The Heartland Trophy is on the line this afternoon when Wisconsin football travels to Iowa City. In a game that looks like it will have snowy conditions, two of the best defenses in the country go head-to-head.
Can the 2-2 Badgers get back on track before champions week? Will Iowa keep on rolling to their sixth straight win? Here is how the BadgersWire team sees this game going:
Ben: The Badgers enter Iowa City after two straight losses, going a complete opposite direction than the Hawkeyes who have won five straight. IF this game happened Week 4 the Badgers would be thought to have a massive advantage, but a lot has obviously changed as the season has progressed. It’s snowing right now in Iowa City so expect this game to be even more of a physical, run-first, hard-fought game than we would’ve seen other wise. Call me crazy, but I think the coaching staff realizes what Berger is at RB, Mertz (for the first time in a month) plays a solid football game and the Badgers edge out the Hawkeyes.
Wisconsin 23 Iowa 21
Wisconsin -1.5, OVER 41.5 points
Asher: This is going to be a Big Ten football game. A very, very Big Ten football game, and yes that is an adjective. Snow, great defenses, quarterback’s that define the word inconsistency throughout this season, and rivals. Maybe because there is no place to go but up, I do think Wisconsin’s offense uses a few big plays from true freshman RB Jalen Berger to open things up for Graham Mertz. If Wisconsin can truly stuff the run, as they have this entire year, Iowa is forced to rely on the so far unreliable arm of Spencer Petras. This is going to be a grind, but Wisconsin gets back to winning ways and takes home the brass bull.
Wisconsin 20 Iowa 17
Wisconsin -1.5, UNDER 41.5 points