Week 6: Badgers vs Wildcats Picks
Week 3 college football betting action sees the Wisconsin Badgers taking on the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday October 4 at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois. Cappers Picks provides free college football handicapping tips all season long.
After a tough start Northwestern was impressive last week on the road at Penn State. But do they have enough to beat the Badgers too?
College Football Odds
Wisconsin Badgers (3-1) vs. Northwestern Wildcats (2-2)
Saturday October 4
3:30PM
Ryan Field – Evanston, IL
ESPN2
College Football Betting Lines: Wisconsin -8
College Football Betting Total: 47.5
***2014 CFB BONUSES***
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Wisconsin
Since losing their opening game against LSU the Badgers have had little trouble dispatching mediocre to bad opponents. This is their first road game since the opener and they are catching the Wildcats with some momentum. The Badgers are doing what they do in terms of dominating on the ground and playing good defense.
In fact Heisman candidate Melvin Gordon has more yards rushing than starting QB Tanner McEvoy has through the air through 4 games.
The Badgers game plan for this one will be simple. Last year they ran all over Northwestern with Gordon and departed James White both gaining more than 100 yards on the ground. At the same time they completely stymied the NW attack doubling them up in yardage for the game. The formula is proven and successful and odds are it is enough to get the win on Saturday.
Northwestern
Things were looking pretty bleak for the Wildcats early. They dropped their first two games of the season at home as touchdown favourites. That was followed by an unimpressive win over Western Illinois but last week they went to Happy Valley and won at Penn State, as 10.5 point dogs.
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The final score looked more dominant than the numbers but they held PSU to just a couple of field goals and their uber prospect Christian Hackenberg was all out of sorts.
The problem for Northwestern is that all that success from last week might not translate well to this week – Penn State is a completely different animal compared to Wisconsin (literally). To have any hope of winning the Wildcats have to be able to stop the Badgers ground game.
The last time they beat Wisconsin was in 2009 when they held them to just 99 yards rushing.
I don’t think this team is capable of that.
NCAA Football Handicapping Trends
- Badgers are 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games after accumulating more than 200 yards rushing in their previous game.
- Over is 8-1 in Badgers last 9 games following a ATS loss.
- Badgers are 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games overall.
- Wildcats are 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games in October.
- Wildcats are 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games after allowing less than 100 yards rushing in their previous game.
- Wildcats are 0-9 ATS in their last 9 home games.
- Home team is 7-0 ATS in their last 7 meetings.
- Over is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.
NCAA Football Week #6 Prediction: Wisconsin -8
NCAAF Score prediction: 4* Play on Wisconsin 41 – Northwestern 27
Momentum is great but I think the Wildcats are running into a Wisconsin team that is finally hitting its stride. There is better value at -7 but -8 is not all that bad.
Check out our Updated NCAA Football Week 6 Odds.
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