What a week for the Big Ten! An overtime thriller, another Indiana gut-check game before Nebraska escaped, Illinois notches a league win and keeps extremely dim bowl hopes alive, Iowa looks a little bit like last year (finally), Purdue cans their coach, and Northwestern HAMMERS Michigan State. The best thing though, we are barely halfway through the season. Plenty more awesome weeks like this one to go before we crown a champion.
Team of the Week – Minnesota – A- – With the season hanging in the balance the Gophers faced a road trip to a 4-1 Maryland team with their senior QB Mitch Leidner ruled out. A loss would have dropped the Golden Gophers to 3-3 and a terrifying 1-3 mark in league with still having Wisconsin, Nebraska, and surging Northwestern on the slate. A loss would have put bowl hopes in major jeopardy but the plucky Gophers found a way to win.
They did it with a bruising rushing attack (229 yards, 4.8 average) and an opportunistic defense (4 takeaways). In a game with both teams forced to play back ups, Minnesota’s Conor Rhoda avoided the costly mistake while Maryland tossed two interceptions. With Rutgers, at Illinois, and Purdue there is a great shot for Minnesota to get healthy and get to 7-2 (4-2) before their stretch run. It isn’t hyperbole to say that stealing this road game was a season saver for this club.
Illinois – C+ – Let’s start with the obvious positive, the Illini won. They also put up a nice rushing day with 228 yards on a 5.3 average. Kendrick Foster and Reggie Corbin combined for 198 of those yards on just 29 carries (a 6.8 average). Let’s move to why this game earned a C+. The defense gave up more yards, over 200 rushing yards, and couldn’t get off the field on third down. UI was bailed out by four lost RU fumbles and a pick for a dreadful five turnover day. Without Rutgers’s gaffes, Illinois probably fails to escape New Jersey with their first league win of 2016.
Indiana – B+ – I know Indiana fans are sick to death hearing this but their game against Nebraska was another moral victory. At some point they will breakthrough for an actual victory. After a nightmare 17-0 first quarter, Indiana outscored the Huskers 22-10 the rest of the way to come agonizingly close to winning. So what prevented the victory? Well obviously the awful start played a big role but after battling back to 24-22, the defense just couldn’t get that last stop as Nebraska ate up nearly 8 minutes of time before adding a field goal to their lead.
IU also kicked two field goals, with the long being 45 yards. Since FGs include the snap and the endzone in their distance, that means the line of scrimmage was the 28 yard line. When trying to pull upsets, it is so difficult to have good drives and great field position squandered. IU’s field goals came on a drive that got all the way to the six before a holding call then a sack pushed them back and a drive that started at the 28 following a turnover where the Hoosiers gained zero yards.
Iowa – A – I realize that 35 points and 458 passing yards (504 total) allowed looks bad but Iowa wanted to get their backups reps against a Big Ten foe’s top unit. It didn’t go well. But starters to starers, Iowa crushed the Boilermakers. The 6.9 rushing yard average on a day in which 365 yards were put together was incredible. For the first time in a while the flash (Akrum Wadley) and the thunder (LeShun Daniels) finally was in perfect sync as they busted Purdue for big runs all day.
Maryland – F – Taking on a banged up Minnesota team that was starting a back up, Maryland had a great shot to notch their fifth win of the season. Instead the offensive play calling was confusing. Back up QB Tyrrell Pigrome was forced to start for the injured Perry Hills and they asked him to pass 37 times. Pigrome had a few flashes but overall looked like a kid making his first start with two picks. Pigrome also rushed 25 times. Huh? All those solid backs the Terps utilized in their 4-0 start were a non factor. Lorenzo Harrison had 4 carries and Ty Johnson had 5 rushes. Did the OC get the memo that Hills wasn’t playing? Awful game plan.
Michigan – Idle
Michigan State – F – Sure MSU has had some injuries but so does Wisconsin and Penn State. Iowa’s leading WR is out for the year. Teams have bumps and bruises but none of those teams have had the on-field success of MSU, so why isn’t there more depth? The defense has become Swiss cheese as Northwestern racked up over 200 rushing yards and Justin Jackson was brilliant. No matter how you slice it, giving up half a hundred at home will never go down easy.
Nebraska – B- – Yes they won but are getting a worse grade than their opponent. Why? First of all, if you jump out to a 17-0 lead, you need to lock that game down. That needs to be a blowout situation. Second they had two turnovers. Yes, they had two takeaways so the turnover margin was even but that sloppiness won’t work against Ohio State, Wisconsin, and could cost NU against decent Iowa and Minnesota clubs. Finally the rushing attack was held to a subpar 3.4 average. Indiana’s defense is vastly improved, but what they turned around was mostly their pass defense. IU still isn’t a great rush defense and yet here Nebraska sits, looking at ways to get better offensive balance at the midpoint of the year.
