In a week where it felt like every highly ranked team in the country added a loss to its resume, the B1G fared better than most, ending the week with three teams ranked in the top 10 of the AP Poll. Here’s where every team stacks up after a chaotic Week 7 of CFB
1. No.3 Ohio State ( 6-1, 4-0 B1G)
The number one team in the conference stays there after going into the home of the defending national champions and leaving (by the width of half a foot) with a victory.
The offense (Julian Sayin specifically) struggled for large swathes of this
one and directly gave IU points by setting the Hoosiers up with short fields.
But having a 6’4”, 222-lb get-out-of-jail-free card can iron out those issues. The defense also held IU well below its season average as well.
The injury to Sayin is a long-term concern, especially because Luke Fahey had -2 total yards in his absence, but I’ll wait until he plays a full game against USC before I move down the team that has looked like the best in the country for all but 15 minutes in Texas.
2. No.6 Indiana (6-1, 3-1 B1G)
Indiana doesn’t drop this week because—as alluded to earlier—everyone is having an entirely different conversation if Josh Hoover places that ball a yard to the right or if Nick Marsh watches his steps a little more closely.
As was the case for Ohio State, the Hoosiers’ defense played lights out on Saturday. Four sacks, two interceptions, a fumble forced and holding the Buckeyes to 3.7 (!) yards per play. On another day, maybe they recover that fumble they forced, and maybe the Buckeyes don’t recover both of the ones they forced.
These types of losses are so brutal purely because they are winnable, and it’d be hard to drop IU for losing to a top five team in the country by a literal foot.
3. No. 9 UCLA (6-0, 4-0 B1G)
You don’t get bonus points for winning pretty. UCLA is the only team in the SEC or B1G that can call itself undefeated. Nico Iamaleava or not, there was no way this team was going to drop at all.
QB3 aside, this was a wire-to-wire defensive clinic from the Bruins. Colton Joseph has thrown for five touchdowns in his last two games; UCLA held him to 66 yards while holding the Wisconsin offense as a whole to just over 200 yards on sub-four yards per play. UCLA dominated in the first downs, time of possession, total yards, and virtually every metric across the board. The defense has been lights out all year; the team has three mid-season All-Americans. These wins can’t be written off as flukes anymore. Next week is Michigan State at home; I expect nothing else but another dominating win.
4. No. 15 Iowa (5-1, 2-1 B1G )
It’s a bye week. No teams below the Hawkeyes had enough of a statement to knock them down in their week off. Next week is at Minnesota, who also had a bye this past week. Iowa should be able to handle business on the road.
5. No. 24 Northwestern (5-1, 2-1 B1G)
Well, that was an interesting one in East Lansing.
It’s no exaggeration to say that the Wildcats survived that encounter against former coach Pat Fitzgerald. The elite run game looked pedestrian; the injuries in the secondary really showed on multiple downs. Plenty of fortunate bounces (and errant throws) went Northwestern’s way throughout the game.
Fortunately, Chiles was able to put on the Superman cape and drag NU out of the rut in the fourth quarter. The Michigan State transfer has continued to be one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the nation. Rutgers coming to New Ryan Field should be a good get-right game for the rest of the ’Cats roster against a team near the bottom of the conference.
6. Oregon (4-2, 2-1 B1G)[+2]
This is liable to be the worst-received placement amongst the entire list. Part of this is because I partly disagree with having Oregon below USC in the first place, given the two teams played each other and the Ducks won convincingly. The other part of it is that Nebraska has proven it’s a quality opponent, and the Ducks ground out a tough win against them with two backup quarterbacks combining for ~100 passing yards.
The Oklahoma State loss ages better as we’ve learned that Drew Mestemaker is elite, and we’ve talked about UCLA already.
Now the Ducks travel to Illinois before welcoming the ’Cats to Eugene on Halloween, which should be their next real test.
7. No. 16 USC (6-1, 3-1 B1G) [-1]
Moving a team down during a bye always feels extremely cruel, but again, this is more a case of correcting rankings that were already a little bit off. I think Zac put it best last week: this team is lacking that one signature performance. They have a chance to get two under their belt with games at Wisconsin and vs. Ohio State upcoming.
