Northwestern is coming off a huge win while Purdue is coming off a bye. I see Purdue playing spoiler here. Northwestern is 124th in the country at 4.3 yards per play on offense. They certainly should never be favored on the road. They aren't here, but essentially are with the home team being a pk off a bye. Purdue can run the ball with a lot of pop from Akeem Hunt and Raheem Mostart. They have done it in conference play at 5.23 yards per carry. Northwestern checks in at 2.80 yards per carry on offense in conference play while their defense is giving up 4.79 over their last 3 and 4.68 in conference play.

Northwestern is a team that could have won a lot more games, but I'm scratching my head and cant' take this team off a big win right now. Their running game is non-existent and Trevor Siemien has no red zone threats and has just 6 TD's to 10 INT's. Purdue is coming off their last 4 games playing 4 of the top 5 teams in the conference. In the end I don't think Northwestern is good enough to go bowling and they will overlook a Purdue team that is young, but improving quickly especially in the run game. I'll take the home team with the better running game at this point in the year every time.