Purdue @ Syracuse - Gambling Odds

Purdue (1-1) will travel on the road for the first time this season when they take on the Syracuse Orange (2-0).

With two dominating performances under their belt, Syracuse opens as 1.5 point favorites over Purdue, a bit of a surprise line. Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.

Purdue was able to recover from their first week loss to Penn State by dominating Indiana State 56-0, but a shut out against an FCS team isn’t enough to make Purdue favorites on the road against a Syracuse team that’s coming off back to back big wins against Louisville and UCONN.

In both games Syracuse’s offense was efficient and their defense relentless, giving up just 7 points to the Cardinals and 14 to the Huskies.

Garret Shrader in particular has been excellent. The Orange QB completed just over 50% of his passes last season, but this year, he’s near 80%. He’s thrown for 5 touchdowns and 0 turnovers. Shrader was a threat with his legs last year, running for over 700 yards and scoring 14 touchdowns on the ground. He already has 3 rushing touchdowns this season.

If Purdue is going to pull off the upset, their defensive line will continue to have to play solid, disciplined football and limit his ability to hurt them with his legs.

For Purdue, they’ll have to break through with their rushing attack. Starting running back King Doerue will be out. He’s not the only injured Boilermaker, with Broc Thompson permanently on the questionable list at WR, and fellow pass catcher Mershawn Rice a game time decision.

Not that Aiden O’Connell has had to look too far away from his lead receiver Charlie Jones this season. Jones leads Purdue with 21 catches for 286 yards on the season. Jones had 3 TD catches in one half against Indiana State.

But is Syracuse’s success an accurate assessment of their team and talent or did they play two of the worst teams in college football to start the season? Louisville isn’t the team they used to be and well, Purdue fans should be familiar with what UCONN brings to a football field after crushing them last year on the road.

Purdue failed their first tough test of the season, but their offense started clicking last week and Coach Brohm’s Boilers tends to get up for road games as long as the weather’s nice and dome’s guarantee good weather.

At the beginning of the year you wouldn’t have believed Purdue would be getting points in this game, so I’m taking them, and you should, too.