8. Nebraska (5-2, 2-2 B1G) [-1]
A streaking Nebraska team was stifled in Autzen and thus fell down a spot in this week’s rankings as Oregon overtook them. It felt like Saturday was a case of the Cornhuskers losing steam as the game— which kicked off at 10:00 Central— wore on. Oregon scored on three of its last four possessions, with its final two combining for 37 total plays and spanning over 12 minutes of game clock.
9. Wisconsin (4-2, 2-1 B1G)
The Badgers had a very similar week to the Cornhuskers, losing on the road to one of the top teams in the conference in a defense-oriented slugfest. Wisconsin’s offense couldn’t find a foothold, only scoring on a short-field drive, and the defense couldn’t get enough of a break. Usually, Jayden Maiava and Co. coming to town for a night game is the last thing a defense that is trying to bounce back wants to see, but good defenses have slowed the Trojans down this year. Wisconsin aims to be one of them.
10. Washington (4-3, 1-3 B1G) [+3]
This week’s biggest risers, and another potential spot for controversy in this week’s rankings. Ranking all of Washington, Purdue and Minnesota was difficult considering they are all 1-1 against each other, but I think Washington’s win is the most impressive considering it came on the road, in primetime, with a backup quarterback. Yes, there were turnovers, but they won in spite of them, thanks to the offense being arguably the most explosive as it’s looked all season.
I’m fully willing to admit this might be an overreaction, especially if the Huskies flounder in Nebraska after the bye, but I think this is the most talented squad of this three-team cluster
11. Purdue ( 3-4, 2-2 B1G)[-1]
The Boilermakers cooled off following a two-game win streak that included a dominating win over Minnesota. This is a Purdue team that, admittedly, is used to giving up a lot of points, but giving up nearly 500 yards of offense and almost 8 yards per play to a team down its starting quarterback is egregious even for the Boilermakers. Purdue isn’t in action again until it heads to Happy Valley, a place where its potent offense should continue to be able to put up points.
12. Minnesota (4-2, 2-1 B1G) [-1]
The Golden Gophers unfortunately fall victim to the dreaded bye-week drop. They have a chance to stake their claim for a higher spot this upcoming week when they host Iowa in what should be a defensive slugfest, considering Minnesota still ranks top 15 in the country in defensive yards allowed
13. Michigan(4-2, 1-2 B1G) [-1]
Benching Bryce Underwood at the half did lead to a much more explosive rushing attack in the second half on Saturday, but it is unknown whether Tommy Carr will start against Indiana, so we might not see the “new-look” offense again anyways. The defense did have itself another decent showing, but nothing that really inspires too much confidence ahead of a visit from the champs
14. Penn State (3-4, 0-4 B1G)
The spiral continues for the Nittany Lions after a poor showing in the Big House drops them down to 3-4 on the year. Penn State isn’t faced with many of the conference’s “heavy hitters” the rest of the season, but it’s still hard to see where the conference wins are going to come from the rest of the way.
15. Illinois( 3-3, 1-2 B1G)
Bye week for the Illini. Like Zac said last week, his upcoming slate is going to be a gauntlet, and one or two wins in that stretch would be enough to propel them high up the power rankings. Time will tell if they get it done.
16. Michigan State(2-5, 0-4 B1G)
Michigan State had a top 25 team on the ropes for the entirety of the second half. A few better-placed balls from Alessandro Milivojevic and some better luck on the go-ahead field goal would have given Fitzgerald’s unit a signature win under its belt. Alas, they didn’t get it done, and I couldn’t bring myself to move a team— following a loss— above a team it had just lost to the week prior
17. Rutgers (2-4, 1-2 B1G) [+1]
No one has doubted the offensive playmakers this Rutgers team has, and those playmakers showed up on Saturday to give the Scarlet Knights their first in-conference win of the season. It was against another B1G bottom feeder, admittedly, but any win is a resume booster if you’re bottom of the rankings.
18. Maryland( 2-5, 0-4. B1G) [-1]
Losing at home to the (former) worst team in the conference, while holding a 10-point lead going into the half and losing the time-of-possession battle by 15 minutes, is a rough look. Maryland has struggled to look competitive at any point in the season; it’s led to its defensive coordinator losing his job, five losses on the bounce, and a spot in the basement of this week’s B1G power rankings.
