Big Ten: Illinois vs Iowa 10/8/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Illinois Fighting Illini and Iowa Hawkeyes square off Saturday in a week 6 Big Ten college football game from Illinois Memorial Stadium.

The Iowa Hawkeyes will look to rebound from a 27-14 loss to Michigan, falling to 3-2 on the year in the process. Spencer Petras has thrown for 770 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions on 55.2% passing while Kaleb Johnson and Leshon Williams each have 200+ rushing yards as well this season. Sam LaPorta leads Iowa’s receivers with 21 grabs for 178 yards and is one of four pass catchers with 100+ receiving yards for Iowa this season. On defense, Jack Campbell has a team-high 49 total tackles while Cooper DeJean has 3 interceptions and Iowa’s defense as a whole has 13 sacks this season.

The Illinois Fighting Illini will look to build on their current three-game win streak, sitting at 4-1 on the year after a 34-10 road win over Wisconsin last time out. Tommy DeVito’s thrown for 1.121 yards, 9 touchdowns and a pair of interceptions on 69.9% passing while Chase Brown’s rushed for 733 yards and 4 touchdowns. Pat Bryant leads the Illini with 313 receiving yards while Isaiah Williams has a team-high 25 grabs for 291 receiving yards so far this season. On defense, Keith Randolph Jr. has a team-high 27 total tackles while he, Gabe Jacas and Jer’Zhan Newton each have 3 sacks. Kendall Smith also has 3 interceptions so far this season.

Iowa is 7-2-1 ATS in their last 10 road games and 3-8-1 ATS in their last 12 October games while the under is 5-1 in their last 6 games overall. Illinois is 7-0-1 ATS in their last 8 games against a team with a winning record and 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games overall while the under is 9-1 in their last 10 games against a team with a winning record.

I get the case to be made either way in this one, but I’m leaning towards the under. This game has 17-13 written all over it in my opinion and whichever way you have it going, it would make sense and that’s why I’m not messing with a side here. These are two of the top 3 scoring defenses in the country and I think this is going to be a black and blue style of game with lots of hard hitting and smash mouth defense. Give me the under here.