{"id":19326,"date":"2021-10-08T16:22:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T16:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=19326"},"modified":"2021-10-08T16:22:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T16:22:10","slug":"college-football-preview-iowa-hawkeyes-vs-penn-state-nittany-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/ncaaf\/college-football-preview-iowa-hawkeyes-vs-penn-state-nittany-lions\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Preview \u2013 Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Penn State Nittany Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The most important game of the week will pit the Iowa Hawkeyes against the Penn State Nittany Lions. Both these Big Ten teams are in the top four of the current AP Poll, and the winner will become the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/football\/ncaa\">favorite to win the conference<\/a>. Penn State has won six of the last seven games in this series, but Iowa hammered the Nittany Lions by 20 points in Happy Valley last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Best Picks For Saturday&#039;s Huge Big Ten Matchup | Penn State vs Iowa College Football Picks\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2mZfxZq-l-s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Iowa will welcome Penn State to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City on Saturday, October 9, 2021, at 4 p.m. ET on FOX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>College Football Betting Odds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Penn State +1.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Iowa -1.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Total 41<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hawkeyes were very impressive in their first two games. Iowa hammered Indiana in its season opener and then bested Iowa State in Ames. They knocked off Kent State and Colorado State too before dismantling Maryland in College Park last Friday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Penn State was fortunate to beat Wisconsin in its season opener and had to hang on late to get past Auburn. The Nittany Lions are 5-0 though, and they are proving that 2020 was a fluke. They are coming off a 24-0 shutout of Indiana last week, and they are hoping to avenge last year\u2019s loss to Iowa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When Iowa Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This offense hasn\u2019t needed to do much to win games. Spencer Petras has been the definition of a game manager at quarterback. He is completing 62% of his passes for 943 yards with seven touchdowns and an interception. Tight end Sam LaPorta has been his top target, continuing an Iowa tradition that has seen tight ends thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tyler Goodson is averaging 4.3 YPC as the top running back in this offense. Goodson was seen as a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate at the start of the year, but his only big game came against Kent State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Nittany Lions rank second in scoring defense, allowing 10.8 PPG. This secondary has been superb, allowing a scant 5.1 YPA, and the front seven has been solid too. Opponents are scoring on less than half their red zone possessions against Penn State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When Penn State Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sean Clifford is having his best year yet with the Nittany Lions. Clifford is completing 67.3% of his passes for 1,336 yards with 11 touchdowns and three interceptions. The offensive line has only allowed him to be sacked seven times, but they will be tested on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Nittany Lions have not had much success running the ball. They are averaging just 3.8 YPC, so they will turn to the air a lot. Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington have had a lot of success, and Dotson could be a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iowa has a superb defense. The Hawkeyes rank third in scoring defense and sixth in total defense. They have bottled up opponents\u2019 run games, but their real strength has been their ability to force quarterbacks to make mistakes. They lead the nation in turnover margin and takeaways, as they have 12 interceptions through five games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Penn State has a more competent offense, and a lot of Iowa\u2019s success is predicated on forcing turnovers. The Nittany Lions will proceed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/football\/ncaa\">pull off the slight upset<\/a> as Clifford won\u2019t make too many mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow our <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/betonline_ag\"><em>Twitter account<\/em><\/a><em> for the latest sports news and wagering odds, and come to<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>our <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/betonline_ag\/\"><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><em> for more useful betting info too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most important game of the week will pit the Iowa Hawkeyes against the Penn State Nittany Lions. Both these&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":12937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19336,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326\/revisions\/19336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}