Ten Fourteen Eighteen B1G Things
- Turns out Illinois isn’t as bad as Death Star, Jr. made them look last week.
- And Death Star, Jr. maybe isn’t as death starry as they looked a week ago.
- Speaking of Death Star, it can win with defense too.
- Rutgers would be 5-0 if it only had a defense.
- I guess Iowa wears blue and white now.
- The battle for 18th was a lot closer than expected.
The Rundown
Illinois hops off the mat, beats USC 34-32
After getting embarrassed against Indiana a week ago, the Fighting Illinis show they’re still gas left in the tank.
HWAHSQB: Shockingly, historical B1G powerhouse Illinois was ranked lower and was a home
dog to newbie USC. Do people not remember that Illinois won 10 games last year to USC’s 7 and that Illinois has 15 B1G championships to USC’s big fat zero? USC has NEVER, not one time, finished higher in the conference than Illinois!! Anyway, Illinois should have won the game easily if not for two goal line fumbles, but still came away with the W because that’s what big boy B1G programs do. We win at home against the middling wannabes.
thumpasaurus: Up until last week I had spent years proclaiming that USC would absolutely lose their first 11am kickoff in Champaign and as it turns out I was correct. Lincoln Riley is not built for the Big Ten. He’s just too soft and his team follows his example. The USC defense got pushed around by an Illini offensive line that struggled with Western Michigan. Jayden Maiava was seeing ghosts until Jakobi Lane came on the field in the second half to give him a second always-open target. Illinois made enough mistakes to give USC a shot, but Lincoln Riley took a shot at the end zone out of the two minute warning down 6 when Illinois had all three timeouts. After they scored, I knew Illinois was in good shape with 1:55 left to score two points against an unbelievably soft Trojans defense. Lincoln Riley won’t be around much longer.
Illinois still sucks, but USC sucks more! As bad as Illinois is, we’re two wins from Illini Valhalla in September!
Rutgers does it again: Minnesota 31, Scarlet Knights 28
I didn’t watch this, but I’m sure it went exactly as every other Minnesota game does.
RUReady4Brazil: Rutgers was up 14-0, should have been 17 or 21 zip and as has been true every game, gives it up in the 2nd, takes the lead in the 4th quarter again then chokes it away. For the second week in a row both the offense and the defense had a chance to win the game in the final minutes and failed. Bowling hopes are on life support at best.
Death Star claims its next target, Ohio State 24, Washington 6
At least Penn State came back…
MaximumSam: Washington’s quarterback can deal! I was very impressed with him. So for the Buckeye defense to go on the road and put the clamps down was soothing to my soul. Ryan Day has been praying to the alter of Jim Tressel, and it makes me happy.
No comeback for you: Indiana 20, Iowa 15
The Hawkeyes successfully forced Indiana to play their brand of football. So much so, that Iowa even took a lead in the fourth quarter. But, since it was. a 3-point lead and not a 7-point lead, the Hoosiers managed to both erase it and take a lead of their own to seal it.
BuffKomodo: The first week of football that I covered on OTE was Indiana at Iowa in 2021. After that opening kick, the Indiana football experience has been a rollercoaster. Now, 4 years and change later, we’ve come back to the biggest letdown of my fandom and climbed the mountain of Kinnick and Iowa.
After the slaughter last week and the first series for both teams, I’ll admit I actually thought this might be a blowout. While it certainly wasn’t, it was so much fun to watch.
Not the football. That grind, Iowa grit and mud fight football Iowa drug Indiana into sucked. The offense was terrible for most of the game. The playcalling on both sides of the ball seemed vanilla to say the least.
The result was fun. The collective sigh after the clock hit 0 as I pumped my fist at my daughter’s friend’s birthday party looking like the idiot I am…that was fun. It doesn’t matter if Indiana makes the CFP or not, Curt Cignetti and Indiana have a football program that is fun to be around.
The road to 0-12: Northwestern 17, UCLA 14
Nico left Tennessee for this?!
MinnesotaWildcat: In the first half, Northwestern picked up consecutive third downs by running the ball on third and seven and third and five, respectively.
So with an already skittish and mediocre quarterback, a UCLA defense hitting their ears back and rushing, and a defense that desperately needed as little time on the clock as possible while clinging to a 17-14 lead, why wouldn’t the galaxy brains up in the booth for Northwestern decided it was time to dial up some pass plays with under 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter?
That Northwestern got one bowl game out of the David Braun administration is admirable. Thank you to him and Zach Lujan for their service, best wishes at their future respective P4 DC and FCS WR coach jobs, and let’s all get through the rest of this season together.
Oh, sorry: Northwestern won. Because holy Christ is UCLA awful.
LincolnParkWildcat: We won this game in spite of ourselves against the worst fucking team in the big ten. Zach Lujan still needs a new job. Honest to god, the most dangerous time in a game is when you are ahead. I could feel the game slipping away from us and thought “here we go again”. Then we remembered to win. Ugh. Onto next week.
No comeback for you either: Penn State 24, Oregon 30 (2OT)
I’m seriously debating whether it would have been better if they’d just lost 24-3 or something. Like, just leave no doubt that they’re garbage and move on. Now I have to sit here wondering if only a few things had gone the other way.
…or if Andy Kotelnicki and Drew Allar decided to play offense in the first quarter instead of the fourth. You know, the little things.
