When the Nebraska Cornhuskers went into Wisconsin last season, they suffered a 48-7 loss against the then-ranked seventh team in the nation. This year\u2019s Badgers have been good\u2014not great\u2014but the biggest question heading into week five\u2019s matchup has to be, will starting running back Monte Ball be in or out? <\/p>\n
Wisconsin Badgers (3-1) vs No. 25 Nebraska Cornhuskers (3-1)<\/strong> ATS Matchup Stats<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Gambling Insight!<\/a> |\u00a0Buy Ray’s Picks!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Wisconsin Badgers are 3-1 on the season, and while they came up with a 37-26 victory against UTEP last week, they suffered a big-time loss when Monte Ball went out with his second head injury in less than two months\u2014his first was suffered in an assault on campus. Ball was a Heisman hopeful both last season and early in 2012, but even if he can\u2019t go on Saturday, the team has reliable backs who can step in and take his place.<\/p>\n Melvin Gordon and James White made themselves present last week rushing for 187 yards and three touchdowns between the two of them (23 combines carries).<\/p>\n Quarterback Danny O\u2019Brien has seemingly lost his starting gig\u2014at least for the time being\u2014and has been replaced by freshman Joel Stave. Stave played well in his first-ever start last week, but with the position in flux, you have to wonder what kind of performance will come against Nebraska on Saturday.<\/p>\n Nebraska\u2019s running game has been outstanding early this season. The team has 14 scores on the ground from five different players, but the star of the backfield has been Ameer Abdullah with 416 yards and five touchdowns on 69 carries. The Cornhuskers are averaging 48.5 points per game (8th in the country), and they\u2019re allowing just 19.0 (40th).<\/p>\n Nebraska isn\u2019t a one-trick pony, though, as their passing game has been good up to this point as well. The team only ranks 66th in the country for passing yards (224.3 per game), but their quarterback, Taylor Martinez, ranks first by quite a bit in Big Ten quarterback rating (180.9). He has completed 70.7 percent of his passes, has thrown only one interception and has proven to be a true dual-threat quarterback so far this season.<\/p>\n The one loss that the Cornhuskers endured this season was a telling one against the 22nd-ranked UCLA Bruins. Nebraska allowed 653 yards in the matchup (309 through the air and 344 on the ground), so if the Badgers can learn from the blueprint that UCLA set, they\u2019ll stand a chance this weekend. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Both teams boast the same record heading into the conference opener, but the offensive prowess of the Cornhuskers will make it difficult for Wisconsin to start off interleague play on the right foot. The Badgers have allowed just 17.8 points per game thus far, but they\u2019ve yet to play a team with Nebraska\u2019s offensive abilities.<\/p>\n If the Badgers can slow down the play of Martinez\u2014in both the passing and the rushing games\u2014they\u2019ll stand a chance. If Monte Ball returns Saturday, this could be a closer matchup than the spread indicates; but if he\u2019s out, this team could struggle to keep up.<\/p>\n O\/U Pick: Over 51<\/strong> Badgers vs Cornhuskers NCAA Football Spread\/Handicapping When the Nebraska Cornhuskers went into Wisconsin last season, they suffered a 48-7 loss against the then-ranked seventh team in the nation. This year\u2019s Badgers have been good\u2014not great\u2014but the biggest question heading into week five\u2019s matchup has to be, will starting running back Monte Ball be in or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":29246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[39626,53235,324,327,766,769,2364,56589,53236],"class_list":["post-55486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-39626","tag-badgers-vs-cornhuskers","tag-college-football-odds","tag-college-football-predictions","tag-ncaa-football-lines","tag-ncaa-football-picks","tag-week-5","tag-wisconsin-badgers-vs-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-wisconsin-vs-nebraska"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55486"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55521,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55486\/revisions\/55521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Saturday September 29, 2012<\/strong>
\n Memorial Stadium, Lincoln NE<\/strong>
\n 8:00 PM ET<\/strong>
\n Moneyline: OFF from GTBets.eu<\/a><\/strong>
\n Spread: Nebraska -12 GTBets.eu<\/strong>
\n O\/U: 51<\/strong><\/p>\nWisconsin Badgers<\/h3>\n
CLICK TO GRAB OUR Expert CFB Picks for 2012 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
Nebraska Cornhuskers<\/h3>\n
Trends<\/h3>\n
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\nScore Prediction: Nebraska 35 \u2013 Wisconsin 21<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"