Penn State Nittany Lions vs. Purdue Boilermakers Predictions, Picks, Odds, and NCAA Football Week Nine Betting Preview – October 29, 2016

Penn State Nittany Lions vs. Purdue Boilermakers Betting Preview

Where: Ross-Ade Stadium, West Lafayette, IN

When: Saturday, October 29, 12:00 PM ET

Line: Penn State Nittany Lions (-13) at Purdue Boilermakers (+13); total: 56.5 – view all NCAA Football odds and lines

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Betting on the Penn State Nittany Lions (-13)

Happy Valley definitely had a reason to rejoice this Saturday, as their now No. 24 Penn State Nittany Lions pulled off a massive upset over the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday, 24-21. The team won the game by way of a blocked Ohio State field goal, which was then returned for a touchdown with a little over five minutes left in the final quarter.

And with that victory, Penn State earned its first Top-25 ranking since 2011. But thank heavens for that timely special teams play indeed because there are still quite a lot of issues that the team has to fix before being truly considered as a contender in the Big Ten.

Quarterback Trace McSorley was very inefficient, connecting on just 8 of his 23 passes for 154 yards and a score. Overall, the Nittany Lions mustered up just 276 offensive yards, their second-lowest output this season. Their defense was also fortunate to surrender just 21 points to the Buckeyes as it still gave up 413 yards that afternoon.

On the bright side, sophomore running back Saquon Barkley kept his gears a-turning as he finished with 99 rushing yards on just 12 carries in that game (an average of 8.3 yards per carry). Barkley now has 301 yards on the ground over the last couple of games and has eight rushing TDs for the season. He must take advantage of Purdue’s leaky defense and find the end zone this time around as to not lean heavily on McSorley and the team’s iffy passing game.

Recent results, though, indicate that the Nittany Lions will further improve their 5-2 record for the season this weekend against Penn State, as they’ve won their last seven meetings against their conference rivals (4-2-1 ATS).

Betting on the Purdue Boilermakers (+13)

Like Penn State, the Purdue Boilermakers were brewing up an upset of their own this past week. However, they ultimately tanked down the stretch and lost to the No. 7 Nebraska Cornhuskers, 27-10. The Boilermakers actually led that game 14-10 by halftime, but then gave up 17 unanswered points in the second half.

The team wasted a solid outing from David Blough, who had 209 passing yards and two touchdowns to just one interception. Mind you that second-year QB has been quite an enigma under center this season; he has 14 passing TDs, but he’s also been picked off 11 times already.

Blough needs to be at his utmost best this Saturday, as he won’t get much help from his team’s running game, which tallied a dismal 22 rushing yards on 22 carries versus Ohio State. So yes, the Boilermakers are in the top 20 in the nation when it comes to the passing game (306 yards per game), but their ground attack definitely hurts their chances of having a balanced offense (just 120.3 rushing yards – 116th in the nation).

Don’t count on the defense to bail the team out, either. Purdue is currently last in the Big Ten by surrendering 441 yards per game, as well as a whopping 33.3 points per contest (102nd in the FBS).

It seems that the folks from West Lafayette are in for another letdown this Saturday, all right, as their Boilers are just 3-7 in their last 10 home games (2-7-1).

Writer’s Prediction

The Nittany Lions (-13) fend off the Boilermakers with a sound 31-16 victory.

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