Big Ten Picks and Predictions, Week 9: Let the raiiiiin fall down

It is 1:30am, I have just submitted the rough draft of Chapter 1 of my dissertation, and I am drinking a whole bottle of wine while the cat purrs on my chest. Fuck your teams, life is good.

Indiana Hoosiers (4-4, 1-4 B1G) at Minnesota Golden Gophers (3-4, 0-4)

Friday, October 26, 7pm | FS1 | IU -2.5 | O/U 53.5

Straight-Up/ATS: Indiana, 11-5-Akron

87townie: Minnesota is bad. Indiana is not as bad. Indiana wins and covers.

Boilerman31: It’s somewhat fitting that this game is on a Friday night when people are normally watching High School Football. Both of these teams are not good. Which makes for good drama, if you plan on watching this game. Indiana’s offense is better than Minnesota’s. I’ll take the Hoosiers to cover.

Thumpasaurus: Indiana desperately needs this game. For that reason alone I should say Goofs win, but I’m seeing the Hoosiers covering.

Creighton M: I realized that I don’t have a good reason for why either team would win this game, so I went with the team that didn’t give the worst Nebraska team in history its first win.

Stewmonkey13: Stevie Scott gonna have himself a game. I think MN puts up points, but I just don’t think they can get the stops necessary.

BigRedTwice: There is no reason for either of these teams to win, so given that, I’ll give it to the home team, since Indiana seems to play down to their competition (they beat Rutgers by 7, remember), and while Minny ain’t great, they aren’t Rutgers-bad either.

MNWildcat: Yeah, what kind of shit team beats Rutgers by single-digits?

I am with Stew in doubting the Minnesota defense—Devine Ozigbo is obviously a helluva runner and smaller than Stevie Scott, but I don’t have much confidence in Gopher defenders not named Carter Coughlin. Tanner Morgan may well get his through the air, but I am willing to let Indiana let me down one more time. Hoosiers, 38-34.

[20] wisconsin badgers (5-2, 3-1) at Northwestern Wildcats (4-3, 4-1)

11am | FOX | wisc -6 | O/U 53

Straight-Up: wisconsin, 12-5
Against the Spread: Northwestern, 11-6

87townie: Ugh. This game. Had I not seen the debacle vs rutger, I would’ve picked jNU for this game. But after last week, I’m taking Sconny to win and cover.

Boilerman31: I’m wondering if Northwestern wasn’t in a bit of a lookahead spot last week when they forgot they were playing someplace in New Jersey. The question becomes can Northwestern stop Wisconsin’s run game and make Alex Hornibrook beat them? I’m going to middle this game because Wisconsin is so bad ATS this season.

Thump: Wisconsin by 7. Somehow, Northwestern is going to play its stupidest game of the year.

CM: If Hornibrook doesn’t start, Pat Fitzgerald will manage to find a way to negate any advantage his team will get from playing against the backup in the most efficient way possible. Badgers win.

Stew: Having Hornibrook out may work to wisconsin’s favor, at least in the short term. I think they stick to running the ball. NW has a good enough defense to keep them in the game, but without Hornibrook, jNW doesn’t get the turnovers needed to win.

BRT: Literally anything can happen with Northwestern, but I’ll give this one to Wisconsin. However, if Hornibrook really is out, that could make this really interesting.

MNW: There was a brief moment where I convinced myself “yeah, Joe Gaziano is going to positively bury Jake Coan and the ‘Cats will win by 20.” Then I remembered that I’m driving through the night to get to Evanston and that the ‘Cats just schemed up a gameplan that scored a whole 18 fucking points on Rutgers.

Look, the Michigan State game is the gameplan for Mick McCall and the Northwestern offense going—hope that Clayton Thorson has his timing to Flynn Nagel and Cameron Green down, move in those stupid little Northwestern chunks, and grind one out at home. Probably pray that the wisconsin OC loses his mind in the red zone, too, and stops giving the ball to Jonathan Taylor.

Let’s hope. But you get that bad feeling the ‘Cats are due for a market correction. badgers, 24-20.

Purdue Boilermakers (4-3, 3-1) at Michigan State Spartans (4-3, 2-2)

11am | ESPN | MSU -2 | O/U 48

Straight-Up/ATS: Purdue, 12-5

87townie: MSU with a dinged up Lewerke and without Felton Davis is basically zero. However, that defense will stop Purdue a lot. On the flip side, I don’t see MSU scoring at all in this game.

It could come down to a single score…and Purdue will do the scoring. I’ll take the Boilers.

Boilerman31: Michigan State has a really good run defense. Purdue has a really good passing offense. Sparty is coming off a big rivalry game. Purdue is coming of a huge upset. Why do I mention this? Because I have no idea what’s going to happen in this game. Give me the Boilers because I’m partial like that.

