FCS teams never truly have a shot at taking down FBS opponents, but that simply isn’t the case with the North Dakota State Bison who enter this Week 3 tilt against the Iowa Hawkeyes owners of five national championships and the FCS’s No. 1 ranking. Should the Hawkeyes be in letdown made after throttling Iowa State to win the Cy-Hawk Trophy last week, the Bison would be more than happy to hand them a crippling defeat.
This contest in Week 3 of the regular season will go down Saturday, September 17, 2016, at 12 p.m. ET at Kinnick Stadium.
Odds Analysis
A line for this game has yet to be released at the time of this writing, and likely won’t be made public until later in the week. Even though North Dakota State brings a winning mentality with it to Iowa City and has toppled FBS opposition in the past, this is no doubt the program’s toughest challenge since Chris Klieman turned it into a FCS superpower.
With that, look for the Hawkeyes to be laying close to four touchdowns with a total release in the upper 50s.
Player to Watch
Easton Stick is now the man in charge of navigating the Bison offense. North Dakota State has a rich history of quarterbacks excelling at the FCS level to lead them to national titles. First it was Jose Mohler. Then came Brock Jensen and then Carson Wentz who is currently the QB1 of the Philadelphia Eagles after being the second name to be called at this past year’s NFL Draft.
He just threw for 257 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 50-44 win over Eastern Washington this past weekend, but Desmond King and company will likely offer up a little more resistance to their passing attack. Should he be able to hold his own, the Bison might be able to put together a couple nice scoring drives with the ground attack averaging 255 yards per game.
Matchup to Watch
C.J. Beathard has amassed 427 total yards passing through the Hawkeyes first two games, and he could be in line for a big showing through the air against a Bison defense that’s proven porous against pass attacks in their first two games. Beathard threw for 235 yards and 3 touchdowns against the Cyclones last week.
North Dakota State just allowed Eastern Washington to gouge them for 450 yards through the air, but only 106 rushing yards. The week before that, it only gave up 169 yards on the ground to Charleston Southern. Pass defense looks to be the team’s Achilles Heel, and that’s something Beathard should be able to take advantage of early and often.
Free ATS Pick
North Dakota State checks in 8-3 SU against FBS opponents and has won five in a row versus FBS foes since 2010 in taking down Kansas (6-3), Minnesota (37-24), Colorado State (22-7), Kansas State (24-21) and Iowa State (34-14). This however is the program’s biggest test, and it’s one I don’t foresee them hanging in all the way through.
The Bison might be able to put together a couple nice scoring drives, but in the end, the talent discrepancy is going to be too much. Iowa might have issues running the ball early, but that will be rectified with Beathard loosening the defense up through the air. This one might be close for the first 30 minutes, but it will only be a matter of time until the Hawkeyes pull away to keep their unblemished mark intact to begin Big Ten play.
College Football Odds: Iowa 43, North Dakota State 15
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