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The Nebraska Cornhuskers take on the Purdue Boilermakers. Check out our college football odds series for our Nebraska Purdue prediction and pick.
When the season began, Nebraska was coached by Scott Frost. The Huskers weren't expected to be a great team, but they were expected to make a bowl game. When they started 1-2, the school fired Frost. Nebraska fell to 1-3 on the season after losing to Oklahoma. It seemed that any dreams of a bowl bid were dead or at least on life support. Then the Huskers found new life. They defeated Indiana at home and then scratched out a tough road win at Rutgers. They are now 3-3, and what's more is that the Big Ten West Division is extremely weak. No team in the division looks especially good. Illinois has put together a few wins. Minnesota won in a blowout at Michigan State. Yet, no team looks consistently good. Every Big Ten West team has suffered at least one bad loss so far this season, if not two. Nebraska has a real chance to make a bowl game, and if it somehow beats Purdue this weekend in West Lafayette, the odds of the Huskers making a bowl game might be better than 50-50. It's a real chance for this team to still, somehow, make the bowl game all fans hoped it would reach before the season started … and before Frost got fired.
Purdue could be in total control of the Big Ten West, but it let a Week 1 lead slip away in the final minutes against Penn State. Purdue's inability to run the ball under coach Jeff Brohm is well-known in the Big Ten and throughout the college football world. That has cost the Boilermakers on several occasions in Brohm's tenure, and it did against Penn State. Purdue always comes up against games and moments in which it has a chance to do something special, but makes an important and untimely mistake which causes a game to unravel. Such was the case when a flurry of penalties cost the Boilermakers late in a loss at Syracuse.
The good news for Purdue is that this past weekend, an opponent was the team which committed the bigger, more important mistakes. Maryland and Purdue both dared each other to swipe the game from the other, but the Terrapins faltered a little bit more than Purdue did. The Boilermakers have won consecutive road games in the Big Ten, winning at Minnesota and Maryland, to give themselves a chance to win the Big Ten West. They simply have to win this home game against Nebraska if they are serious about claiming the school's first division title.
Purdue's toughest remaining games are mostly at home. This is a time for the Boilermakers to take care of business and not make life more difficult for themselves … but that has been hard for the program to do. Purdue has a nasty habit of failing to take care of relatively simple tasks when a big prize is attainable. The Boilermakers need to learn how to win the games they expect to win in a businesslike fashion with minimal drama.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Nebraska-Purdue College Football odds.
College Football Odds: Nebraska-Purdue Odds
Nebraska Cornhuskers: +13.5 (-104)
Purdue Boilermakers: -13.5 (-118)
Over: 56.5 (-105)
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Under: 56.5 (-115)
Why Nebraska Could Cover the Spread
Purdue, in moments such as this over the past several years, plays a shaky and nervous game, allowing an opponent to hang around and steal a win. Nebraska might not win outright, but it is competing well, and the Huskers should be able to drag Purdue into the mud. This game will be messy. Purdue will not do things the easy way — it rarely does — and Nebraska will cover.
Why Purdue Could Cover the Spread
If quarterback Aidan O'Connell has a big game, Purdue can blow the roof off this game and land a knockout punch by halftime or early in the third quarter. Purdue has the talent to obliterate Nebraska. That is clear. Nebraska struggled to beat a bad Rutgers team one week ago. Purdue is far, far better than both NU and Rutgers.
Final Nebraska-Purdue Prediction & Pick
Purdue usually fails to play brilliant, low-error, high-octane football in situations such as this. The Boilermakers might win outright, but they typically fail to take the shortest, most direct path to victory when they face the pressure of playing for a division championship.
Final Nebraska-Purdue Prediction & Pick: Nebraska +13.5
