.5, before climbing back up a point.

North Carolina vs Syracuse Best Bet

• Pick: Under 45.5 points (-110 at FanDuel)

My best bet for North Carolina vs Syracuse is Under 45.5 points.

The Tar Heels are a rare combination of poor offense and average defense. That’s the only reason they’ve been in their last two games, dropping decisions to both California and Virginia by three points or less.

Can that defense actually carry them to a win? In cases against decent teams, probably not, but against another struggling team like Syracuse, the books are wary, which is why the line is less than a field goal.

Instead, with two struggling offenses we’ll stick with the total. UNC has cashed the Under in five of their last six games.

North Carolina vs Syracuse: Key Offensive Stats

Syracuse has also seen the Under hit in three of their last four performances.

While they’ve actually gone over 45.5 points in two of their last four losses, that was the work of SMU, and Georgia Tech, respectively, carrying them to the total with big scoring games.

The Orange are statistically one of the worst scoring defenses in the ACC, allowing 31.3 points per game, with only Boston College below them in the standings. They have allowed at least 30 points in during their losing skid.

That’s something the Tar Heels likely won’t be able to exploit, considering they rank outside the Top 120 in both passing and rushing offense, and 124th in the nation in scoring at 18.3 points per games.