Big Ten Review: Week Six

The Big Ten is colored Orange now, with the Illini at 3-0 following two straight wins over traditionally great programs. Jeff has the Illinois game covered, but here’s a quick rundown of what happened in the rest of the league:

Game of the Week

Northwestern 48, Michigan State 41 – You thought you knew this Spartan squad. Finally, someone was able to neutralize the Spartan rush, as CJ Bacher threw for a school-record 520 yards, including a fifth touchdown in overtime, as the ‘Cats stunned MSU in East Lansing. As predicted in this space last week, the Northwestern spread attack neutralized MSU’s biggest strength, their pass rush, and helped Bacher complete 38 of 48 passes. The Spartan offense was excellent, but ultimately just couldn’t keep up with the Wildcat attack. Javon Ringer had another stellar week, posting 185 yards on just 12 carries, one of which went for 80 yards, and Brian Hoyer was typically solid, with 190 yards, a TD and no picks. As promising as MSU’s start was this year, they’re now looking at a must-win against Indiana next week to keep any reasonable hopes for a bowl game alive.

Best of the Rest

None.

Ho Hum

Ohio State 23, Purdue 7 – The Buckeyes are starting to define this category with one workmanlike victory after another. OSU will get objections from only Illinois when calling itself the class of the Big Ten right now, as they took every shot Purdue wanted to offer and then some. The Boilers had this one circled on the calendar all year, but OSU held an offense that had been averaging 40+ points per game to a measly touchdown with 7 seconds left. In six contests, only one team (Washington) has put up more than 7 on the Buckeyes. That’s an amazing stat, and with USC going down, and LSU hoeing a tough road up ahead, Ohio State has every right to start thinking they have an inside track to the national championship game. There will be challenges, but OSU should have no problem getting to 10-0 by the time Illinois comes to town.

Indiana 40, Minnesota 20 – The Hoosiers took one step closer to a nice bowl bid with an easy win over hapless Minnesota. Indy struggled a little bit finding the end zone, but 4 Austin Starr FGs kept them rolling to a 33-14 lead at the end of the third. Sophomore Bryan Payton produced a break out effort at RB, snagging 13 carries for 90 yards and 3 scores. Minnesota got another nice passing day from Adam Weber, but the defense is playing so poorly right now, they don’t have a chance to beat anyone. Don’t sleep on this Hoosier squad in the Big Ten race. The defense is never going to be a lock down unit, but athleticism on offense will carry them a long way. After seeing what Illinois did to Wisconsin and Northwestern did to Michigan State, is there any reason this team can’t get 9 wins, considering they dodge both Michigan and Ohio State?

Michigan 33, E. Michigan 23 – The Wolverines gave up 23 points to a terrible offensive football team in the Eagles, and turned this one much closer than it needed to go. Leading by just 2 midway through the third quarter, Mike Hart put the offense on his back yet again, and galloped for TD runs of 24 and 17 yards, giving Michigan a 19 point lead. Hart logged 215 yards on just 22 carries against a defense that is, believe it or not, a pretty decent one with a solid crew of LBs. Hart should be getting tons of Heisman consideration for the way he’s played, and this outing should have him back at the top of the nation’s rushing leaders. It goes without saying that this effort won’t cut it next week against Purdue.

Boooooooooring

Penn State 27, Iowa 7 – The Fighting Paternos got back on the horse after back-to-back losses, beating the brains in of an Iowa squad that is, let’s face it, pretty darn awful. Iowa didn’t cross the 100 offensive yard mark until early in the fourth quarter, and had absolutely no run game, getting just 48 yards on 28 carries. Penn State, meanwhile, got 256 rushing yards against a front four that started the year so dominant. This one could have been worse, too, as PSU had three crucial turnovers, and Iowa held on to the ball all day. The Hawks had just eight first downs. Eight. The Hawks have a relative cupcake schedule, dodging Michigan and OSU, but they could very easily be 0-7 in the Big Ten heading to the October 10^th “showdown” against Northwestern.