Saturday, October 18, 2008

FOOTBALL: 2008 Week Eight - Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Wisconsin Badgers Preview

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/7/7c/Iowa_Hawkeyes_Logo.svg.png VS. 
GAME INFO: Sat., Oct. 18th, 2008 - 11:03 AM CST - Kinnick Stadium - Iowa City, IA
IOWA: 4-3 (1-2) NR / WISCONSIN: 3-3 (0-3) NR

TV COVERAGE: BTN (HD) will televise the game to a national cable audience. Mark Neely, Chris Martin, Glen Mason and Anthony Herron will call the action.
DEPTH CHART AND GAME NOTES: HERE
IOWA'S GAMEDAY CENTRAL : VIEW HERE

LINE: Iowa is a 4 point favorite at home.




The battle for the Heartland Trophy has finally arrived.  Posts on message boards at the beginning of the season speculated the remote possibility of both these teams coming into the ballgame with perfect (or near perfect) records, which could then spawn College GameDay to come back to Iowa City... not the case, not even close.  Wisconsin has looked borderline awful the past few weeks.  While I think the Penn State blowout was an anamoly, this is not the same Badger team of the last decade.  Wisconsin hasn't scored more than 17 points in 3 of the last 4 games.  Don't look for that to change in today's game.  New QB for Wisconsin, as Beilema has benched Evridge.

So that puts the burdened squarely on Iowa's offense (and specifically Ricky Stanzi) to perform.  Shonn Greene is going to get his.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Greene get 30+ carries and get close to the 200 yard mark.  However, if Stanzi continues to make his trademark mistakes (fumbled snaps, INTs in the red zone, etc...) this game is going to remain close and Wisconsin can definitely leave Iowa City with the win.  I have faith in Ricky today, and in the offense in general (and even, gasp, Ken O'Keefe).

I see Iowa getting to .500 in conference after this game.  With an Iowa victory, the all-time series will tied once again, as well.  Iowa's defense will hold the Badgers down all day, and the offense will do enough to pull out the victory.

Offensive Player of the Game: Shonn Greene (Eigth consecutive week for obvious reasons)
Defensive Player of the Game: Amari Speivey (Just because he is the team leader in solo tackles and with Iowa's defensive scheme, they'll need their CBs to tackle today.  He'll get a pick, as well.)



PREDICTION:
Iowa - 20
Wisconsin - 16

No comments:

Post a Comment