Penn State at Indiana Line

Written by Steve Janus

This Saturday the Penn State Nittany Lions will open up Big Ten play on the road against the Indiana Hoosiers. The Nittany Lions are coming off an easy 34-6 win over Eastern Michigan to move to 3-1. The Hoosiers continued to struggle early, falling to 1-3 with a 21-24 loss at North Texas. Penn State is a perfect 14-0 against Indiana, winning by an average of 17 points per game.

The week 5 college football odds currently have Penn State listed as a 16-point favorite over Indiana with the total set at 47.

Penn State:

While the Nittany Lions struggled had to fight for a 14-10 win at Temple, the only blemish on the schedule is a 11-27 loss at home against currently No. 2 Alabama. Penn State hasn’t exactly had a ton of success on offense, but the defense has been playing extremely well.

Defensively the Nittany Lions are allowing just 12.5 ppg. They rank 29th in the country giving up just 100.8 yards a game on the ground, and are 7th against the pass allowing just 148.3 on average. I’m not saying the pass defense isn’t strong, but they have yet to play a team that really thrives on throwing the football.

If Penn State is going to surprise and compete for a Big Ten title this season, they have to get better on the offensive side of the ball. They have the 87th ranked offense, averaging just 346.5 total yards a game.

One of the problems could be the Nittany Lions don’t have stability at the quarterback position. Matthew McGloin and Rob Bolden continue to split snaps, despite McGloin putting up much better numbers. McGloin has completed 63% of his passes for 421 yards and three scores, while Bolden is hitting just 46.6% with one touchdown to three interceptions.

The player that opposing defenses have to pay attention to is running back Silas Redd. The sophomore leads the team with 303 yards and four touchdowns. While the numbers aren’t great, I was really impressed with Redd’s 65 yards and a touchdown against Alabama.

Indiana:

Not a lot has went right for the Hoosiers in 2011. The only win on the schedule is a 38-21 beating of South Carolina State. The three losses have came by a combined nine points, but that isn’t really saying a lot when you consider they have came against the likes of Ball State, Virginia, and North Texas.

The Hoosiers have had some success offensively, but again you have to wonder how much of that is due to the competition. Starting quarterback Edward Wright-Baker has completed 62% of his passes for 925 yards with four touchdowns to just two interceptions. Wright-Backer has really done a nice job spreading the ball around to all his receivers. Four different players have at last 12 catches for 140 yards.

The running game has been pretty effective early as well. D’Angelo Roberts and Matt Perez have combined for 319 yards and five touchdowns. Roberts leads the way with 187, while Perez has a team-best four scores.

Defensively this team has not been good. They have been extremely poor against the run, giving up 189 yards a game. The pass defense is allowing just 197 yards, but a lot of that is a result of teams simply not having to pass to move the ball. Penn State had 496 yards of total offense against the Hoosiers last season, and will be their toughest challenge to date.

Betting Trends:

Penn State is 6-0-1 ATS in their last 7 games as a road favorite of 10.5 or greater.

Indiana is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games as a home underdog.

Be sure to check out what Steve Janus has picked to win in week 5 of college football. The expert college football handicapper cashed in a 6-1 premium card in week 4!

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