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Northern Arizona vs Cal Poly: prediction and projected score

We project Northern Arizona 33-27, a 5.9-point margin with 59.5 total points; Northern Arizona wins 65% of the time.

Matchup analysis

Our model projects Northern Arizona 33, Cal Poly 27 at Mustang Memorial Field at Spanos Stadium in Week 10. That is a lean: Northern Arizona wins about 65% of the time by our estimate, with a projected margin of 5.9 points and 59.5 combined points. Tags: upset alert, leans high scoring.

Northern Arizona is 6-2 against the 16th-toughest schedule so far, scoring 31.6 and allowing 30.1 points per game (+1.5 per game). Cal Poly is 4-5 against the 92nd-toughest schedule so far, scoring 27.9 and allowing 31.4 points per game (-3.5 per game).

College football is noisy: even a well-rated projection misses the final margin by about 14 points on average. Based on how real results have scattered around our numbers, the final margin should land somewhere between Northern Arizona by 28 and Cal Poly by 17 about 80% of the time.

Cal Poly gets about 2.1 points for playing at home. Northern Arizona is still favoured on the road, so the ratings gap is bigger than the value of playing at home. The game is on ESPN+.

Market lines

Market lines ยท Source: The Odds API, ESPN, Action Network ยท Updated Oct 29, 11:25 AM UTC. Shown for information; not an input to our projections.

No market line has been posted for this game yet.

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Northern Arizona vs Cal Poly: stat comparison

Basic
StatNorthern ArizonaCal Poly
Points per game31.627.9
Points allowed per game30.131.4
Yards per play6.256.34
Yards per play allowed6.606.04
Rushing yards per game160.8175.0
Net passing yards per game232.9255.7
Rushing yards allowed per game172.3190.0
Net passing yards allowed per game290.9231.1
Turnovers per game0.751.22
Takeaways per game1.501.00
Sacks per game1.881.56
Sacks allowed per game1.382.33
Advanced
StatNorthern ArizonaCal Poly
EPA per play+0.08+0.04
EPA per play allowed+0.15+0.14
Success rate44.8%42.5%
Success rate allowed49.1%44.8%
Explosive play rate13.3%12.7%
Explosive plays allowed14.9%12.8%
Havoc rate11.2%10.9%
Havoc allowed14.3%16.0%
Points per scoring opportunity3.723.88
Points per opportunity allowed4.123.43
Average starting field positionopp 9opp 8
Opponents' starting field positionopp 9opp 7
Offensive plays per game (pace)63.067.9
Situational
StatNorthern ArizonaCal Poly
Rushing EPA per play+0.11+0.01
Passing EPA per play+0.05+0.07
Rushing EPA allowed+0.17+0.13
Passing EPA allowed+0.12+0.15
Rushing success rate48.8%47.8%
Passing success rate43.6%42.2%
Run stuff rate20.3%19.4%
Passing-down success rate29.4%29.1%
Passing-down success allowed34.3%35.1%
Third-down conversion rate33.0%41.6%
Third-down rate allowed48.5%42.6%
Red-zone touchdown rate57.6%67.1%
Red-zone TD rate allowed68.7%60.4%

# = rank among 138 FBS teams. Efficiency numbers exclude garbage time. Per-play numbers of teams with a weak schedule are pulled toward their opponent-adjusted values (fully at one standard deviation below an average schedule). Source: play-by-play (cfbfastR / sportsdataverse), aggregated by us.

More: Northern Arizona schedule ยท Cal Poly schedule ยท all Week 10 projections

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Projections are statistical estimates for entertainment and analysis only. They are not betting advice and nothing here guarantees any result.

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