Northwestern – A – I mentioned some of the offensive numbers above but here is a defensive stat for you. As MSU started to play catch up and rushed less and less, NU ended up holding the Spartan ground game to just 51 yards on 23 carries. Yuck. The offensive improvement for the Wildcats is fun to watch but the defense is also stepping up their game. They may just be 3-3 overall but they’re 2-1 in league with a win over Iowa and a loss to Nebraska. Long story short, there is still a very narrow path to Indy if they keep up this level of play.
Ohio State – A – This game has been dissected to death and I’m already over 1500 words so I’ll keep it simple. OSU survived their toughest test of the season, on the road, in rain. J.T. Barrett has entered legit Heisman talk based on this game where he led the team in rushing and had some beautifully thrown balls. Finally, this is the best team in the league right now but they showed they are vulnerable as opposed to Alabama here at the mid point. Michigan has to be encouraged by the game.
Penn State – Idle
Purdue – F – Well their performance was bad enough to get a coach fired so…no, in all actuality Hazell was a symptom of a bigger issue at Purdue. The facilities lag well behind the rest of the league. Yes, he wasn’t a great coach but this wasn’t the same as a Rich Rod not fitting in at Michigan. Until Purdue starts spending money to keep up with the rest of the league, they will struggle no matter who is the head coach.
Rutgers – D+ – A lot to like about this performance. As I said in the Illinois grade, the Knights out-gained Illinois, played really well on third down, and had over 200 rushing yards. Their QB play continues to lack and Chris Ash announced there would be open competition. Also, very few teams can overcome 5 turnovers and a club rebuilding like RU most certainly cannot afford mistakes like those. So yeah, it was better, but it is a long way off from scratching out a league win.
Western Michigan – A+ – Broncos traveled to a 4-2 Akron team that had been playing some good ball. Broncos head home with a 41-0 blowout victory. A lot went right but Jarvion Franklin had the best stat line of the day: 33 carries, 281 yards, 8.5 avg, 1 TD. Another good figure from the game, WMU time of possession was nearly fifteen minutes more than the Zips. That is complete domination.
Wisconsin – I expected UW to get blown out with so much hype around the game. Boy was I wrong. This is clearly the best team in the West but their schedule was so tough that they might not be able to catch Nebraska. The shame of the game is some horrible missed holding calls against OSU. It’s a 60 minute game and not one missed call will end your shot but it is frustrating and always makes fans at other schools feel like OSU and similar blue bloods get all the breaks.
Game of the Week – Hmm, a top-10 battle that went into overtime. Easiest call all year so far. A strong contender for game of the week.
Why Did I Watch This? Award – The battle of the UMs not named Michigan may have been a big win for the Gophers but it wasn’t terribly watchable television. Scoreless first, 14-0 lead after two, 17-0 after three, and Maryland never got inside 2 touchdowns the rest of the way. Illinois-Rutgers was always going to be bad with two rebuilding teams but this game featured a Minnesota team some thought could contend for a Western chip and a Terps team that started the year 4-0. How can they be this boring?
Gambling Report Card:
- Illinois at Rutgers, UI -6.5
Thank you Illinois for starting my week off right by covering the touchdown spread with relative ease in their 24-7 triumph out east.
- Indiana vs Nebraska, Points (NU -3)
From the gambling guide, “Why do I already feel like this one is totally going to come back to haunt me.” Well that part of my prediction was right as a NU field goal with 45 seconds left made it a five point game. What…The…HELL?!! That’s a bad beat right there.
- Iowa at Purdue, UI (-11.5), Under (50.5)
I probably would have retired from gambling (not true) if Purdue had scored one last time to turn this 14 point win into a 7 or 11 point win. Instead I earn a split as these teams combined for over 80 points in the Hawkeyes’ 49-35 victory.
- Maryland vs Minnesota, Maryland (-6.5, Degenerate Pick)
Casual gamblers keep their money since the status of Hills was unknown. Those of us who are degenerates take a loss as Maryland’s offense was awful without their starting quarterback.
- Michigan State vs Northwestern, Points (MSU -7)
Back in the win column thanks to the Wildcat 54 point explosion to win. Thank you Northwestern for making Iowa’s loss to you look better and better! #MoralVictory
- Ohio State at Wisconsin, OSU (-11), Under (44)
This was a stinker in three ways. First, OSU didn’t cover. Second, they combined for 53 points. Third, I went to Wisconsin so my loss at the sportsbook wasn’t balanced out by a win on the field. Damn, double damn, and triple damn.
- Western Michigan at Akron, WMU (-12), Over (73)
Well the Broncos did their part putting up 41 points. Unfortunately I have to settle for a split as the Zips contributed exactly zero points.
Week Record: 4-6-0
Season Record: 46-54-1
Big Ten and Counting 