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The Rice Owls (1-6) will hit the road to square off with the Florida International Panthers (4-2) in the critical Conference USA match-up. The contest will take place on Saturday, October 20th, 2018 with a kick-off time of 7:30 PM ET. The game will be available on ESPN+ streaming. The Owls and the Panthers have only met twice in their school histories which were two affairs scattered over the last four years. Each team won once.
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<h2>
Rice Owls at Florida International Panthers Overview<br />
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<b>Rice Owls </b>
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Rice comes in off yet another loss as they are presently riding a four-game skid. The Owls seemed to have hit their low point as they have scored just three points in their previous two games while surrendering 62 points combined to the likes of UTSA and UAB. On the season, Rice has not yielded many dividends either as they have punished takers with four consecutive losses against the spread.
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<b>Florida International Panthers </b>
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The Panthers come in off a narrow 24-21 victory at home last week against the red-hot Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. FIU went into the affair laying 2.5 points to MTSU and achieved a minute cover as a result of the final score. The Panthers have been heralded as a potential contender for the Conference USA West crown.
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<h3>
Reasons to Avoid Florida International<br />
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In just one week, we saw FIU go from a low-range favorite to an extraordinary one. Generally speaking, this can only mean one of two things: overreaction or overlay. In this situation, it could be a combination of both. The Panthers have been a commodity this year as they have failed to cover only once and they come into this contest off perhaps their biggest win this season to face one of the weakest opponents they have encountered season to date.
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<h3>
Reasons to Back Rice<br />
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With the aforementioned above, we can use this to our advantage as the market is pretty much giving away Rice here given the fact they have looked so poor in the last two weeks in particular. The fact remains the Owls strong point is their rushing attack and we have to like their prospects of improvement this week against a 96th ranked Owls rushing defense.
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