Purdue at Michigan State

Written by Steve Janus

This Saturday the Michigan State Spartans will look to keep their Big Ten title hopes alive when they host the Purdue Boilermakers. The Spartans come into the game off a bye, and will look to keep rolling after beating Minnesota 31-8 in their last game. The Boilermakers kept it close against Michigan last week, but fell 27-16 for their fourth straight loss. The Spartans have won three straight in the series, including a 40-37 win last year. The oddsmakers don’t seem to think that trend will turn around this season, as the current college football odds have the Spartans favored by 19.5 points over the Boilermakers at home.

Purdue (4-6, 2-4 Big Ten): Even a little help from mother nature couldn’t help the Boilermakers get a win, as rain and win really slowed down the Michigan offense last week. The Wolverines turned it over five times, but the Boilermakers returned the favor, turning it over five times as well.

Purdue finished with just 256 yards of total offense, and were just 2 for 17 on third down conversions. Not exactly the performance you would expect against a Michigan defense that had allowed at least 34 points in their last five games.

The Boilermakers have had most of their success running the ball this season, but had just 102 yards last week against the Wolverines, and now go up against a Michigan State defense that is ranked 18th in the country, allowing just 119 yards a game. With no passing game to speak of, its hard to imagine where the Boilermakers are going to get their offense from this week.

Michigan State (9-1, 5-1 Big Ten): After getting rolled by Iowa 37-6 the previous week, the Spartans quickly got back on the right track with a solid performance against the Golden Gophers. Michigan State jumped out to a 21-0 halftime lead, and with the defense playing well, that was more than enough to take home an easy win.

The Spartans got a big day from running back Edwin Baker, who carried it 27 times for 179 yards and four touchdowns. Baker came into the game with just 117 yards and one touchdown in his last three games. The Boilermakers come in giving up nearly 150 yards a game on the ground, so expect Baker to get another heavy workload this week.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins really struggled to get in rhythm against the Golden Gophers, completing just 9 of 20 attempts for 131 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions. The Spartans likely won’t need him to do much this week, but I think it will be important to get him going before they go on the road to Penn State next week.

Looking at the Odds: With the Spartans coming off a bye and playing at home, this is the perfect situation to take the large spread against a bad team. Purdue has no offense at all, while the Spartans have scored 30 or more in all but two games this season. My final score prediction is Michigan State 38, Purdue 13.

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