Saturday college football and we will see the Wisconsin Badgers take on the Northwestern Wildcats at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois. The game has a start time of 3:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN 2. Current Vegas odds have the Badgers listed as 8 point favorites, while the total is set at 47.
Analysis: The Wisconsin Badgers started of the year with a very tough loss at LSU, in a game they had a big lead and should have won. The Badgers have since bounced back with two dominating performances vs Western Illinois and Bowling Green, but then last week really struggled to put away South Florida in the 27-10 win vs the Bulls. The Badgers are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games in October, but they are also 0-6 ATS in their last 6 games in Evanston. The star of this offense is Melvin Gordon, who leads the 4 th ranked rushing offense in the nation with 612 yards on the ground so far and 8 TDs rushing, plus another receiving. Overall the Badgers rank 25th in total offense (496 ypg) and 33rd in scoring (39 ppg), while on defense they have been very good, ranking 7th overall (260.8 ypg) and 11th in scoring (14.5 ppg).
The Northwestern Wildcats started out the year with BB home losses vs California and Northern Illinois, but have now won 2 in a row, including last week’s 29-6 win over Penn State on the road. The Badgers are just 1-3 ATS this year and all 4 of their games have gone under the total, with just 39.8 ppg being scored in their games. Trevor Siemian has not been that great behind center, completing just 58.5% of his passes for 872 yards with 2 TDs and 4 INTs. He has no help from the running game that ranks 108th in the nation, while the OL has just been a mess for them as well. Overall the cats rank 106th in total offense (348 ypg) and 99th in scoring (23 ppg), while on defense they rank 48th in yards allowed (364.3 ypg) and 19th in points allowed (16.8 ppg).
Pick: Not much on this one, but I will call for Northwestern to keep it close. Wisconsin has had some blowout wins this year, but also struggled vs lesser competition as well. I look for that to continue here as an improving Cats team will make a game out of it in this one.
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