Uhhhhh, Wisconsin? You okay? You need a beer and a brat? That’s right, Wisconsin and Paul Chryst parted ways after a non-competitive loss to Illinois in their home stadium. It is being advertised as a firing, and maybe it was, but there is no denying that Chyrst has looked both stress out and nonplussed simultaneously. Hard to pull off that look. Anyway, onto Jimmy Leonhard – the long time heir apparent – to try and salvage the season, but more importantly, set the stage for 2023 and beyond.
Team of the Week – Illinois – A+ – Where to start with this one? The fact that UI won by 24 or that the game was played in Wisconsin, a place they haven’t won in a long, long time? The discrepancy in offense as UW had 2 rushing yards and 3 turnovers while UI 137 rushing yards and no giveaways or the quarterback play that heavily favored Tommy DeVito and the boys in orange? No matter how you slice it, Illinois throttled Wisconsin and are now 4-1 (1-1) putting them squarely in the west’s crazy division race but more importantly, making a bowl nearly guaranteed as the remaining slate includes every remaining west division team AND a crossover with the struggling Spartans.
Indiana – D – The Hoosiers played a fantastic second quarter and…did nothing else the rest of the game. Okay, that is an over simplification, but it does capture the spirit of the game. All 21 of Indiana’s points came in the second frame. The game was tied at half and the start of the fourth. Unfortunately Nebraska owned the last quarter to win by two touchdowns. Indiana looked way better than they did at Cincy, but I’m sure the team felt they were pretty similar to Nebraska, if not a tad better based on the records, but it didn’t matter, yet another league loss for the boys from Bloomington.
Iowa – D- – The D did their thing, holding Michigan to just 13 first half points. Iowa’s three first half drives generated 3 punts. A rare sustained drive was derailed by moronic play-calling once Iowa got to midfield. Oops! Then in the second half the D held Michigan to just 14 points. Iowa’s offense produced too little too late. Still, thanks to the D, Iowa was actually in not a horrible position to steal the game late before ultimately tripping all over themselves. Special shoutout to the officiating crew that was one of the worst I’ve ever seen, including a phantom clipping call that was a textbook cut block and nothing illegal. Well done, morons!
Maryland – A- – Maryland dominated this game a bit more than the score would indicate but they need to improve in finishing drives. They had nearly 500 yards yet just 27 points. The reason is in the second half their five drives finished in this order: field goal, missed field goal, turnover on downs (at the MSU one yard line), field goal, and punt. The punt drive was on a 4 minute clock bleeder while up two scores so it doesn’t matter as much as the others. So for the other four drives, they earned just six points. All of them moved the ball pretty well, including the 85 yard drive that ended at the goal line. Simply put, Maryland was not efficient enough once they crossed midfield. You know they want to fix that going forward.
Michigan – B – They controlled the game and won in a tough road environment against a good defense, but this is now two weeks in a row where Michigan just doesn’t look like a complete product. Maryland moved the ball against them and Iowa made them pretty inefficient moving the ball. I know some late big runs juiced that stat a bit, but for the most part Michigan was not a well oiled machine. If a team could combine Iowa’s defensive talent and Maryland’s offensive talent, there’s a good chance Michigan would falter. Long way to go still for this club to become a serious threat to the Buckeyes.
Michigan State – D- – I guess a baby step was made for MSU as they were only down 21-13 at half time. In their Washington and Minnesota losses they were already being blown out by half. Unfortunately their first four drives of the second half resulted in 13 plays, 5 yards, 4 punts, and very obviously zero points. The second half adjustments in this game completely favored Maryland. Baby step next week is to play more than just one half of competitive football.
Minnesota – F – Let’s run through all of it…your ranked, your at home, you win and you have a massive lead in the division race, it’s homecoming, you roll out the pinwheel look for your crowd…and you stink. You stink because your coaches got way too cute. A very late scratch of Mohammad Ibrahim – like Saturday morning late – seemed to catch everyone off guard including the coaches. They looked lost without their number one weapon. Trey Potts only ran the ball nine times. Morgan was throwing on first and second down nearly every possession, attempting way too many passes at 33. They were horribly sloppy with 3 picks thrown, including one in the end zone that bounced off the receiver’s hands. He was wide open, it was a sure touchdown, what happened?! It seems like PJ Fleck always has one or two of these a year (example Bowling Green last year) and they learn from it but to cough this game away in such a stupid way is truly impressive, even for the Gophers. What is incredibly scary as a Gopher fan is this could be the Indy tiebreaker. With Wisconsin at 2 losses already and Iowa incapable of scoring (and still have Ohio State to play), there is a real chance Minnesota and Purdue end with identical league records and then…OOPS, ya done screwed up back in early October and you don’t get to go to Indianapolis now. What a shame.
Nebraska – B – Got the win, nice. Moved the ball, nice. Now it is time to clean up some of the silliness. 12 penalties for 111 yards and two giveaways can be overcome against teams like Indiana but being that sloppy is what makes you lose 13-10 to teams like Iowa, or get roughed up by the Gophers (Purdue not withstanding). But hey, a win is a building block as Nebraska tries to bounce back from the Frost debacle.
