Extra! Extra! A James Franklin coached team melts down against a top 10 team! Oh, wait, he does that every year. He also loses after the bye week every year. Thank god they didn’t extend him so they can finally look to move on…what’s that? Oh they did extend him. And they’re stuck with him for the foreseeable future? Well then, that sucks. Almost as bad as having your coach’s son be your OC.
Team of the Week – Michigan – A+ – Full discloser, I am still not 100% a J.J. guy. He had some braindead ball security decisions and was essentially a non-factor throwing the ball. Having said that…HOLY MOLY. This was a dominate game by the Maize and Blue. 418 rushing yards! FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTEEN rushing yards. Jesus. Nearly 42 minutes time of possession. Nearly tripled PSU’s first down total. This was a good, old-fashioned beatdown by the Wolverines. They needed it, too. I did a pretty good job detailing how the Maryland, Iowa, and Indiana games were lackluster. This game was not lackluster. It was…luster(?). Is that a thing? Well it is now. Ya heard it here first. Michigan was luster last week.
Illinois – A+ – Some teams look past or even go easy on wounded teams and go full on turtle mode. See: Oklahoma State’s second half versus TCU. Some teams do what Illinois did to Minnesota. The Illini racked up 472 yards of offense with 220 on the ground and 180 of those from the outstanding Chase Brown. The UI defense also did their dominate thing yet again, holding UM to just 180 total yards and a humiliating 38 of them through the air. With tiebreakers over the stumbling Badgers and Hawks and now the Gophers, Illinois’s path to Indianapolis is theirs for the taking. That game in a few weeks versus Purdue is growing steadily in importance. Just as we all expected.
Indiana – C- – Oh Indiana, you frustrating program. Another Hoosier “close but no cigar” classic. This time they lost 38-33 to Maryland showing that yes, the Hoosiers are capable of winning games but no, they don’t really know how yet. So what is the diagnosis this time? AWFUL turnovers. Indiana had three of them that all led to Maryland points. 17 points in fact. Worse, look at when these happened. First interception = FIRST PLAY OF THE GAME! 4 plays, 29 yards later Maryland is up 7-0. Now we are in the second half. IU is up 17-14 at half. Maryland takes their first drive of the half to the house. IU now trails 21-17. After the kickoff, IU’s first play of the second half…THE SECOND INTERCEPTION OF THE GAME! Terps have a nice drive stall and result in a field goal 24-17. Okay, moving ahead, fourth quarter action. IU has regained the lead. They are up 27-24. UM has a nice drive to re-take the lead, 31-27. IU has an amazing 43 yard kick return to set up a short field with about 5 minutes left in the game. 1st and 10, nine yard run. Sweet. 2nd and 1, completed pass for four yards and the first down…wait…no…FUMBLE! Are you kidding me?!? 7 plays, 62 yards later, UM is up 38-27 with just 2:11 left in the game. It is hard to survive one back-breaking turnover. Indiana tried to survive three of them. They could not.
Iowa – Off
Maryland – B – Well the fifth victory of the season was a strange one. Three massive IU turnovers gave UM 17 much needed points. But the real issue is what does this mean for Taulia Tagovailoa going forward? Early indications were good regarding his knee so hopefully he doesn’t miss too much time, if any, but there is always the possibility or reaggravating or making an injury worse, so while Maryland won the battle with Indiana, they may lose the war of getting to that 9 win plateau that many were hoping for.
Michigan State – C+ – They stopped the bleeding! But boy-howdy was that a brutal game. Not all double OT games are thrillers. Some are comedies of errors. That’s what happened in East Lansing. After taking a 21-14 lead in the fourth, MSU gave up the game-tying drive. But they responded! And got all the way to the UW 29 before…not kicking a field goal. I get it, 46 yards might not be a gimme and you run the risk of it getting blocked, but the odds of winning on that kick have to be higher than what MSU ran on that fourth down (pass was picked off) on the final play of regulation. Not to be outdone, the OT periods had even more silliness, highlighted by a UW fumble on the first play of the second overtime period. MSU would score a few plays later. The win gets them to 3-4. Are there three more wins to be had for a bowl? At Michigan on the 29th is a no. At Illinois is looking like a no, barring a massive meltdown by the Illini. Rutgers…hmm, intriguing. Indiana…hmm, IU looked good(ish) at times versus Maryland and Michigan. At Penn State…if PSU is eliminated and coasting by then, maybe something insane happens but I don’t see it. So, yeah, the bleeding is stopped but the patient is not out of the woods yet and that bleeding could start any time again. Put this team in the ICU and have the morphine drip fully open.
