Wisconsin And Purdue Should Light Up Scoreboard

Wisconsin vs. Purdue, 7:00 ET

College Football is now into Week 4 and we have learned a lot about the teams as we look to wrap up a month of play. The intrigue of the College Football Playoff, and how some of the conference races will go is still very much alive, and should remain that way for another month. Tonight, we get a game between two teams in the Big 10. Let's see how we should play a game between Wisconsin and Purdue under the Friday Night Lights.

I am a bit surprised about Wisconsin already this season. They were one of the teams that I thought had an outside shot to compete for the Big 10 championship, but after three games and a 2-1 record, I'm guessing I'm probably wrong. They've won their two games at home, but they lost their only road game in a surprising, and embarrassing fashion. At the time, Wisconsin was ranked and lost 31-22 on the road. The biggest part of the issue was that the Badgers lost three fumbles in the game. They rebounded against Georgia Southern last week, but now they need to refocus against a formidable opponent in Purdue. How can they take Purdue down? They need to focus on the running game. If they are consistently chewing up yards on the ground they can control the clock and also frustrate the Purdue defense. Last week the Boilermakers allowed four touchdowns and almost 200 rushing yards to the Syracuse quarterback. I'm not suggesting that Wisconsin abandon their passing game. Tanner Mordecai is a decent quarterback, although he makes some questionable decisions, and can probably attack the Purdue secondary that has now averaged to allow 267.7 yards through the air.

Purdue is sitting at 1-2 now and I'd argue they will probably end up somewhere around .500 or slightly below to end the season. Purdue's offense has been pretty decent overall and Hudson Card has actually been impressive this season with 825 yards and 3 touchdowns. All of those touchdowns went to receiver Deion Burks. Wisconsin doesn't have the best secondary in college, and I think Card and Burks could team up to deliver some fireworks. Wisconsin did get five interceptions last week, but still allowed more than 350 passing yards, so Card could have a field day. If the Purdue defense can stop the running game of the Badgers, they will win this game. If it comes down to playing Card vs. Mordecai, Purdue has the edge. However, there is more that goes into this game. Purdue doesn't have an elite rushing attack and the Badgers defense should play better considering they are able to prepare for an offense that is somewhat one-dimensional.

I kind of expect both of these teams to air it out. I'm going to take the over in this game. We have already seen that Wisconsin wants to throw the ball (even though they haven't been very successful to this point) and Purdue has to pass. If the Badgers can get their running backs into space, they will be able to make a lot of progress in our play. I'll take the over 53.5 in this game.

For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on Twitter: @futureprez2024