Sunday Morning Coming Down // Week 2

Oklahoma Sooners defensive lineman R Mason Thomas (32) applies pressure on Michigan Wolverines quarterback Bryce Underwood (19) during the second half at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

Ten Fourteen Eighteen B1G Things

So apparently September is creative.
You know what, someone has to go 1-11.
If this keeps going, Iowa State might approach .350 in the series!
For the first time EVER! The number one and number two teams are on the BIG TEN NETWORK!
The number one and number two teams put up double donuts against their opponents.
ESPN has decided that it would be just swell to not sort teams by kickoff time anymore.

And CBS Sports puts the Friday games all the way at the bottom.
So NBC Sports it is!
How bad is Wake Forest?!
Narrator: Michigan cannot pass the ball.
Purdue has officially doubled its win total from a season ago!
P.J. Fleck clearly reads OTE. Clearly.
…I may have omitted that the 34 points were a laborious effort.
Oh, they’re “lose to UNLV” bad.
Did Greg Schiano realize you need offense to win in this era of college football?

The Rundown

Maryland uses defense, defense, to defeat Northern Illinois, 20-9

When your offense was as bad as it was, you need defense to keep you alive.

Larry31: Online comments from Terp Nation are decidedly dour. Just like they were too hyped after Maryland dismantled Florida Atlantic. Somewhere in the middle is closer to reality. 1) Maryland is not in a position to sacrifice losses by scheduling tougher competition for their non-con games. So, there is no sense in complaining about three “pay-to-play” wins. Particularly because Maryland gets three straight home games to start

the season. Having accepted that Maryland is not playing P4 non-con games, I like the first two choices for the 2025 season. Florida Atlantic was an AirRaid offense whose goal is to get as many offensive possessions as possible. By sharp contrast Northern Illinois plays a run-first game that results in far fewer possessions. They hope a superior team will just make more critical errors with th few possessions they get in a game and then capitalize on those mistakes. Maryland gets good practice adapting to two very different styles of play, which will prepare them well for in-conference play. 2) As I mentioned, I do not share the disappointment toward Maryland’s 20-9 over Northern Illinois on Friday night. There are definitely some things to work on but I am still confident Maryland will win 6 games and be bowl eligible this year. Not bad given 4.5 winds was the over/under line. 1) Northern Illinois played an aggressive style of defense and threw a ton of nonconventional looks at true freshman QB Malik Washington. He was pressured, got some happy feet and threw some errant passes because he didn’t set his feet properly on a few throws. Nevertheless, he seemed to adapt and looked better as the game progressed. He finished 19/35 with 2 TDs and 0 INTs. 3) MD was limited to only FOUR possessions in the first half. This was a function of of the style of play of Northern Illinois. Maryland scored on 2/4 possessions to go up 10-0 but their lead was cut to 10-3 as a result of Northern Illinois eating up the final 8:40 of the 1st half on a drive that resulted in a field goal. 4) The games felt more lopsided than the score. The reason is the disparity in success that was not reflected on the scoreboard. In the 2nd half, MD got to the red zone on 5 of 7 possessions, but only scored 1 TD and 1 FG. The other three possessions inside the red zone that resulted in goose eggs were I) a fumble by Malik Washington, II) going for it on 4th and goal from the 4 and not making it., and III) a missed field goal. Ugh. Gonna have to do better in conference play. By comparison, Maryland forced Northern Illinois into 4 3-and-outs and their only scoring possession was a 75-yard run on 3rd and 10. SEASON OVERVIEW AFTER 2 GAMES: MD has a solid defense that will keep them in most games against B1G competition on their schedule, except Oregon and maybe Michigan. Malik Washington looks very promising even as a true freshman but, Maryland will lose most games against good B1G teams because they still have a poor rushing attack, which will make them too one-dimensional on offense against good competition.

Northwestern comes 10 points short, beats Western Illinois 42-7

They also allowed more than Illinois did.

LincolnParkWildcat: Northwestern took care of business against Western Illinois by a score of 42 – 7. I’m worried about Cam Porter’s injury. Preston Stone completed 21/29 passes for zero turnovers and three touchdowns.

I figured this game would be a nice slump-buster after the debacle in the Big Easy, and a game for Stone to get his confidence back. I’m always a little leery of playing lower division teams because I worry we could get overconfident and lose to them like we did against Illinois State. I still think we’re going to have an awful season.

Next week Oregon is going to come to our temporary lakefront stadium and kick our ass

¡El Ássico! Ássicos, Iowa State 16, Iowa State 13

The total was set to 41.5 and it still went under. We’re going to reach 2023 levels of underness aren’t we?

Old habits die hard, as Penn State struggles to put Florida International away, 34 to 0

FIU moved the ball a little too well for my comfort, but the defense stopped them when it mattered. Still, let’s not do that next week thanks.

…and, after seeing Florida lose to South Florida, Clemson be down 16-3 against Troy, LSU struggle with Louisiana Tech, and Georgia struggle with Austin freaking Peay, I’m going stop my bitching thanks.