Minnesota – F – The Gophers had a bye week to get right after the disaster against Purdue. Instead their offense was somehow even worse against Illinois than Purdue. I understand that UI’s defense is better than PU’s but Mohamad Ibrahim played against the Illini and not the Boilers. Also Minnesota had two weeks to prepare for the Illini while Illinois was coming off a massively emotional win over rival Iowa and Tommy DeVito was limping around much of the week. This was a complete failure by the Gopher coaching staff to get ready for this game. It will most likely cost them the division title because even if they do get their early season swagger back, they are now on the wrong end of tiebreakers against Purdue and Illinois. What a waste of a season.
Nebraska – D+ – A one score loss? Ahh, that is comforting. In NU’s defense, they outscored Purdue 37-33 in the final three quarters, they just slept in a little. Honestly, it is a little astounding that they put up 37 points and 476 yards while only having the ball for a little over 17 minutes. It is also a little astounding that they lost by just 7 on a day when they gave up 608 yards (391 through the air!) and saw Purdue moving the chains constantly with nearly 40 first downs. Hat’s off to NU for finding a way to keep this competitive despite the Blackshirts taking the week off.
Northwestern – Off
Ohio State – Off
Penn State – F – If it wasn’t for that massive extension signed about 20 minutes ago, I’d be hyper worried about Franklin’s job security. His record following the bye is dismal. His record against top-10 teams the last several seasons is dismal. His record following losses is dismal (good news for ailing Minnesota, potentially). It is tough to see Franklin getting this team over the hump this deep in his tenure as the results have continued to diminish. They were over the hump several years ago when they won the league. They couldn’t sustain that level. Now can they ever get back there?
Purdue – B – Just like last week, the stats deserve a C or D but the result was a big old A+ so we split the difference. Purdue’s offense was killer in this game, if you don’t believe me, look at what I wrote about for Nebraska’s grade. As for the PU defense, well, it was pee-yew – see what I did there? Thanks, folks. I’ll be here all week. The important thing for Purdue fans is this is now four straight wins and puts the Boilers in great positioning with Illinois for that final push to Indy. Obviously optics show Illinois as the better team since Purdue’s last four wins have been three single score games and one 10 point win against Minnesota missing its two best players. They travel to Madison next where they should win, then host Iowa where they should win. Then it is that big old match-up with Illinois that very well could decide the west. After that just struggling Northwestern and Indiana. It might not be pretty, but there’s a chance Purdue goes 10-2 (8-1) and we will still be doubting them. It reminds me of an Iowa team from way back in—huh? 2021? That was only last year? Brian Ferentz has aged me my friends.
Rutgers – Off
Wisconsin – F – What the actual bleeeeeeep? After so much fun against Northwestern, Wisconsin’s piss poor offense returns against [check notes] Michigan State? Huh? How is Sparty slowing Wisconsin down? 283 yards, 4/12 on third, 2 turnovers, just 5.5 yards per pass and 3.9 yards per rush. Ugly stuff. We did the bowl projection for MSU and Wisconsin warrants it here, too. Just like MSU, the Badgers are 3-4 and looking for three more victories to keep their 20 year bowl streak alive. Purdue…not likely. Maryland…not likely. It would be a DREAM for UW fans to split these home games. They’ll need some old Camp Randall cooking. Maybe the students can be on time for once to a game. BAAAHAHAHAAHAHA. At Iowa…hmm, can I bet the under on this game already? At Nebraska…too early to tell, but Nebraska already looks better without Frost. Minnesota…The Gopher’s last 2 games have been miserable failures so who knows. The best I can say about UW’s final five games is there is no OSU or Michigan left. None of these are particularly easy for the beleaguered Badgers, but would you rather play Hawkeyes or the Buckeyes? See my point?
Game of the Week – Despite the comedy of errors at time for the Hoosiers, their tussle with Maryland had about 75 lead changes. Very fun game.
Why Did I Watch This? Award – Is it possible for a double OT game to be awful? Wisconsin and Michigan State made it their mission to drive everyone to other games with mutual ineptitude.
Gambling Report Card:
- Minnesota at Illinois – Under (39.5)
40 points scored…so depending on when you made the bet and which book you may have gotten a different over but for me this was a loser. We couldn’t get a missed PAT, really?
- Maryland at Indiana – Under (62.0)
The Terps are getting really good at costing me money. Or Indiana is. Maybe both. After some quiet weeks with not too many points, these teams had to have a 27 point fourth quarter and put this game into the 70s. Thanks, gents.
- Penn State at Michigan – Points (UM, -7.0)
LOL! Nope. In my defense, James Franklin was surprised they lost the way they did. So…um…thanks?
- Wisconsin at Michigan State – UW (-7.5), Over (49.0)
Thank you for overtime! Earn a split. Thankfully I nailed the final game.
- Nebraska at Purdue – Points (PU, -14.0)
I said Purdue was a touchdown better than Nebraska and they won by…A TOUCHDOWN! Finish a rough week with a win, at least.
Week Record: 2-4-0
Season Record: 43-29-2
Big Ten and Counting 