My apologies for forgetting what I originally called this article each week until now. I am a bit rusty since I haven’t been here for three years. This week was a light one in the Big Ten as a lot of teams had the week off. The conference still has three solid playoff teams in Ohio State, Penn State, and Oregon, but Indiana, my goodness, Indiana. They are taking out a century’s worth of frustration on everyone under Curt Cignetti. They are the team that looked the best this week.
Iowa 38, Rutgers
28
Apparently if you put Kirk Ferentz on Friday night he gets deep into the playbook and actually tries to offense. This was a 14-14 game after a quarter, something that surprised a lot of folks. Athan Kaliakmanis had 300 yards passing! When is the last time an Iowa quarterback did that in a Big Ten game?
Oregon 41, Oregon State 7
The Beavers are really struggling in year two of the zombie Pac-12, and getting stuffed into a locker for the final three quarters by Oregon doesn’t help. Too bad Purdue’s return trip to Corvallis wasn’t this year instead of last year.
Indiana 63, Illinois 10
I will go ahead and say it: Purdue has a very good chance of beating Illinois after the bye week. This was only Indiana’s seventh ever win over a top 10 team, and first in over three decades. The Hoosiers might be better than last year, and that is kinda scary. Illinois, meanwhile, was hilariously overrated.
Notre Dame 56, Purdue 30
Obviously, the Boilers have a lot to work on defensively after giving up 42 points in the middle two quarters. Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price basically got to hold a track meet most of the afternoon and for the second straight week the Boilers did not force a punt. Still, this was significant improvement over last season. The next four games against Illinois, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Rutgers present a stretch of winnable games. The Boilers probably need to go 3-1 to have any shot at a bowl game, but with even some modest defensive adjustments there is a chance. This was at least a competitive game into the second half.
Michigan 30, Nebraska 27
A game that was pretty close throughout. I think Michigan got better because they were pushed on the road by a solid, but not spectacular Nebraska team. The Wolverines at USC in a couple of weeks feels like an elimination game for true Big Ten contenders.
USC 45, Michigan State 31
Suddenly the Purdue defense performance against the Trojans in week 3 isn’t so bad. USC has one of the nation’s better offenses and Purdue gave up points, but held them to five field goal attempts. I do not envy their next three games at Illinois, home against Michigan, and at Notre Dame.
Maryland 27, Wisconsin 10
Of course the Badgers are off of our schedule the year they are terrible. Wisconsin, you had a system that had you as a constant 8-10 win team every year. Got back to what you do: run the ball behind some gigantic humans.
Washington 59, Washington State 24
This game was a lot more competitive at 31-24 entering the fourth quarter. The Huskies then got three scores in a 3 minute span to turn it into a rout. The Ryan Walters defense created three turnovers, something it most assuredly did not do all of last season.