Thump: BC beat Purdue, who beat Nebraska.

Anyway, Nebraska.

I can’t see the intensity carrying over on the road for Purdue. This one’s gonna be disappointing, as MSU is not up to its previous form.

CM: I don’t think Sparty has much of a chance without Felton Davis out there. Brohm is going to get creative with Rondale Moore and this should be a pretty fun game for the Boilers.

Stew: Pretty big chance of a letdown here, for Purdue. I really hate this line, I’m tempted to middle it, but I kinda think Purdue is able to get up enough for this to put a dagger into the heart of MSU.

BRT: Kind of have to go with Purdue after last week, right? Sure, they could trip up in this one, having shot their wad on OSU--but I’m ready to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

MNW: Literally the only effort I make with Michigan State predictions I think, at this point, is to look up the weather report. It’s supposed to be 47 with about a 40% chance of showers all day. That favors Michigan State, in my mind. That is all the analysis I will go with. MSU, 20-16.

Bethune Cookman Wildcats (who cares) at Nebraska Cornhuskers (1-6-too lazy to do the lightning bolt)

11am | BTN | lol no line

Everyone thinks Nebraska will win. Moving on.

Illinois Fighting Illini (3-4, 1-3) at Maryland Terrapins (4-3, 2-2)

2:30pm | BTN | MD -17 | O/U 53

Straight-Up: Maryland, 17-0
ATS: Maryland, 11-6

87townie: Illinois is bad. Maryland has a record of pounding the lights out on bad teams. I’ll take the Terps to win and cover.

Boilerman31: Can we pretend this game isn’t happening? Illinois is bad, and worse on the road. Terps Big.

Thump: There is seriously a chance Illinois wins this. It is possible. We’ll know after the first series for each team though. If MJ Rivers starts at quarterback and then the Illini defense plays 8 in the box all day, we’ve got us a ballgame. If AJ Trash starts and we play a soft zone keeping everything in front of us, Maryland wins by four scores, especially if Mike Epstein is out.

Does anybody trust that Illinois will do the things that maximize their shot at victory? Me neither. Maryland rolls.

CM: Enjoy Lovie’s beard while he’s still around.

Stew: Thump mentioned something interesting in the podcast about how Illinois has beaten some truly awful teams, and been beaten by some pretty damn good offenses. They haven’t really played any of the mediocre teams, yet. I think they keep it close here against the terps.

BRT: The female turtles prevail over hapless Illinois. As long as it’s not windy--I heard it was very windy in Illinois’ game at Iowa last week.

MNW: I want just one game where the Illini put together a ridiculously-complete performance and Thump is just elated and singing the praises of Illinois football. I’m sure it’s happened at some point, but I don’t remember it at all. That doesn’t happen against the Terps, even after the release of the report. But the Illini can score enough to cover this spread. Maryland, 37-24.

[18] Iowa Hawkeyes (6-1, 3-1) at [17] Penn State Nittany Lions (5-2, 2-2)

2:30pm | ESPN | PSU -4.5 | O/U 52.5

Straight-Up: Iowa, 10-7
ATS: Iowa, 12-5

87townie: Last two weeks Penn State looked like a tire fire on a train wreck in a flaming dumpster. Iowa has not. I’m going against my rooting interest here and picking Iowa in a close one.

Boilerman31: Iowa has been a bit of an ATS darling this season going 6-1. I’m gonna ride that train. (And James Franklin is a horribad game management coach). Hawkeyes steal one in Happy Valley.

Thump: This is going to be by far the best defense the Nits have faced so far. McSorley’s gonna have to stand in there and make the throws, because I can’t imagine the Hawks will just let him run for 9 yards at a time. Hawks straight up.

Thump: This is going to be by far the best defense the Nits have faced so far. McSorley’s gonna have to stand in there and make the throws, because I can’t imagine the Hawks will just let him run for 9 yards at a time. Hawks straight up.

CM: Going with the hot hand and picking my Hawkeyes.

Stew: Against my better judgement, I’m getting swept up in a bit of the hype of this Iowa team. I think they CAN beat PSU, so I’ve got to pick Iowa in what is a completely emotional pick.

BRT: I picked Iowa and I feel dirty. But I feel like the shine is fully off James Franklin right now, and things could get really interesting. Like, losing-to-Iowa-at-home interesting.

Or, Iowa will lose by 30 and blame the wind, who knows.

MNW: This time, Franklin and McSorley get it right. I hope that Franklin tries to call a timeout at an inopportune moment or something, only to have his staff give him the full Andy Reid treatment.

Lions, 24-21.

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Vote in the polls, let us know your picks in the comments. Cat’s snoozing, I’m gonna go do the same. Have a great weekend.