Mike Riley has one of the hottest seats in football right now. The Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach has not had a good start to the season. Although the Cornhuskers are 2-0 in conference play, those two wins have come against the dregs of the Big Ten, Rutgers and Illinois. Now, they have to play the best team in the Big Ten West in the Wisconsin Badgers. The Badgers are the team to beat in the division after a big win over Northwestern last week, and an upset win for Nebraska here could potentially save Riley’s job.
This contest in Week 6 of the regular season will go down Saturday, October 7, 2017, at 8
p.m. ET at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. This game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
College Football Opening Odds at BookMaker.eu
Wisconsin -11.5
Nebraska +11.5
Over/Under 47
Odds Analysis
Nebraska is 2-3 ATS on the season, but did get the cover the one time it was an underdog. The Cornhuskers were a double-digit underdog on the road against Oregon earlier in the year and only lost by seven in Eugene. However, the offense has fallen apart since that game, highlighted the next week by a home loss to Northern Illinois. Unsurprisingly, the under has hit in three straight Nebraska games.
The Badgers are 4-0 SU and 2-2 ATS on the year. Wisconsin has actually shown that it has a decent offense, scoring at least 31 points in every game and that has made this team one to watch going forward. The over has hit in three of the last four Badgers games this season.
Last Meeting
When these teams met in Madison last season, it was a classic Big Ten slugfest. The Badgers scored a touchdown on their first drive of the game and looked like the better team for much of the game. However, they couldn’t quite put the Cornhuskers away.
Nebraska roared back in the fourth quarter, tying the game and sending it to overtime. At the time, the Cornhuskers were ranked seventh in the nation and undefeated, and had looked like a team of destiny after squeaking out win after win.
However, this time it was for not. The Cornhuskers could not prevail in overtime and the Badgers got the win. Nebraska didn’t recover from the loss and got drubbed by Ohio State the next week, ending its hope at a division title.
Matchup to Watch
If the Cornhuskers are going to find a way to pull off the upset, they have to be able to score some points. Wisconsin has the fourth-best defense in the nation in terms of total defense and the Badgers have only allowed six touchdowns all season long. Teams have been unable to do much either on the ground or through the air. The numbers should be better too, but Northwestern was able to score two touchdowns late after Wisconsin had already salted the game away.
Nebraska is finding out just how valuable Tommy Armstrong was to the success of its team over the last few seasons. Tanner Lee has really struggled to find any rhythm as the quarterback this season, and his play was the main reason that the Huskers lost to Northern Illinois.
Lee is only completing 54.7 percent of his passes and is averaging just 6.7 yards per pass attempt. Additionally, he has already thrown nine interceptions this season and isn’t the mobile threat that Armstrong was. The Huskers do have a good ground game, but will have a hard time running on the Badgers.
Free ATS Pick
This Wisconsin team has a decent shot of going undefeated. The Badgers only play one of the three heavyweights from the Big Ten East and that’s Michigan at home the week before it plays Ohio State. You can sense that this team feels like it can run the table and won’t let up like it did last week. Look for Wisconsin to dominate Nebraska.
College Football Odds: Wisconsin 38, Nebraska 17
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