Illinois State at Wisconsin

Wisconsin won eight of its final nine games last year and finished with the top-rated overall defense in the country while allowing only 16 points per game. The Badgers capped their season with a 20-13 win over Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl, but coach Paul Chryst knew he had to make improvements on offense so he hired former Baltimore Ravens assistant coach Bobby Engram as the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Engram has been assigned to help QB Graham Mertz, who threw 11 interceptions in 2021. The star of the offense though is running back Braelon Allen, who averaged 6.8 yards and totaled 1,268 yards rushing with 12 touchdowns his freshman season. Illinois State comes off a 4-7 season that ended with a 28-0 loss at Western Michigan and the Redbirds went UNDER five of their final six games and they will be hard-pressed to score at all against the Badger defense. Illinois State averaged only 18.4 points last season. Illinois State will start former Minnesota QB Zack Annexstad, who threw nine TD passes with seven interceptions with the Golden Gophers in 2018 and then eventually left the program. The Badgers stayed UNDER five of their final nine games last year and will spend a lot of time running the ball. Take Wisconsin and the UNDER.