Syracuse at Western Michigan

Syracuse plays its home games indoors, which is tailor-made for its offense, but opens the season outdoors at Western Michigan. The Syracuse offense lost its top two receivers, so Devin Butler and Nykeim Johnson lead a group of largely inexperienced targets. The Orange defense should take a big step forward as the secondary returns its best players and up front nose tackle Chris Slayton has developed into one of the most dominant forces in the ACC. In addition, Syracuse has a pair of experienced edge rushers in juniors Kendall Coleman and Alton Robinson. Syracuse is on a 19-6-1 run UNDER the total, including 15-5-1 UNDER on fieldturf. They face a Western Michigan offense that has a new playcaller as head coach Tim Lester is taking over after Kevin Johns left to be the OC at Texas Tech. The defense was hit hard by injuries in 2017 but they are healthy for this one. Defenses are often ahead of the offenses in Week 1. That will be the case here and note that when Syracuse faces the MAC they are 9-4 UNDER the total. Back the UNDER in this one.