Take notes, Northwestern: Illinois 45, Duke 19

Unlike their purple counterparts, the Illini took care of business in Durham. Game started out close, but Illinois pulled away as the game wore on. Four more and they’ll avoid a 5-win season following a winning year.

AlmaOtter: I’ve laughed maniacally at a lot of Illinois games, but usually at our ineptitude or our idiocy. This game was different. Yeah, Illinois’ O Line was getting roughed up all day, as was Altmeyer. Duke’s offense would look generally crisp and headed for the end zone until they fumbled it. This pattern happened 3 times (along with an interception and a wonderfully funny muffed punt). It was delightful as hell. I think Illinois could have won with a more balanced turnover ratio, but fuck it. Better to be lucky than good and blow out Duke on their home turf in the process. We’ll possibly be ranked in the top 10 tomorrow for the first time since 2001. A game against A Directional Michigan next week, followed by the first real show: a ranked Illinois v a ranked Indiana. Hasn’t happened since 1950! Keep it rolling, Bert.

HWAHSQB: This was a game that reminded me of so many games from the Zook era, except we came out on top. The overall talent level was similar and yards gained were also similar, but it was our opponent making critical penalties, turnovers, and special teams blunders that caused them to piss the game down their leg. Pretty refreshing to see basic competence from Illinois football. We might lose, but with Bert, we aren’t beating ourselves.

Someone googled themselves: Indiana 56, Kennesaw State 9

Uninspired by their performance from a week ago, they made sure they let a team that went 1-11 last year know who’s boss!

BuffKomodo: Well, Indiana won this game walking away. Perhaps we only learned 2 things today:

Indiana is MUCH better than Wake Forest
Give Curt Cignetti a week and his teams will polish up a lot

I hesitate to say much because, really, it’s hard to make general statements when the scales were this imbalanced. The real “Warning!” sign Indiana needs to address is the way the defense just keeps giving up explosive plays. If they can get that under control and the offense keeps coming along, Indiana could be right back in the CFP mix. Onward to the trees.

Ohio State shows last week was an anomaly, beats Grambling State 70-0

Ryan Day will have you know that offense is still his priority!

MaximumSam: The Buckeyes played. Both teams knew the bands would be the most competitive part of the encounter. They did not disappoint.

Minnesota scores on every play, beats Northwestern State 66 to 0

Lots of shutouts this week. Must be in the water.

WhiteSpeedReceiver: Minnesota 66 points Northwestern State 42 yards. We were joking at halftime about 1) Mark Coyle writing them another check and 2) starting the running time clock for the 2nd half while the high school bands were on the field with the Pride of Minnesota.

The game was called with 6:15 remaining due to weather, and there was nothing to be gained from continuing. All that’s left now is for the AD to get out his wallet.

Money well spent: Oregon 69, Oklahoma State 3

Those are the kind of performances Nike is paying for! And those are the kinds of excuses Oklahoma State is saving for!

Rutgers beats Miami Ohio 45-17

I see what happened. Miami Ohio borrowed Wisconsin’s 17 points from last week.

RUReady4Brazil: Rutgers continues to show an offense better than they have had since at least 2008, maybe ever. The defense looked a lot worse against Miami Hydroxide than Wisconsin did a week ago but eventually they started to get stops and put the game out of reach. With a cupcake next week, it’s all eyes on Iowa who is the all D no O opposite of 2025 RU and something will have to give. History says bet on Iowa.

Apparently Wisconsin has QBs now, wins 42-10 over Middle Tennessee

Is Luke Fickell going to have to make a decision next week?

Michigan State escapes Boston College, 42-40 in double-overtime

That’s a second game without an interception for Aiden Chiles! We might be getting something good here.

Nebraska 68, Akron 0

One way to avoid losing a close game is to not have a close game.

BigRedTwice: I was really scared of the spread in this game, thinking the Huskers could not possibly meet the challenge. They did, and proved two things: 1) just how much psychological damage cheering for this team over the past decade or so has caused; and 2) that Akron is extremely terrible.

I actually spent a lot of this game feeling really bad for Akron. Even their FGs didn’t work out (one doinked, one got blocked) and they’ve scored zero points this season.

That said, it was nice to see the Huskers handily dispatch a team they outmatched without turning it into a needless multi-act dramedy.

Oklahoma 24, Michigan 13

12 million dollars for a 9-24 for 142 yards outing. Oops!

Rockymtnblue: So. That happened. Bryce Underwood was 9/24 passing. Michigan gained 288 yards and only scored 13 points. These bits aren’t the news. They aren’t the problem. The problem an equally questionable Oklahoma offense getting 408 yards and 23 points. Michigan gave up 270 passing yards to a team whose offensive line is nearly as bad. Michigan was never going to be more than “competent” on offense this year, with the most likely case coming in short of that (though probably not as abysmal as last year). But the expectation was the defense would be very good. There’s time to right the ship, but right now this is a 5-7 football team (remaining wins mostly likely to be Central Michigan, Northwestern, Purdue, and Maryland (and I’m not confident about that last one).