Another strange week hits the Big Ten as three teams are off, Northwestern is has a non-conference game, and we have zero ranked match-ups. Still, there is a doozy in Columbus that could shake up the league and national title race if those plucky turtles have the game they’ve been dreaming of since they signed Taulia Tagovailoa. As always, times are central.
Game of the Week:
- Maryland at Ohio State
Home field advantage – check. Talent advantage – check. Depth – check. Quarterback – oops. Maryland does not have the depth or athletes that Ohio State does but they do enjoy one big advantage – quarterback play. Tagovailoa has done basically everything imaginable in a Maryland uniform but pull off a massive upset over a highly ranked Ohio State, Michigan, or Penn State squad. But this year could be different. In addition to a high-flying offense that Tagovailoa has guided the past four seasons, UM now has a defense that can cook. They are giving up just 13.2 PPG, good for 16th in the nation. The most they have given up was 20 to Charlotte, and that was only after the 49ers picked up a late garbage time touchdown. And lastly, not for nothing, UM should be ranked. LSU still being in the polls is idiotic. Now, the Bucks. They are 4-0 and have looked…good, but not great. They slept through their Indiana win, they were disinterested against Youngstown State, they were locked in against Western Kentucky, but then were pedestrian against Notre Dame. Kyle McCord has been…fine, but nothing special. Now maybe getting a 5-0 hungry Maryland team is what OSU needs to fully wake up and it turns into a rout, but there’s also a chance OSU is a pinch down and Maryland has all the pieces for this year. This is a can’t miss game.
- Saturday, 11:00 AM, Fox
Sleeper GOTW:
- Rutgers at Wisconsin
Despite some up-and-down play by both squads, they are a combined 7-2 and coming off their best performances of the season. Rutgers bounced back from their Michigan loss with an impressive beat-down of FCS Wagner last week. Wisconsin was off last week but the week before they throttled Purdue. The Badgers aren’t as stingy as some past years but they are giving up just 19.7 ppg while RU is chopping wood and holding teams to just 12.8. Badgers have the slightly better offense thanks to a more polished passing game right now, but RU is still putting up 30 points per game and QB Gavin Wimsatt is playing better than any other quarterback of the Schiano era (2.0). Do the Knights have enough in the tank to win in Camp Randall? Probably not, but this isn’t your cupcake Rutgers club anymore.
- Saturday, 11:00 AM, Peacock
Don’t Forget:
- Purdue at Iowa
After Purdue dismantled Illinois to get to 2-3 (1-1) this game took on a bit of a different feel. Iowa’s lousy offense makes every game feel like a struggle and if PU can match their 8/13 on third down, 406 yards, balanced offensive attack, and 44 points…Iowa will be in a world of hurt. The Hawkeye defense and special teams will need to be even better than they were last week against Michigan State to give Iowa a chance to keep pace with Wisconsin in the division. Drop this one and you can probably write Iowa off, barring some fortunate bounces down the stretch.
- Saturday, 2:30 PM, Peacock
Snoozer:
- Howard at Northwestern
A week after knocking off Minnesota, Northwestern had a frisky first half against Penn State. Now they look to keep hot against a 2-2 FCS Howard squad. Great shot here for NU to get to 3-3 and keep the bowl hopes alive.
- Saturday, 2:00 PM, BTN – Sorry ‘Cats, you are playing a FCS squad in week six, you knew you were going to be in the Snoozer slot.
Upset Watch:
- Nebraska at Illinois
We have four real upset possibilities this week – OSU being 20 point favorites, Iowa being 2.5 point favorites, and Wisconsin being 13 point favorites…but I’ve already talked about those games. So let’s head to Champaign-Urbana. Despite Purdue making the Illini look silly for sixty minutes, UI comes into this one favored by three. Both UI and Nebraska are 2-3 (0-2) and I’m not sure who is coming in more shaky…but at least NU’s blowout loss last week can be explained by this: ‘we were playing Michigan!’ and UI’s can’t really be explained. When you have two teams playing this erratically, upset potential is always lurking.
- Friday, 7:00 PM, FS1
Elsewhere (Alphabetical Order):
Michigan at Minnesota – Little Brown Jug time! Too bad Michigan is fantastic this year and Minnesota is pretty middling. Tough to see Minnesota’s up-and-down offense playing well enough against the Michigan defense to really hang in this one.
- Saturday, 6:30 PM, NBC / Peacock
Bye Week:
Indiana, Michigan State, Penn State
Random Musing:
Since joining the league, Maryland is 0-8 against Ohio State and have been outscored 459 to 181 but last year they hung with OSU and back in 2018 they took the Bucks to overtime. It is time for Maryland to channel their inner Vitas Gerulaitis and let this be a lesson to us all that NOBODY beats Maryland nine times in a row!
Big Ten and Counting 