Nebraska Cornhuskers at Northwestern Wildcats Betting Preview
The 2022 Big Ten schedule gets underway across the pond as the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Northwestern Wildcats open their season in Dublin, Ireland. The Cornhuskers handed out a 56-7 throttling when these two teams met last year in Lincoln, but there are some big changes for Nebraska this season.
Northwestern should have a nice contingent of fans at Aviva Stadium on Saturday due to Chicago’s big Irish population. Oddsmakers don’t seem to think that will have any impact on the game, though, making the Cornhuskers -11.5 favorites in what they think will be another high-scoring game like last season with a total of 50.5.
Replacing Martinez Won’t Be Easy
There are always questions heading into a season opener, but Nebraska has a huge one in trying to replace QB Adrian Martinez, who has transferred to Kansas State. Martinez was a Heisman candidate at times last season, and the dual-threat weapon accounted for 27 total TDs (14 pass, 13 rush).
Northwestern had no answer for Martinez in last season’s matchup as he had three rushing TDs in the first quarter alone to put the Cornhuskers up 21-0. Nebraska replaces Martinez with Casey Thompson, who played 12 games at Texas last year and had 24 TD passes but also doesn’t have anywhere close to the running ability as Martinez.
The Nebraska defense did a number on Northwestern in last season’s meeting, holding them to 37 rush yards on 26 attempts. The Wildcats did throw for over 250 yards, but a lot of that was garbage yardage after being down 35-7 by halftime.
Northwestern Defense Needs a Reboot
Both Nebraska and Northwestern lost their last six games after their October 2nd meeting, and that 49-point loss seemed to especially take the wind out of any hopes the Wildcats had for 2021. Giving up 56 points was uncharacteristic for a Northwestern team that went to the Big Ten championship game in 2020.
Last year was defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil’s first season on the job, but 2022 will be his last if that side of the ball doesn’t show improvement. The Wildcats also allowed 40+ points in Big Ten losses to Minnesota and then Illinois of all teams in the season finale.
What’s somewhat unfortunate for O’Neil and his Wildcats defense is that they don’t have a lot of film to prep for, as Nebraska has not only a new QB but also a new offensive coordinator. Not only that, the Northwestern defense almost has to be elite because not much is expected from their offense this season.
Nebraska vs. Northwestern Pick and Prediction
This game has some interesting intangibles starting with Northwestern being a fan favorite in Dublin as both sides of head coach Pat Fitzgerald’s family hail from Ireland. Then you take into account last year’s dominating performance that Nebraska had – but do you throw it out with this game being over 4,000 miles away from Lincoln?
Each squad was 3-9 last year finishing with six straight losses, but Nebraska was a much better team than that on paper, with their largest margin of defeat coming 26-17 against Ohio State. All eight of Nebraska’s other losses on the year were by one score.
Although the Cornhuskers were some hard-luck losers of close games in 2021 and handled Northwestern easily, expect some growing pains early in 2022 dealing with the loss of the dynamic talent in Martinez.
Pick: Northwestern +11.5
