A late Wisconsin touchdown took away a winning week but I still went .500 (3-3) and sit at 13-18 on the 2018 season. The last weekend of October brings another interesting schedule of games:

Indiana (-1.5) at Minnesota (total of 54.5), Purdue at Michigan State (-1)(total of 50.5), Wisconsin (-6) at Northwestern (total of 52), Bethune-Cookman at Nebraska (no line), Iowa at Penn State (-6) (total of 54.5), Illinois at Maryland (-17) (total of 54.5)

Iowa (+6) at Penn State – 3:30 on ESPN

I am surprised by how much I enjoy watching the Iowa Hawkeyes play and I think they are the Big Ten West’s best team right now. The Hawkeyes should be unbeaten but they let some opportunities slip away in their lone loss (against Wisconsin). After watching Penn State the past few weeks, I think the Hawkeyes are significantly better and I like them to not only cover, but to win on the field. Nate Stanley is playing at a high level and the Hawkeyes are very capable of exploiting the inexperience in the PSU defense. I don’t think the Nittany Lions are all that skilled and Noah Fant and TJ Hockenson are absolute nightmares. On the other side, Trace McSorley has not been particularly accurate this season and Iowa’s defense has been on fire. They eviscerated Maryland’s offense last week and I’ve seen enough to believe they are legit. Iowa is the pick for me at +6 and I wouldn’t mind placing a bet on the moneyline as well.

Wisconsin at Northwestern – UNDER 52 – Noon on FOX

The weather is supposed to fairly nasty this weekend in Evanston and both of these teams play a pretty slow tempo. I wouldn’t anticipate either of them reaching the upper 20s so the under is the right play. Northwestern’s offense continues to struggle running the ball and that’s a big problem in bad weather. Wisconsin looked better last week but they were greatly helped by an incredibly sloppy Illinois team that seemed likely to lose the ball via a fumble every time they took possession. I think they’ll find things significantly trickier against the Wildcats.