Week 4 college football and the Iowa Hawkeyes will travel to Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers. The game has a start time of 12:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Current Vegas odds have the Panthers listed as 7 point favorites, while the total is set at 46.5.
Analysis: The Iowa Hawkeyes went 8-5 last year bouncing back from a disastrous 2012 campaign, in which they went 4-8. This year they have 13 starters back and a rather easy schedule, which means this will be a dangerous team in the newly formed Big 10 West Division. Unfortunately the Hawkeyes haven’t played as a dangerous team just yet as they barely beat Northern Iowa and Ball State and lost at home to Iowa State last week as 13 point favorites. In the Iowa State loss they were able to muster just 275 yards of total offense, but their defense did play pretty well as they have allowed just 337 total yards including 82 on the ground. QB Jake Rudock only threw for 146 yards in the game, but he has been solid overall this year, hitting 68.4% of his passes for 718 yards with 4 TDs and just 1 INT. The Iowa offense has not been that good this year overall, as they rank 92nd in total offense (377 ypg) and 102nd in scoring (21.7 ppg), while on defense they have been solid, ranking 27th in total defense (320.3 ypg), 6th vs the run (65.7 ypg) and 30th in points allowed (18.7 ppg).
The Pittsburgh Panthers have not played a tough schedule thus far, but they have started out the season at 3-0, after last week’s 42-25 won at Florida International. The Panthers also have a 10 point road win over Boston College and a 62-0 home win over Delaware on the resume. The Panthers were in a bit of a dogfight vs FIU, especially early as they found themselves down 16-0 after the first quarter of play. The Panthers then outscored FIU 26-0 over the next 2 quarters before finally winning the game by 17. The ground attack is really what won the game for Pittsburgh, as they had 321 yards rushing in the game and just 101 yards passing. James Conner is a beast and after rushing for 214 yards vs Boston College the week before, he came back with 177 yards vs the Golden Panthers. He now has 544 yards rushing on the year with 8 TDs, which is how many TDs he had all of last year. He is a big reason why the Panthers are 5th in the nation in rushing (344.3 ypg) and 18th in scoring (44.7 ppg). Defensively the Panthers have been very stout this year as they rank 4th in the nation in total defense (208.7 ypg) and 17th in scoring (15 ppg).
Pick: This should be a rather low scoring game and that has me thinking that taking the points with Iowa should be in order here. I also don’t feel that the Hawkeyes are as bad as they have displayed in the early going. This is a game that they desperately need and I see a fully focused effort from them here. The Hawkeyes are 7-0 ATS as dogs of 5 or more vs a .750 or better opponent and they are 6-1 ATS off a SU loss vs an Opponent off a SU DD win. I look for the Hawkeyes to come up with their best effort of the year and win this one outright.
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College Football Free Picks: Iowa vs Pittsburgh Betting
What college football bettors need to know about betting Iowa Hawkeyes vs Pittsburgh Panthers on Saturday (9/20/14) - a free pick from Pregame.com's Scott Spreitzer with added insight from Steve Fezzik.