UW vs NW

Back by popular demand, I'm picking this week. I never like picking too early in the season until I have an idea of what type of team we are dealing with. Still a bit early, but the season is short, so here goes. UW is a 15 point favorite, and the over under is 51.

UW is scoring well this year at 43.3 ppg, despite having some struggles with injuries on offense. Haven't heard much about the offensive line, but it sounds like Shaw should be a full go in this game. The Northwestern D was destroyed by a Duke team that ran over 100 plays on them in racking up 41 points. They are down 3 corners that will not be back for this game or likely the season. I'm thinking UW scores well Saturday. If the line is healthy the 3 RBs should rack up a ton of yards.

The UW defense is not as talented as last year, but still very good. They seemed to figure out stopping Jackson last year, and let Thorson try to beat them. Even with a talented WR in Carr they couldn't get the offense going. They don't have anyone as good as Carr this year, so I think they struggle again.

So obviously I like Bucky to win, but 15 points is a lot. This is a NW team that looked to be as good or better than teams of the recent past. Those teams have beat UW 2 of the last 3 games. NW always does weird things to Bucky, so this game seems like a horrible one to start with, but here goes.

Bucky has been very good at covering spreads in recent years, even high ones in conference play, so I'm not letting the 15 points scare me off. I'm taking Bucky and giving the points. I'm also taking the over for points.