CFB Best Bets Today: Expert Picks for BYU vs. Oregon, Cal vs. Notre Dame in Week 3

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With a handful of marquee matchups spanning the Week 3 slate from afternoon to late night, we at BetSided got you covered with game previews for every pivotal matchup on the board.

You can find every game preview on our college football hub, but here are three games that we are playing that will be on national tv.

For more betting analysis make sure to check out The Early Reed from Tuesday, featuring betting analysis on the entire Week 3 slate as well as Heisman bets to make now.

College Football Week 3 Best Bets

Purdue vs. Syracuse Prediction and Pick

This game opened with Purdue as a road favorite, but has quickly moved to a pick 'em. Still, I think there's still room to go on the Syracuse side. I make the Orange -2 in this non conference matchup.

The Orange have seen tremendous returns early on under first year offensive coordinator Robert Anae, who comes from Virginia. With the Cavaliers, Anae helped build a top five offense that averaged nearly seven yards per play and was 10th in success rate in 2021, and he has helped the Orange take a leap on that side of the ball.

Shrader looks much more comfortable under center, the team is averaging 4.24 points per drive, which is good for top 10 in the country. Meanwhile, Tucker picked up on his near-1,500 yard campaign in 2021 with 313 total yards thus far with three touchdowns.

They'll face a Purdue team that allowed 35 points to Penn State at home, is still transitioning from losing defensive coordinator Pete Lambert to Wake Forest and is heavily reliant on the passing game.

While it's a small sample, the Orange were able to give dual threat Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham fits and have generated 15 tackles for loss through two games (this could be possibly inflated due to the UConn victory).

Based on one data point against quality competition, Purdue couldn't hold down a Penn State offense that I find good but not great, while Syracuse held down a possibly explosive quarterback in Cunningham while scoring 31 points in the process.

I'm going to trust Anae to scheme up a strong game plan and get the Orange to the window and start 3-0.

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Cal vs. Notre Dame Prediction and Pick

The Irish's two results this season was a defensive struggle at Ohio State, a College Football Playoff contender, and a disheartening loss to Marshall that included four turnovers. To make matters worse, Buchner is out for four months with a shoulder injury leaving Pyne under center.

However, if the Irish were so bad on offense against Marshall, how much can you downgrade them? The team had four turnovers that cost them in the loss to the Herd, but on a down-by-down basis the team was just fine, posting a 48% success rate, good for 79% percentile of offensive performances over the last two seasons.

Had ND not run into turnover issues, it would've likely taken care of business against a frisky Sun Belt foe. Even if the warning signals are up for a down year in South Bend, the Irish are head and shoulders above Cal.

I made this game north of two touchdowns prior to the Buchner injury, and I haven't made a significant downgrade just yet.

Cal played essentially equal to FCS foe UC-Davis and UNLV over the past two weeks on a yards per play basis (5.61 to 4.91 across the two games) and will struggle to move the ball against an elite Marcus Freeman led defense.

Give me the Irish to win in a blowout, don't overreact to last week's loss.

BYU vs. Oregon Prediction and Pick

BYU's win over Baylor is a sign of special things to come this season in Provo, and I believe they can keep it up against an Oregon team that still has to answer a few questions.

While the team can score 70 points against Eastern Washington, they didn't find the end zone against Georgia. BYU showed that they can get physical on both sides of the ball against a top 10 Baylor team, holding them to 3.85 yards per play.

Oregon is still adjusting to the Bo Nix era and first year head coach Dan Lanning and will be running into a team with one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in the nation in Hall.

While he was down his top two receivers in Gunner Romney and Parker Nacua, who are both game-time decisions this week, Hall leaned on freshman receiver Chase Roberts to lead the team to victory.

Roberts hauled in eight of his 15 targets for 122 yards and this touchdown catch before halftime in the win.

The Cougars can surely use Romney and Nacua back to help open up the passing game, but Hall will be the best player on the field yet again and I don't believe Oregon should be favored by more than a field goal in this one.

There may be some diminishing returns after BYU travelled to South Florida to win 50-21 against the Bulls, back to Provo for the overtime thriller against the Bears, and now back on the road to face a good Oregon team, but I'm going to trust the better team to show up once more.

It may be wise to wait for the injury report, but you could lose the best of the number if Romney or Nacua are in, I think BYU shows up once more against an overrated Oregon team.

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