Western Michigan Broncos vs Central Michigan Chippewas Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 11/19/24

Tuesday’s MACtion brings us an episode of our favorite game show, “Know Your Directional Michigan Schools”. In today’s episode, we have Western Michigan (give yourself points if you said Broncos, wearing brown and gold) traveling to Central Michigan (points for Chippewas, and for maroon and gold). The homestanding Chipps come into this game riding a long, painful losing streak of 5 games, and that losing streak coincides with them losing their quarterback. Western Michigan, on the other hand, has done well against the bottom of the MAC, but has taken consecutive losses to a couple of the better teams, Bowling Green and Northern Illinois. The Broncos are one game away from bowl eligibility, and what an exciting mid-December bowl that will be, right? So what about Tuesday’s MACtion? My Western Michigan vs Central Michigan pick is the game total under 56.

First, we have less than ideal weather. Mt. Pleasant is slated for some light rain, temps in the 40s, and some wind. That’s not good for scoring. Second, both of these teams are sluggish on offense. For Central Michigan, they have been atrocious since losing their QB. The Chipps have scored a total of 30 points over the past 3 weeks, and while the Broncos do not boost a good defense by any means, I just don’t think the Chippewas have a lot of competency on that side of the ball. Likewise, Western tends to play the game very close to the line of scrimmage, and even their passes are short and quick. They are largely inefficient on offense, and I think we might be looking at more drives ending in kicks than in touchdowns. Maybe the Broncos can get 30 points on the board, but I wouldn’t expect much more than that, barring some goofy plays where the defenses or special teams score. I doubt the Chipps can match. This seems like a low-scoring slog to me. Give me the under.

Western Michigan vs Central Michigan Prediction: Under 56 (-110) available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.