The No. 25 Michigan Wolverines may be matched up with the Illinois Fighting Illini this weekend, but you have to wonder if the team from Ann Arbor isn\u2019t looking ahead at their game next week with the Michigan State Spartans. <\/p>\n
Illinois (2-4) vs No.25 Michigan Wolverines (3-2)<\/strong> ATS Matchup Stats<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Gambling Insight!<\/a> |\u00a0Buy Ray’s Picks!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Illini are just 2-4 on the year (0-2 in Big Ten play), so if the Wolverines are focused, they should come out and make this game an ugly one early.<\/p>\n The Illinois Fighting Illini are a team heading in the wrong direction. Having lost their first two conference matchups by a combined score of 66-21, the team\u2019s only two victories on the year come from MAC and Big South opponents. Coming off a 31-14 loss to the Wisconsin Badgers, the Illini are fighting for pride at this point in the season.<\/p>\n Illinois\u2019 biggest threat on offense is slowly becoming wideout Ryan Lankford. He has 25 catches, 362 yards and five touchdowns on the year\u2014the team as a whole has only 10 scores through the air. <\/p>\n The team\u2019s offense has struggled to move the ball and score all year long, so they\u2019re going to need their biggest performance to date to keep up with a Michigan team that averages 31.6 points per contest.<\/p>\n Their only real hope this weekend comes down to whether or not Denard Robinson plays well, but more specifically, whether or not the Wolverines are looking past an easy opponent toward their marquee matchup next weekend.<\/p>\n The Michigan Wolverines may be just 3-2 on the season, but they\u2019ve handled the teams they were supposed to beat with relative ease up to this point. This is a good trend going into this weekend, as the Illinois Fighting Illini are absolutely a team they are supposed to beat.<\/p>\n Michigan is back in the national rankings, and while they\u2019re not the team many thought they were going to be this season, they are still capable of big-time performances. The question is, are they trust-worthy when it comes to buying into such a large spread?<\/p>\n The wildcard week in and week out is senior quarterback Denard Robinson. The 6\u20190\u201d, 190-pound man behind center can make plays with both his arm and his legs, but his throwing game has been fairly inconsistent. The good news for Wolverines fans is that even if his passing game is off, he is as big of a threat\u2014if not bigger\u2014in the ground attack. He leads the team in rushing this season, and he can make plays out of broken scrambles on a regular basis. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Defensively, linebacker Desmond Morgan is going to be a big part of stopping the Illini spread attack. He has at least six tackles in every game this season, and he is a big part of the reason the Wolverines have been decent on defense.<\/p>\n But as important as defense is for Michigan, this game is going to come down to whether or not Illinois can contain Robinson. If they can, Michigan is going to struggle from start to finish. If they can\u2019t, this game shouldn\u2019t even be close.<\/p>\n Wolverines are 6-1-1 ATS in their last 8 games after accumulating less tha 170 yards passing in their previous game. O\/U Pick: Over 49.5<\/strong> Fighting Illini vs Wolverines NCAA Football Spread\/Handicapping The No. 25 Michigan Wolverines may be matched up with the Illinois Fighting Illini this weekend, but you have to wonder if the team from Ann Arbor isn\u2019t looking ahead at their game next week with the Michigan State Spartans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":34436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[39626,324,327,2955,8014,2953,766,769,3039],"class_list":["post-56031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-39626","tag-college-football-odds","tag-college-football-predictions","tag-fighting-illini-vs-wolverines","tag-illinois-fighting-illini-vs-michigan-wolverines","tag-illinois-vs-michigan","tag-ncaa-football-lines","tag-ncaa-football-picks","tag-week-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56031","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=56031"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56085,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56031\/revisions\/56085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Saturday October 13, 2012<\/strong>
\n Michigan Stadium, ANN ARBOR, MI<\/strong>
\n 3:30 PM ET<\/strong>
\n Moneyline: Michigan -2400, Illinois +1400 from JustBet.cx<\/a><\/strong>
\n Spread: Michigan -23.5<\/strong>
\n O\/U: 49.5<\/strong><\/p>\nIllinois Fighting Illini<\/h3>\n
CLICK TO GRAB OUR Expert CFB Picks for 2012 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
Michigan Wolverines<\/h3>\n
Trends<\/h3>\n
\nWolverines are 4-1 ATS vs. a team with a losing record.
\nWolverines are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games after allowing less than 100 yards rushing in their previous game.
\nOver is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings between both teams in Michigan.
\nOver is 5-1 in Wolverines last 6 vs. a team with a losing record.
\nOver is 4-0 in Fighting Illini last 4 games overall.<\/p>\n
\nScore Prediction: Michigan 40 \u2013 Illinois 10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"