Holy insane finish week, Batman! Michigan State’s absurd final play for a win and Rutger’s furious comeback over Indiana made this one of the crazier weekends in recent Big Ten memory. Elsewhere, Northwestern and Minnesota’s seasons took nasty turns in lopsided home losses and Wisconsin kept its hopes for Indianapolis alive with a solid, if not flashy, victory over awful Purdue. Ohio State also looked like the #1 ranked team for the first time a in a while with a blowout of Penn State.
Team of the Week: Ohio State – A+ – Outside Saquon Barkley getting loose a few times, the Buckeye defense dominated this game. They held NFL-bound Christian Hackenberg to a faltering 7/13, 120 yards and a score…good enough for a 6.1 QBR. Never good when you’re under 10…or 20…or 40…really anything under 50 ain’t hot. Offensively J.T. Barrett reintroduced himself to Urban Meyer. Something most people had been clamoring for now seems like a reality as coach Meyer has finally announced Barrett as the starter. Cardale Jones is an insane physical specimen and a great athlete, but I’m not sure his talents are best suited for quarterback play in a college offense. Let’s see if the Bucks start routing opponents now that they seem to have the qb situation figured out at Penn State’s expense.
Illinois – Idle
Indiana – F – Look, I want to give this team a C or a D because the offense was so good, but when you give up a 25 point lead and 22 points in the fourth quarter to go along with 3 fourth quarter turnovers, you don’t get a pass because you put up points in the first 3 quarters. This was a disheartening loss for the Hoosiers. They started out 4-0, played OSU great, gave up the PSU game due to injuries but between RU, Maryland and Purdue a bowl seemed like a lock. With this choke job, anything is possible. This defense is not reliable enough to guarantee the Hoosiers get a post season berth. Shame because Kevin Wilson has really improved this team’s talent, especially on offense.
Iowa – A+ – 40-10 on the road against a Northwestern team with everything to play for, hmm. Kinda speaks for itself. Obviously the offensive line paved the way to the victory as the Hawks racked up 294 rushing yards, 204 of them from third stringer Akrum Wadley. Defensively, the Hawks made the day extremely long for the Wildcats who did nothing after the half. Great day for the Hawks.
Maryland – Idle
Michigan – Incomplete – With 10 seconds remaining in the test, the Wolverines stood up and burned down the classroom. Their work was not gradable so academic records will list it as an incomplete.
Michigan State – B+ – This is a tough game because Michigan used special teams to get points off field goals and pin MSU deep. Of course at the end special team’s doomed them. Conversely, MSU played pretty strong defense and Connor Cook shredded Michigan, yet it took a bonkers play for all that hard work to pay off. I think the better team won, but it is easily debatable. What craziness coming from Ann Arbor.
Minnesota – F – Hey remember when I said if UM wins 9 games and gets to Indianapolis it will be because their defense lives up to such lofty expectations and turns out to be one of the best in the league and up there nationally? Um, yeah, that unit took the Nebraska game off. They gave up nearly 500 yards of offense, 9 yards a carry to Terrell Newby and were absolutely embarrassed by Tommy Armstrong Jr. flinging the ball all over TCF Bank stadium. Worse, Minnesota’s bread and butter offensively produced 65 yards on 26 carries, a terrible 2.5 yards per carry! Mitch Leidner gave it the old college try to match passes with Armstrong but that isn’t is strength. At 4-3 (1-2) with Michigan, at OSU, at Iowa, improved Illinois and Wisconsin remaining on the slate it is a serious question if this preseason contender can even make a bowl.
Nebraska – A – Well you just read what I said about the Gophers so flip it for the Huskers. Armstrong and Newby were absolutely fantastic. Sure the fourth quarter made things look a tad better cosmetically with 11 Gopher points but the game was well in hand by that point. Probably too little too late to get back in the discussion for the west, but NU finally lived up to their talent and won a game in impressive fashion.
Northwestern – F – 78-10 are their last two league games. This offense cannot dig out of holes, it isn’t built that way. With the defense floundering, there is very little hope NU can correct this season. They travel to Lincoln next in what appears like yet another loss thanks to NU’s high octane offense. This could be 2013 all over again folks, the margin of error when your offense is as weak as the Wildcat’s puts so much stress on the defense and it may be breaking now that they’re in league play.
Penn State – F – Passing issues crept up again against top-tier opponents. The OL created holes for the running game so we can’t put it all on them but did give-up 5 sacks. Hackenberg had 9.2 per attempt and zero INTs so it wasn’t like he was insanely erratic so we can’t put it all on him either. Chris Godwin had a nice game catching the ball so it isn’t fully on that unit, either. The fact is that neither the line, qb or wr corp is playing well enough as a whole team and that is on the coaching and this is why Franklin’s seat is getting warm.
Purdue – F – 24-7 doesn’t look horrible, right? Well look at the other stats…191 yards versus 418. 22:14 top versus 37:46, 4/13 on third versus 7/14, 4.9 yards per pass versus 7.9. Bottom line is Purdue was embarrassed, again. Hazell watch is now at 5-26 (1-18), brutal!
Rutgers – C+ – A win is a win, right? Look, Indiana is a strange team. You’re never really out of it thanks to that defense and they always seem to find ways to score thanks to that offense. They have Army and Maryland left to help a bowl push but the other four games are OSU, @ Wisconsin, @ Michigan, Nebraska. Hmmm, I think unfortunately that Washington State loss is going to cause this club to miss a bowl.
Wisconsin – A- – Defense was outstanding again and the passing game was nice. Once Corey Clement and Taiwan Deal come back this will be a much more complete team. With Nebraska and Iowa already in the rear view mirror and a split between them combined with no cross-overs with any Michigan schools or OSU, Wisconsin has a good shot at making Indy if they can get some help from Iowa’s opponents.
Game of the Week – Must I type something here, really? C’mon, Michigan-MSU had it all.
Why Did I Watch This? Award – Up 21-3 at the half with that defense, why would anyone watch the second half of the OSU-PSU game? I for sure didn’t.
Gambling Report Card
- Indiana vs Rutgers, Points (IU -7)
Wait, I picked Rutgers? I PICKED RUTGERS?! I’ll take it. What a strange, strange game that was.
- Iowa at Northwestern, UI (-1), Under (41)
Got a split as the Hawks easily covered the slim spread but the 50 points splashed that very low under.
- Michigan vs Michigan State, Points (UM-7), Over (41.5)
I picked MSU to win straight up so betting the spread was easy. I even added this nugget, “If MSU does win, I think the game will be in the 20s, 28-24 or something similar so I’ll take the over then by default.” Hmm, the final score was 27-23. Wow. Spooky. We are getting close to Halloween. I’ll take the double up in strangest of fashions. Of course, my best still would have worked out even without the final play but where’s the excitement in that?
- Minnesota vs Nebraska, Points (UM -2.5)
Another underdog picked and another win. I felt like the Huskers were a lot better than their record indicated and the Gophers were not as good as their win-loss mark suggested. The blowout Husker win seems to validate that theory.
- Ohio State vs Penn State, Points (OSU -19)
I knew it was just a matter of time before OSU got rolling and covered some of these major spreads but I didn’t think it would be against at top-10 defense.
- Purdue at Wisconsin, UW (-23.5), Over (50.5)
Well I had the Badgers steamrolling Purdue and putting up 50 alone. Didn’t happen. UW dominated the entire game but didn’t see that reflected in the scoreboard.
Week Record: 5-4-0
Season Record: 69-52-0
Big Ten and Counting 