The Purdue Boilermakers and Michigan Wolverines meet Saturday in the college football Big Ten Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Purdue Boilermakers have won 3 straight games. The Michigan Wolverines look to win 13 games for the first time in school history.
The Purdue Boilermakers have won 4 of their last 5 non-home games. Aidan O’Connell is completing 63.7 percent of his passes for 3,124 yards, 22 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Charlie Jones and Payne Durham have combined for 1,749 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns, while TJ Sheffield has 35 receptions. The Purdue Boilermakers ground game is averaging 126.6 yards per contest, and Devin Mockobee leads the way with 849 yards and 8 touchdowns. Defensively, Purdue is allowing 23.1 points and 347 yards per game. Sanoussi Kane leads the Purdue Boilermakers with 63 tackles, Jack Sullivan has 5.5 sacks and Cam Allen has 3 interceptions.
The Michigan Wolverines have won 4 straight non-home games. J.J. McCarthy is completing 65.3 percent of his passes for 2,215 yards, 17 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Ronnie Bell and Cornelius Johnson have combined for 1,147 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns, while Luke Schoonmaker has 31 receptions. The Michigan Wolverines ground game is averaging 244.7 yards per contest, and Blake Corum leads the way with 1,463 yards and 18 touchdowns. Defensively, Michigan is allowing 12.7 points and 262.3 yards per game. Junior Colson leads the Michigan Wolverines with 80 tackles, Mike Morris has 7 sacks and Rod Moore has 3 interceptions.
The Boilermakers are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 neutral site games and 5-1 ATS vs. a team with a winning record. The Wolverines are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 neutral site games and 18-7-1 ATS in their last 26 games overall. The over is 5-1 in Boilermakers last 6 games in December. The under is 9-4 in Wolverines last 13 games overall. The Boilermakers are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 meetings in Michigan. The favorite is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 meetings.
There’s a possible letdown factor here for Michigan after upsetting Ohio State and kind of raising the ceiling for this season out of nowhere. However, this Michigan defense is arguably the best in the country and that ground game seems to be getting stronger by the week. Purdue doesn’t do anything particularly well despite being decent defensively, and the lack of playmakers on offense has me questioning how this team will score. It’s a lot of points of a conference title game, but Michigan likely just ends up bullying Purdue. I’ll lay the points.