Iowa and Illinois are typically two of the better teams in the entire nation. Illinois will be coming into this one at 4-1 on the season and 1-1 in the BIG Ten.
They took down Wisconsin but failed to beat Indiana in the second game of the season, as that’s their lone Big 10 loss. On the other hand, Iowa will be coming into this one with an interesting season so far.
They’re currently 3-2 and 1-1 in the Big Ten after being Rutgers and losing to Michigan, 27-14. We must keep this in the back of our minds for the Iowa vs. Illinois prediction.
Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Illinois Fighting Illini
Iowa vs. Illinois Matchup Info
- Location: Memorial Stadium Champaign, Champaign IL
- Date and Time: Saturday, Oct 8, 7:30 PM
- How to Watch: BIG 10 Network
Illinois Fighting Illini
The Illinois Fighting Illini are an interesting team, to say the least. They decided to go out and add Syracuse transfer Tommy DeVito to lead their offense, and he’s played well to start the season.
He can be playing better than he has, but with them starting 4-1 and having one of their most impressive starts this season that they’ve had in quite some time, the Illinois Fighting Illini are going to take that.
Illinois Ability to Score Points
One thing to watch out for here in this game is that Illinois has been able to score points at a high level this season.
The reason we say this is because when we think about our Iowa vs. Illinois prediction, we have to factor in here that Iowa has one of the best defenses in the country.
Will Illinois be able to continue playing offense at this type of level, or is it just because of the Illinois football schedule that they’re playing as well?
Key Injuries
The Illinois Fighting Illini have yet to give an injury report for this game, but from what our knowledge is, there don’t seem to be many injuries on either side of the football right now that aren’t reported.
Betting Trends to Know
Illinois will be coming into this game with interesting betting trends. They’re currently 4-1 against the spread this season and have been insanely profitable.
On top of that, they’re currently 3-0 against the spread as a 3.5-point favorite or higher. Only two games have gone over out of their first five this season.
Iowa Hawkeyes
The Iowa Hawkeyes are one of the nation’s most questionable teams. The Iowa football odds are going to reflect that in this game, but we say this because their offense has struggled mightily to start the season, and that’s a reason for them starting 3-2.
NCAAF Standings
Iowa is typically a top 25 team in the NCAAF standings, so starting 3-2 this season is not what they were hoping for.
On top of what their offense hasn’t been able to do, they haven’t been able to do it against some below-average defenses as well. They only scored 7 points against South Dakota State this season and then 7 points against Iowa State.
Their offense has looked better, scoring 27 points in at least two of their last three games, but then it once again failed to get anything going on Saturday as they lost to the Michigan Wolverines and only scored 14 points at home.
Right now, their inability to get the ball into the end zone has been a major issue.
Key Injuries
Similar to the Illinois Fighting Illini, the Iowa Hawkeyes don’t have any injuries right now that seem to be important to the team or have been reported thus far.
Betting Trends to Know
Iowa Hawkeyes also has some interesting betting trends that we’re going to have to look at here. Iowa has posted two wins against the spread this season in five games.
They’re 0-1 against the spread this season as a 3.5-point underdog or more this season.
It’s interesting that they haven’t been an underdog one time and that they are going to be one in this game. Iowa has only had one game go over the total this season.
Iowa vs. Illinois Odds Breakdown
The odds coming into this game are going to be important for us because we need to know them for our Iowa vs. Illinois prediction.
Iowa is going to be coming into this one as the favorite, and the over/under is going to be slotted at 35.5, which is extremely low.
Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Illinois Fighting Illini Betting Picks
Moneyline
The best money line bet here would be taking Iowa to win this game outright. Although they haven’t played well this season, they still have more to show throughout the past few years than Illinois does, and that’s going to be the reason behind this pick.
Over/Under
The over/under is something that we’re going to have to think about here because it’s at such a low number. However, because this number seems way too low, we’re going to jump on the over in this one.
Spread
The best spread bet would also be taking Iowa with the + 3.5 points. The reason for saying this is because if we can get Iowa to win this game outright, they would also need to cover that 3.5 point spread, obviously.
It might be safer to take them with the +3.5, but we can get better odds if they can win this game outright.
Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Illinois Fighting Illini Score Prediction
We are finally here with our Iowa vs. Illinois prediction. The best bet here is going to be taking Iowa to win this game outright, as we can get decent odds for that plus money.
If Iowa can figure a few things out on the offensive side of the football as they have done in two of their past three games, we should feel confident that their defense is going to be able to do the trick and win this game.
NCAAF Pick: Iowa (+145)
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