The Giants got a big effort from Mike Leake and went wire to wire as the free play winner on Wednesday night. Today’s comp is on a Saturday college clash in the Big 10.
137 IOWA @ 138 WISCONSIN
Take: 137 IOWA +7
It’s mostly about the matchup for me as Iowa visits Wisconsin on Saturday. The Hawkeyes are proving to be proficient at shutting down opposing running games and if they can turn that trick at Madison, Iowa should have a good chance at registering a mild upset against the Badgers.
I’ve always been a defensive dog guy in college football. Give me a team that can stop the run on a regular basis and add some points to the mix, and I’ll often be interested. That’s the case here, and if the Hawkeyes can contain the Wisconsin ground game, Badgers QB Joel Stave becomes a candidate to turn it over once or twice.
The interesting aspect here is that Wisconsin also figures to limit Iowa on the ground. But the Hawkeyes have a QB that’s playing very well in CJ Beathard. He’s not a superstar signal caller, but Beathard is not making mistakes and he’s flourishing throwing most high percentage passes.
Iowa also has some incentive to avenge a narrow home loss to Wisconsin from 2014 and while current form is not always an accurate barometer, Iowa simply seems to be playing better football than the Badgers at this point.
As for my numbers on this game, I’ve got two sets of ratings that show Iowa winning outright and the others have Wisconsin coming out on top, albeit by a slim margin. My expectation is that this will be a tightly contested affair. If that is indeed the way it plays out, grabbing a full TD with the visitors should work nicely. Mark me down for a play on Iowa plus the points.
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3* CFB Game of Week ready for Saturday!