Upset specials! Epic comebacks! Michigan dominating! What a weekend in the Big Ten as the divisional races become a tad clearer thanks to the pair of Michigan schools getting monster victories.
Team of the Week – Michigan- A+ – The Wolverines embarrassed the ranked Badgers all night in Ann Arbor en route to a 38-13 beat down. The defense eliminated any Badger passing attack with smothering coverage, contesting jump balls, defending passing, hurrying the qb, and ultimately picking the pass off. No, they didn’t do that at times, they did all of those things on multiple plays. It was a clinic.
Illinois – F – What a letdown. After spanking Rutgers, Illinois was 3-2 and looking forward to a measuring stick game against Purdue. The outcome was clear, UI still has a long way to go. Purdue smoked the Illini, 46-7 as the Boilers had a fantastic game plan to carve up Illinois as well as stop UI’s ground game. Ugly.
Indiana – F – A devastating missed opportunity. On homecoming weekend against a team breaking in a lot of new faces on defense, the Hoosiers fell flat on their face. The worry now has to be: can this team find two more wins between PSU, @ Minnesota, Maryland, @ Michigan, and Purdue to get to a bowl? Iowa is a fine team, but they aren’t exactly designed for 42-16 point blowouts. So yeah, last week was just a tad worrying for Hoosier fans.
Iowa – A+ – A dominating offensive performance by Iowa as they racked up nearly 500 yards of O, had 26 first downs, went 8/12 on third down, and QB Nate Stanley tossed 6 TDs. The defense got a huge momentum boost as well. They held IU to just 16 points despite the fact that injuries and a targeting suspension made the linebacking corps rather thin for their trip to Bloomington.
Maryland – A+ – A monster day rushing the ball, a soul crushing defense, and some timely passing TDs was all Maryland needed to completely embarrass the league’s worst team. I’m not even sure how they only won 34-7 over those hapless Knights. This was a good old fashioned butt kicking.
Michigan State – A+ – A week removed from a demoralizing choke against Northwestern, the Spartans do what they do best and ruin a rival’s season. This time it was Penn State as Felton Davis III racked up a hundred receiving yards and scored the late game winning touchdown. Outstanding effort by the defense to hold this Nittany Lion attack to just 17 points.
Minnesota – B – Gophers gave Ohio State fits as they held the Buckeyes to under 3 yards a carry while their own back, Mohamed Ibrahim, went off for a great day. This young Gopher team just isn’t quite there yet to win games like this and that was evident getting shut out in the second half but that defense makes this club a tough out.
Nebraska – D – The positives have to be mentioned first: vast improvement. Huskers were looking great going into that fourth quarter. That’s the problem with this sport, struggling teams can’t take their foot off the gas. Conservative play-calling and an overall loss of playing on the edge resulted in another defeat. This team is close, and they won’t end the year 0-12, but they still haven’t learned how to win yet. And no, I’m not forgetting that Frost won a ton at UCF or that the NU upperclassmen were a part of winning teams. What I’m saying is that they haven’t won together yet. Frost doesn’t know how this team will respond and the players don’t know how this staff likes to close games out so this team and staff needs to learn how to win again.
Northwestern – A- – Simply put, one of the most impressive comebacks I have ever seen. A 99 yard drive to tie will be talked about by Wildcat fans probably every time Nebraska and Northwestern meet from now until the end of college football. Huge shout-out to Clayton Thorson who had 455 yards, 3 TDs, and 2 INTs on a day when the rushing attack was non existent. What a win.
Ohio State – B+ – Some nice adjustments at halftime as well as three takeaways made Minnesota’s initial offensive push diminish as the game went on. The bottom line is, Buckeyes had an off day and still won by two touchdowns. That’s how good they are.
Penn State – F – The O manufactured a measly 17 points and the defense failed to double team Felton Davis III down the stretch. Both were bad but combined it spelled doom in the upset loss. With tiebreakers to OSU and now MSU, the odds of winning the west are probably in the neighborhood of 0.0000000000000000001% but at least they are content with being great.
Purdue – A+ – Purdue played about as perfect a game as you can. They averaged over 10 yards a pass, over 5 a rush, and hammered Illinois 46-7. UI had been playing a little better and I thought this would be a good test to see just how far Illinois had come towards being a bowl club. The answer was clear. PU is on the same block as Northwestern, Iowa, and Wisconsin while Illinois is in another zip code.
Rutgers – F——— – RU’s qbs combined for 2/17, 8 yards, 5 picks. Yardage wise, it wasn’t even the school’s worst performance in the Chris Ash era. That would be the 2/18 for 5 yards RU put up in 2016’s 78-0 loss to Michigan.
Wisconsin – F – The offense was supposed to be filled with play-makers operating behind an amazing line. Maybe they are but with quarterback play this erratic, who can be sure? The defense played way above their heads keeping Wisconsin in the game far longer than they should have been but after a while, they cracked too. UW still can, should, and probably will win the west but don’t expect a dozy of a title game if this is how UW looks against the cream of the crop.
Game of the Week – Every second of that fourth quarter between Nebraska and Northwestern was a soap opera. That game is on a short list for best of the season.
Why Did I Watch This? Award – Two duds were done by half. RU was in a 24-0 hole and Illinois was in a 29-7 hole. There was no point in watching either game’s second half.
Gambling Report Card:
- Illinois vs Purdue, points (PU, -10.0)
Oops. What can I say? Statistically these clubs were similar, Illinois had been playing a pinch better, and they were a home dog.
- Indiana vs Iowa, Over (53.0)
I was scared away from the spread as the Hoosiers were a home dog to an Iowa team that can be up-and-down but felt like this game would be rather high scoring and it was…for one team. Iowa’s 42 points went a long way to clearing the over as these teams combined for 58 total.
- Maryland vs Rutgers, UM (-23.5)
Even with a fourth quarter score by Rutgers, Maryland won the game by 27. Rutgers may be struggling mightily out on the field but they are paying off in droves at the book.
- Michigan vs Wisconsin, Points (UM, -6.5), Under (49.0)
What a piece of crap. Wisconsin abandoned the running game, dooming them to a big loss and then they score six meaningless points in the fourth quarter to have the game go over. What a terrible sweep to experience as a Badger alum.
- Michigan State at Penn State, PSU (-13.5)
I quote myself here, “Spartans can always pull a rabbit out of their hat and are routinely frisky against Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State. However, I’m not going to place a bet on rabbits or friskiness.” In hindsight, I should trust the MSU friskiness more.
- Minnesota at Ohio State, OSU (-29.5), Over (59.5)
Well I agreed with my dad when he said this game was going to be a blow out. As much as I love my dad, his reaction was way off for this game.
- Nebraska at Northwestern, NU (-3.5), Over (59.5)
A point off from a double up as Northwestern won by 3 but the game easily cleared as it went into overtime tied at 31.
Week Record: 3-7-0
Season Record: 38-41-1…uh-oh, I’m in serious danger of my first losing season on this blog.
Big Ten and Counting 