Northern Illinois
vs.
Northwestern
College Football
Pick with Analysis
9/6/14
Northwestern hosts Northern Illinois Saturday a week after coming up short on the West Coast in their opener against Cal. Northern Illinois comes in untested after a cake walk 55-3 win over Presbyterian. The current line at 5 dimes sportsbook is Northwestern -5.5.
It’s always a good idea to get a sense of what the betting public is thinking on a Game. The first sportsbook to post lines each week is betonline and their openers often move significantly. To do this, you can visit Our live lines feed, then, find the betonline column and click on the line you’re interested in to view the line history. In this Game, Northwestern opened up -2.5 and was bet up to -5.5.
That’s an early move I’d tend to agree with. Sure, Northwestern is in off a 31-24 week 1 loss to a California team that was 1-11 a year ago, which of course isn’t good. However, you can take some positives away from that Game if you’re Northwestern. They were behind 31-7 right off the bat early in the 3rd quarter. Many teams would have folded right then and there, but Northwestern kept fighting and mounted a comeback that ended at 31-24 when Cal intercepted a pass on their own 38 yard line with 2:36 remaining in the Game.
If you look at the box Scorefor that loss, you’ll find that statistically, the Game was even. Northwestern simply got caught early, like a boxer who gets nailed in the first round and never fully recovers. Expect that “comeback” to continue into the 1st quarter of this Game against Northern Illinois as Northwestern looks to get out in front early.
As far as the Game itself, this Game has the makings of a good one. Northern Illinois was 12-2 a year ago and is no stranger to knocking off Big 10 teams. They beat Iowa to start their season last year, 30-27. They return 9 starters to a potent offense though will miss last years starting QB Jordan Lynch.
Northwestern was just 5-7 a year ago but 4 of those losses were by a touchdown or less and a 5th loss was by 10 to Ohio State. In other words, this Northwestern team was competitive and there are high hopes this year as they return 9 to the offense and 8 to the defense.
A slight lean towards Northwestern -5.5 but the real value here should be in the Wildcats in the early going as the focus this week will surely be to get off to a fast start and not let another one slip away. Last weeks Game was one they could have won, and they know it. Northwestern first quarter and Northwestern first half.