East Carolina vs Army Prediction & Betting Tips - October 19 | College Football Week 8

The East Carolina Pirates go on the road to play the 23rd-ranked Army Black Knights on Saturday at noon EDT. The game can be seen on ESPN2.

East Carolina (3-3, 1-1 AAC) is coming off a 55-24 road loss to Charlotte. Army (6-0, 5-0 AAC) is coming off a 44-10 win over UAB.

East Carolina vs Army: Preview

East Carolina is a 15.5-point underdog on the road, while the over/under is set at 51.5 points.

The Pirates are coming off thier bye week. Before that, East Carolina was blown out by Charlotte. In the loss, the Pirates played multiple quaterbacks including Katin Houser and Jake Garcia.

Heading into the game against Army, East Carolina coach Mike Houston was reluctant to name his starter. Houston said, via the team's website:

"Whoever gives us the best opportunity to go out there and win on Saturday is who will start. There's a lot that goes into that decision, but I think we have two very capable guys. Whoever gives us the best chance to win on gameday is who's going to start."

Houston added that Army's offense presents some challenges with the triple-option but he's confident his team can defend it:

"They do run some mid-line triple. That's really the only true triple option we've seen out of them. A lot of their stuff is either quarterback follow, quarterback counter, quarterback zone, they run some arc option where they pitch it to the fullback, they run toss, they do a lot of other stuff.

"The big thing revolves around the quarterback and the fullback. I think that 6, Udoh (Kanye), is a really good running back. They do a lot of stuff with him on dives, dive cut back, things like that. Everything in that offense revolves around Bryce and Daly and that offensive line."

As for Army, the Black Knights are coming off a blowout win over UAB at home. Army has been a surprise team this season with its offense clicking on all cylinders.

The Black Nights offense is led by Bryson Daily who has rushed for 738 yards and 14 touchdowns, while he's also thrown for 482 yards and six touchdowns.

Defensively, Army has 10 sacks as a team and eight interceptions, as coach Jeff Monken was thrilled with his team's defense in the win against UAB. Monken said, via Athlon Sports:

"They played just really gritty defense today. Obviously the opening drive to get a stop on 4th down gave us a short field and we scored on the next play. It was a great way to start the game, obviously.

"The sacks, the tackles for loss, those are big plays for the defense. Anytime we can get the offense off schedule, that's a big play for the defense. Now, the interceptions were certainly great to get turnovers and end drives that way, and we did a nice job of keeping the ball in front of us for the most part."

With how good Army has been playing on both sides of the ball, the Black Knights should cruise to a lopsided win. Army has a pathway to being the top of the Group of Five teams and making the playoffs.

It doesn't matter which quarterback East Carolina starts, as Army should be able to likely get a turnover or two and get a big win here.

Prediction: Army 41, East Carolina 13.

East Carolina vs Army: Betting Tips

Tip 1: Army -15.5 (-108)

Tip 2: Over 51.5 points (-110)

Tip 3: Bryson Daily anytime touchdown scorer