Purdue vs. Iowa point spread: Picking Boilermakers vs. Hawkeyes

This year, the Big Ten West looks wide open with a trip to Indianapolis on the line. That adds to the stakes of Saturday’s Purdue vs. Iowa matchup, which sees the Hawkeyes enter as 1.5-point favorites, according to FanDuel.

The over-under for that game was also 39.5 as of Wednesday afternoon. Considering Iowa is without starting quarterback Cade McNamara, the under looks like a good play once again, according to SiriusXM’s Geoff Schwartz.

Schwartz joined On3’s Andy Staples on Andy Staples On3 and, by rule, had to pick the over-under for the game as Iowa’s “Drive for 325” continues. He made it clear he’d take the under, and there wasn’t much hesitation.

“I just bet the under,” Schwartz said. “This is the one time in life, like, I root for bad football. I want to see the funniest thing happen on offense in these games. And the funniest thing to happen, again, is to score zero points. The continued ineptitude on offense, I kind of cheer for it now. Like, you have to cheer for it. … You gotta cheer for it. You just have to. Because the idea that their coach just needs to get to 25 points a game to get a bonus is ridiculous.”

Schwartz, of course, is referring to the clause in offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s contract that requires 25 points per game. The Iowa offense’s struggles are why Staples said guest pickers have to pick the over-under for Hawkeyes games.

That said, he was surprised to see Iowa is only a 1.5-point favorite. Purdue has struggled this year, as well, under new coach Ryan Walters. A possible reason for Vegas’ optimism about the Boilermakers is Walters’ success last year as the defensive coordinator at Illinois, which Purdue beat last week.

“I can’t believe they’re only a 1.5-point favorite in this game. Because Purdue’s not good,” Staples said. “Purdue beat Illinois, which is also not good. I think what people are looking at is when Ryan Walters was the Illinois defensive coordinator last year — he’s now Purdue’s head coach — he just destroyed Iowa’s office. So, he may do that again.

“He doesn’t have Johnny Newton and Keith Randolph like he did last year, so maybe you don’t have the horses to do that. And then, maybe you get Cooper DeJean doing a little Travis Hunter, playing a little offense, too.”

Kickoff for Saturday’s Iowa-Penn State game is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on Peacock.