The Indiana Hoosiers have been a machine so far this year. With wins of 52-16, 55-0 and 38-0, the Hoosiers have not really been challenged. This Friday, Big Ten play starts and IU will be hosting Northwestern. The Wildcats have been pretty good as well, but Indiana is still expected to cruise to victory. As 20.5-point favorites, a real challenge may still be missing.

Whenever a team is favored by three touchdowns, the outcome isn't really in question. How the game plays out and what the final score looks like, that's up for discussion. With Indiana expected to win by around 21 points, no one is giving Northwestern much of a chance. With Curt Cignetti at the helm, blowout wins have become commonplace in Bloomington. 

Northwestern is just 2-0 after an early-season bye but they've been quite impressive. They defeated South Dakota State 34-18 in Week 1 and then absolutely rolled the Deion Sanders-led Colorado Buffaloes by a score of 41-7 last week. Indiana is certainly a major step up in competition, but the Wildcats are no pushover. Quarterback Aidan Chiles looks like a new player compared to when he was at Michigan State and he's been good through two games. 

For Indiana, it's not quite a rerun this week, but the Hoosiers are viewed as the superior team. Everyone will be watching to see if quarterback Josh Hoover can continue his hot streak. He's been extremely efficient tossing 10 touchdown passes against no interceptions. He's completing over 70% of his passes and has not lost a fumble either. With numbers like that, it might not matter who he plays.

Northwestern should be able to come in and play fast and free. They certainly don't want to fall to 0-1 in conference, but no one is expecting them to knock off IU inside Memorial Stadium. Whatever works for Northwestern on Saturday against a defense like Indiana's should give the Wildcats a lot of confidence and momentum moving into the rest of the conference slate. 

Indiana certainly has more talent than Northwestern, but the gap isn't as large as its been over the past three weeks. How much of a difference will that make and what will Cignetti do to find success against a team a little more prepared for battle? 

For the fourth week in a row, Indiana is the more talented team and is expected to win pretty easily. Sometimes that same old, boring expectation can bite a team, but we simply haven't seen that with Curt Cignetti. Whenever he's on the sidelines, he's expected to be better prepared and completely locked in with a game plan designed to exploit the opponent on both sides of the ball. 

Northwestern isn't specifically good against the run or the pass, but they struggle more against the ground game. Expect Turbo Richard and Lee Beebe Jr. to have success, which will open up the play action game and deep shots to Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh. It might not be quite as lopsided this week, but Indiana has everything it takes to win this game going away.

Indiana 41, Northwestern 16