Louisville opens as a 19.5-point favorite over Duke

It’ll be a short week for both the Louisville Cardinals and Duke Blue Devils, who will be squaring off under the lights at 7:30 on Thursday night in Durham.

According to DraftKings Sportsbook, Louisville is a 19.5-point favorite to pull off the road win, get back above .500 for the season, and reach bowl eligibility with one game to spare.

The Cardinals enter the week riding high after a 41-3 throttling of Syracuse last weekend. That victory snapped a two-game losing streak for U of L, which had lost four of its last five.

Duke, meanwhile, has no such positive momentum. After going 3-1 during the non-conference portion of the season, the Blue Devils have lost six straight. All six of those games have been league contests, and all but one of them have been blowout defeats. Duke’s most recent setback was a 48-17 road beatdown at the hands of Virginia Tech last Saturday.

ESPN will have the television coverage of Thursday night’s game.