Iowa Hawkeyes could get caught looking past Northwestern

It's been a dream season for the Hawkyes so far, but Iowa squad could get caught dreaming about their upcoming match at Ohio State this week vs. the Wildcats.

Northwestern will make their annual pilgrimage to Iowa City to the face the host Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday afternoon.

Iowa is riding high in the national spotlight ranked higher than any time in their history while the Cats are 5-4 SU on the year and hoping to make themselves bowl eligible.

This is a revenge game for Iowa; they were upset 22-17 as an 8-point favorite last season by this Wildcats team. The Hawkeyes certainly want to defeat the Cats and avenge last seasons’ upset loss but they may get caught looking ahead as they have the biggest game of the year and possibly in the career of Head Coach Kirk Ferentz on deck at the “Shoe” versus Ohio State next week.

These are college kids and all the national press the Hawkeyes have been receiving for their top-5 ranking may have them believing they don’t have to fear this NW team. It’s hard not to listen when the sports media tells you how great you are and if this leads to complacency in the Hawkeyes players they may well wake up on Sunday with another game to avenge in 2010.

The visitor has three straight upsets in this series as Iowa has dropped back-to-back home games to Northwestern as an 8-point favorite last year and a 20-point favorite back in 2006. The underdog is 9-2 against the spread and has four straight upset victories.

Iowa is 1-5 ATS as double-digit conference favorites, 0-4 ATS in conference home games when coming off a home affair in their last outing and 1-5 ATS in the second of back-to-back conference home games. The Cats are a perfect 6-0 ATS on the road and 3-1 ATS the last four in this series.

Last week versus Indiana the Hawkeyes were down 21-7 at the half and got a little home cooking from the zebras to help pull out a 42-24 win. The referees called back a Hoosiers touchdown that was certainly a questionable call and Indiana also missed a 28-yard field goal.  Either of those scores could have possibly helped make a different outcome in last week’s game.

We will back the Wildcats here as this line is inflated and we believe the Iowa players may have begun to believe their own press and could very well be looking ahead to their matchup with the other “Eyes” next week. Take the double-digits in Iowa City on Saturday.

Projected Final Score: Wildcats-22 Hawkeyes-28

Free Pick: Northwestern +17½