Northwestern – F+ – They were more competitive and even had five takeaways. Unfortunately they generated zero points off those takeaways and their offensive line failed to keep their quarterback upright or create enough running lanes for Evan Hull. Now at 1-4 with still four road trips left AND Ohio State coming to Evanston, a bowl feels highly unlikely and all the fault rests with Northwestern’s terrible opening month. Their 0-3 nonconference mark is inexcusable. All three were home games and the three opponents were Duke, Southern Illinois, and Miami (OH). I understand Duke is having a nice season so far and MAC teams aren’t that bad anymore but still, NU really needed to go at least 2-1 in those three to stand a bowl chance and they failed miserably
Ohio State – A- – When you are as good as Ohio State your opponent becomes perfection. Can you play perfectly? If you don’t play perfectly, you can get away with it because you still almost always win (Alabama vs Arkansas). Sometimes the game is a little close (Georgia vs Mizzou). Every now and then is an upset (Calling the Spoilermakers on line one). As a result, OSU is graded on a different curve…which is why a 49-10 demolition of a league team can still be an A-. While trying to be perfect, Ohio State had 2 bad turnovers. A muffed punt after RU’s first drive stalled set up RU’s lone touchdown. Then in the first series of the second half and up 28-7, another bad turnover: an interception. Against Rutgers these gaffes didn’t matter. But they could against better teams. OSU needs to clean that up if they want to win a national title.
Penn State – C- – They slogged through the disgusting weather and 5 giveaways to escape Northwestern. The reason this isn’t a D or lower is the fact that the defense balled out. They held NU to just 241 yards and a horrific day rushing (31 yards, 1.1 average). The D also had three takeaways themselves making the overall turnover margin respectable (-2) in a day in which the teams combined for 8 turnovers. With the weather conditions, I’m inclined to have this be a throwaway game, but mark my words, if PSU goes out and has a million turnovers in a sunny game I’m going to be real disappointed for blaming the weather.
Purdue – B – The stats deserve a C or D but the result was a big old A+ so we split the difference. Up in Minneapolis, the Boilermaker defense ate up the Gopher front en route to their 20-10 win. Offensively PU was kind of all over the place with a good rushing day, but not a massive total yard day, and had 3 giveaways. The silver lining for Purdue fans is they have now found ways to win the last two weeks when the offense wasn’t clicking. It is too small a sample size to say that PU’s defense is good or will get them to Indy, but there are encouraging signs.
Rutgers – F+ – Some small steps taken in this game. Number one, a lead! A lead against Ohio State! For the first time in nine games against each other, RU held a lead. More importantly, Schiano appears to have committed to a quarterback. Evan Simon didn’t light the world on fire but he attempted 19 passes and the only other attempted pass was by a wideout. This is progress! For too many weeks quarterbacks were being slotted in and taken out. Simon has gotten to play against both Iowa and Ohio State. He’s seen two of the league’s best. Hopefully these learning experiences has him in a better position for a more manageable home game against Nebraska.
Wisconsin – F – Much like Michigan State and Northwestern, the Badgers are reeling because you can’t identify a single thing this team does at an elite level. You struggle to identify a single thing this team even does well. Their defensive front, which had been their strength, failed to get enough wins in the trenches against Illinois’s rushing attack. Offensively it is a disaster right now because their OL is struggling immensely – resulting in a lot of pressure on the QB and go-nowhere runs. Thankfully they have Northwestern next to right the ship…if there is anything to right. Oh, and they fired their coach. So…fun times in Madison.
Game of the Week – Indiana’s 21 point explosion in the second quarter paired with Nebraska’s more traditional “score points in every quarter” approach got us tied at half. After a scoreless third, two teams desperate for a win, entered a drama filled final frame. All in all, fun game!
Why Did I Watch This? Award – With OSU up 28-7 at half, there was no need to watch the second half of OSU’s big win over Rutgers.
Gambling Report Card:
- Illinois at Wisconsin – Points (UW, -6.5)
I thought Illinois could keep it close, but deep down sort of figured Wisconsin would escape with a 3-4 point win. If you had told me the final margin was 24, I would’ve said – “Wow, Wisconsin really figured some stuff out this week!” Instead Illinois got an awesome road win and Wisconsin has dumped Paul Chryst. Wowza.
- Indiana at Nebraska – NU (-6.5), Over (61.5)
Huskers did their part, winning by 14 but the total was just 56. Guess I thought Indiana might find the end zone more times than just the second quarter. Oh well, get a split.
- Michigan at Iowa – UM (-10.5), Under (42.0)
In the week preview I said I liked the score 28-10. I wasn’t too far off as the final was 27-14. Even Iowa’s garbage time touchdown with about two seconds left in the game didn’t spoil any of this for us. It would have been hilarious though if Iowa went for two to try and hit the over. And by hilarious I mean infuriating.
- Michigan State at Maryland – UM (-7.5)
The Terps held MSU scoreless in the second half and ultimately won by two touchdowns, giving us yet another victory this week.
- Purdue at Minnesota – UM (-9.0)
Baaaahahaahahahahahahaha, nope. Not even close. The Gophers only scored 10 points and came nowhere close to winning, let alone covering.
- Northwestern at Penn State – Under (50.0)
Did I think the rain would play a role? Yes. Did I think there would be 8 combined turnovers and just 24 combined points? No I did not. I’ll still collect my winnings though.
- Rutgers at Ohio State – OSU (-39.0), Over (58.0)
Nearly went 0-2 in these bets but instead we get a narrow win on the over with 59 combined points and then get a push for the spread as OSU’s 49-10 victory is, according to my count, 39 points dead on!
Week Record: 7-2-1
Season Record: 37-22-2
Big Ten and Counting 