Pinned
Link copied
The Northwestern Wildcats are 5-1 against the Purdue Boilermakers since November of 2015, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Saturday. Northwestern and Purdue will face off in a Big Ten battle at noon ET at Wrigley Field. Both of these teams will be looking for a pick-me-up after considerable defeats in their previous games.
The Wildcats found themselves the reluctant recipients of an unfortunate 35-7 punch to the gut against the Wisconsin Badgers last week. Northwestern was in a tough position by the half, with the score already sitting at 21 to nothing. A silver lining for them was the play of WR Stephon Robinson Jr., who caught five passes for 80 yards.
Meanwhile, Purdue suffered a grim 59-31 defeat to the Ohio State Buckeyes last week. Purdue was down 52-31 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from. RB King Doerue had a memorable game, but not in the way you want to be remembered: he fumbled the ball once with only 26 yards rushing.
The Wildcats are the clear underdogs, so they're hoping it's the size of the fight that determines this one. Those betting on them against the spread shouldn't have high expectations for them since the team is 1-4 ATS when expected to lose.
Northwestern is now 3-7 while the Boilermakers sit at 6-4. Two numbers to keep in mind before kickoff: Northwestern is stumbling into the game with the 225th most rushing yards allowed per game in the nation, having given up 228.9 on average. Purdue has experienced some struggles of their own as they are 227th worst in the nation in rushing yards per game, with only 78.5 on average. It's possible one of these Achilles' heels will wind up tripping the losing team up.
