Saturday Blitz Vegas Big Ten Predictions Week 7
No. 8 Michigan State Spartans at Purdue Boilermakers
Line: Michigan State by 21
The Michigan State Spartans appear to be back in business after a huge win against Nebraska. But don’t celebrate too soon. The defense had another late-game collapse against a run offense, just like it did against Oregon earlier in the year. The difference was it had a comfortable enough lead to overcome that. Still, the team needs to play consistent for four quarters if we are going to take them seriously. Against a Purdue team that knows how to limit possessions, they can’t go into major funks without scoring or being able to get stops at certain points. That could be enough for them to suffer a major upset loss.
Meanwhile, Purdue, under second-year head coach Darrell Hazell, has shown dramatic improvement. After a big win against Illinois last week, the defense is finally showing itself to be what Hazell should have expected. And the offense is developing a strong running game with Akeem Hunt and Raheem Mostert. Those two guys together will be the key to Saturday’s game if they can make sure to keep the Boilermakers on the field. Doing that will shorten the number of Michigan State drives and force their defense to develop some depth. That may be hard, and it could give Purdue an upset win.
Prediction
Connor Cook and the Michigan State offense is not going to let Purdue sneak up on them. They’ll build a comfortable enough lead that Mark Dantonio will get his back-ups in to hopefully develop the depth on his defense. That’s obviously a huge problem. But it won’t be enough to come close to costing Michigan State the game.
Michigan State: 38 Purdue: 14