Sigh, another trip to West Lafayette, another loss. It was a fantastic weekend with a great tailgate, great fall weather, and a fun road trip but it was yet another loss down there for Iowa. I am 0-2 in Ross-Ade Stadium which now ties it with the Rose Bowl as the only stadium that I’m 0-2 in. Yeesh.
Team of the Week – Michigan – A+ – The Wolverines had an offensive explosion plus a pick six to put up 42 points on Penn State but the real story has to be the defensive gem they put in. They held PSU to just 68 rushing yards and held Trace McSorely to just 5/13 passing for 83 yards. Incredible stuff.
Illinois – A+ – A blistering 430 rushing yards came on an incredible 12.3 average was awesome but then the Illini also got something out of their passing game with 216 passing yards on a 18/25 day by A.J. Bush Jr. I’m not sure Illinois is a better team just quite yet but at the very least Rod Smith’s offense has made them much, much better on that side of the ball.
Indiana – Bye
Iowa – F – A complete coaching melt down as Iowa chased a two point conversion to try and make the game 28-25 for some reason in the third quarter (way too much football left) then went for another to make the game 38-35. While the second one was the right call both failed and Iowa lost by two. Chasing points in the third…idiotic. Oh, the defense also no-showed so that was fun.
Maryland – F – The were held to 3 points and 100 yards – just 26 of which coming from that rushing attack. What a pathetic showing.
Michigan State – B+ – Well as you can see from above, the Spartan D was on fire. As for the offense they only had 87 passing yards but Connor Heyward had two scores and 157 rushing yards as the ground attack looked good.
Minnesota – F – This has to be a defensive rock bottom, right? 646 yards and 55 points given up to Illinois? And to think, just a few seasons ago Tracy Claeys was drawing up defensive schemes that shut down Washington State in a bowl and now this.
Nebraska – B- – Awesome day for Adrian Martinez as he racked up 266 passing yards, 72 rushing yards, and accounted for three scores as a freshman starting in the Horseshoe. The problem for NU of course is that defense. They struggled again, giving up almost 500 yards of offense.
Northwestern – B+ – Down 24-7 in the fourth quarter, NU mounted a great comeback that saw them trim the lead all the way down to 24-21 before a late score gave us the final, 31-21. The final stats are ugly because the Wildcats didn’t move the ball much outside of two touchdown drives but the Cats grinded defensively and a blocked punt set up NU’s third TD in the near comeback so plenty of positives in this one for Fitz’s crew.
Ohio State – B – With the defense, or lack there of, OSU has fielded this season this was a scary game as Nebraska moved the ball on them all day and only lost by five. This is a good team, a talented group, and have plenty of explosiveness on O but this defense is too much Oklahoma and not enough Alabama.
Penn State – F – The only hope for PSU was to have Trace McSorley go off. He did not and as a result Penn State was over-matched in every conceivable way.
Purdue – C+ – Yes, they won. Was it pretty? Nope. Was Purdue playing like they did against Ohio State? Of course not. Tough to get a great read on this team as they are so inconsistent…but maybe that shouldn’t be unexpected since it is still year two of a big rebuild.
Rutgers – D+ – I mean, they lost but it was only by 14 and the offense did some nice things in the fourth quarter.
Wisconsin – C – Outside of Jonathan Taylor not much went well for old Bucky. Passing game was crap again and the defense was unspectacular, even against the league’s worst team.
Game of the Week – Well I was there in person so that made it special but in reality the back-and-forth Iowa vs Purdue game was quite fun.
Why Did I Watch This? Award – Although it was only 14-0 at half, the way the UM defense was playing made it feel closer to 41-0.
Gambling Report Card:
- Illinois vs Minnesota, Over (61.5)
Start off with a nice win as these two defensively-challenged teams combined for 86 points, demolishing that over/under.
- Iowa at Purdue, Points (PU, -1.0)
Iowa could have and should have won this game if they had done two things…have smarter coaches and had their defense show up. Other than, things went great.
- Maryland vs Michigan State, MSU (-3.5), Under (43.0)
As expected the Terps really, really struggled against a good rush defense. Without their ground game going, Maryland won’t do anything because the passing game just hasn’t developed enough. As a result MSU won by 21, easily covering, but combined these two teams scored just 27 points, easily going under.
- Michigan vs Penn State, UM (-13.0)
I felt the Wolverines would win this one somewhat easily – maybe pulling away in the second half – but this thing was 28-0 after three quarters. Totally dominant performance by Michigan.
- Nebraska at Ohio State, Under (72)
Well 67 points is a boatload but Vegas put up a monster 70+ over/under. Just like 40 points spreads, 70 point O/Us take a ton to come through so why take that bet? As a result, the safe play gets the victory.
- Northwestern vs Notre Dame, Points (ND -9.5), Under (49.5)
A tough sweep as NU played well, but a late Irish score resulted in a 10 point final. That late score also pushed the total from 45 total points to 52 total points. As if I didn’t have enough reasons to hate on the Irish…
- Rutgers at Wisconsin, UW (-29.0)
Oops. Stop trusting Wisconsin, Josh.
Week Record: 5-4-0
Season Record: 49-55-1
Big Ten and Counting 