Saturday, November 7, 2020, Memorial Stadium, Bloomington, Indiana, noon. ET
Wolverines at Hoosiers Betting Preview: Wolverines (-3.5), Hoosiers (+3.5)
Michigan Wolverines Betting Preview
After an encouraging 49-24 win at Minnesota to start the season, the No. 23 Wolverines (1-1, 1-1 Big Ten) were not able to generate the same big plays the following week in their home opener and lost 27-24 to Michigan State.
But coach Jim Harbaugh remains upbeat heading to Bloomington despite speculation that has him on a coaching hot seat.
“I love coaching this team, the current team and the past teams we’ve had,” Harbaugh said. “We forge on. Obviously, coming off a tough loss, it was a gut-wrenching loss on Saturday. You can’t dwell on it. Just like any time we’ve had a win here, we’ve got to move on quickly to the next game.”
The Wolverines must do a better job finishing off drives after scoring just four times on 12 drives against the Spartans. Quarterback Joe Milton passed for an even 300 yards, but Michigan finished the game just seven of 17 on third-down conversations.
“Not enough points per drive,” Harbaugh said. “A lot of that was a lot of second and longs, second and 15s, second and 17s too many of those early in the game.”
Harbaugh said the unbeaten Hoosiers present problems on both sides of the ball.
“They do a lot of things really well, defensively multiple looks, offensively very good quarterback, very good receivers, really good running back,” he said. “Very physical team, fired up team, all the things we’ve seen year in year out from Indiana.”
Indiana Hoosiers Betting Preview
The No. 13 Hoosiers (2-0, 2-0 Big Ten) are off to their best start in the Big Ten since 1991, but coach Tom Allen is looking for his team to reach an even higher level heading into Saturday’s home matchup with Michigan.
“It’s about us playing our best football,” Allen said. “To me that’s the focus. We haven’t done that yet.”
The Hoosiers followed up their dramatic overtime win over Penn State in the opener with a methodical 37-21 win at Rutgers last week behind three touchdowns passing and one rushing from quarterback Michael Penix Jr. The Hoosiers also forced three turnovers for the second straight week, giving them six takeaways on the season.
“The defense gave us great field position,” Penix said. “I feel like it is a team effort. The defense causes turnovers whenever the opponent was backed up, and that gave us a short field. We took advantage of it.”
Penix has completed 36 of 62 passes for 408 yards and four touchdowns with 10 of his completions going to Whop Philyor for 173 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown came in overtime against Penn State and was followed by Penix’ dive for a 2-point conversion for the 36-35 win.
The Hoosiers haven’t beaten Michigan in 33 years but two of the last three meetings in Bloomington have gone to overtime. The Hoosiers fell 48-41 in double-overtime at Memorial Stadium in 2015 and 27-20 in overtime in 2017.
Wolverines at Hoosiers Betting Pick for November 7, 2020
Michigan has won the last 24 meetings with Indiana and 39 of the last 40. The Hoosiers’ last win in the series came in 1987 in Bloomington by a 14-10 score. Milton is 47 of 73 passing for 525 yards with a touchdown and interception for Michigan in two games, and Penis Jr. is 36 of 62 for 408 yards and four touchdowns against one interception for Indiana.
Wolverines at Hoosiers Betting Pick:
Wolverines 41, Indiana 38
Wolverines at Hoosiers Best Bet for November 7, 2020
Indiana has scored 73 points in wins over Penn State and Rutgers while Michigan has scored 73 in splitting games with Minnesota (49-24 win) and Michigan State (27-24 loss). Indiana’s defense has been fairly solid, even in giving up 35 points in the overtime win over the Nittany Lions. Indiana led 17-7 at halftime of that one.
Wolverines at Hoosiers Best Bet: OVER 53.5
