What a weekend for football, Penn State gave fans something to talk about for a long time, but they weren't the only ones. Indiana and Northwestern decided the brand of defense Penn State plays is boring and took turns lighting up the scoreboard. Purdue's hopes (pun intended) of relevance lasted exactly one week and then there was the debacle that was Iowa - Minnesota. Let me put it this way, Iowa has 5 wins, and they'll get 6 when they play Purdue but they face three ranked teams in Michigan, Michigan State, and Nebraska. Yikes.
Indiana State (5-3)
Lost to Illinois State 17-14
After scoring no fewer than 23 points in any game not involving Devon Still, Indiana State was held to 14 points and 267 yards total against the Redbirds. Shakir Bell rushed for 123 yards, but couldn’t find the end zone and penalties (11- 93) killed the Sycamores. A third quarter touchdown pass from quarterback Matt Brown to James O'Shaughnessy* (10 yards) gave Illinois State a 17-6 lead that Indiana State could not come back from. Ben Obaseki scored from 1 yard out in the 4th quarter to make it 17-14 with 6:59 to play and Indiana State recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff but Tann Frischle missed a 41-yard attempt to tie the game.
Next up: North Dakota State who is 8-0 on the season – good luck with that
#3 Alabama (7-0)
BYE
Next up: #1 LSU
Temple (5-2)
BYE
Next up: Ohio
Eastern Michigan (5-3)
BYE – this week’s recap is easy like Sunday morning
Next up: Ball State
Indiana (1-8)
Lost to Northwestern 59-38
It was Northwestern’s turn to run up crazy Xbox numbers on a terrible Indiana defense. The Wildcats scored on 9 of their first 10 possessions and racked up 616 yards of offense and 30, 30! first downs. Of course they weren’t as impressive on defense giving up an equally unimpressive 28 first downs and 488 yards of offense to the Hoosiers.
Each team rushed for 300 yards and change as Northwestern's Jacob Schmidt ran 15 times for 110 yards with 2 scores and Indiana’s Stephen Houston ran for 151 yards and 2 scores. The difference though was Dan Persa who was a crisp 16 of 20 for 261 yards, 3 touchdowns and no picks. Just for the Hell of it, Kain Colter replaced Persa in the 4th quarter and completed 2 passes…. both touchdowns to give the Wildcats a record-tying 5 TD passes in the game. Oh, by the way, Colter also had 6 receptions for 115 yards as Northwestern’s leading receiver.
Congrats Indiana, you are officially the B1G’s worst team thanks to Iowa.
Next up: Ohio State
Iowa (5-3)
Lost to Minnesota 22-21
Speaking of LOLowa… my God how far have you fallen? The fact that I started out this season with an innate fear of you makes me shake my head in disgust. It’s not that you let a crappy team hang around for 4 quarters, it’s not that you blew a 21-10 4th quarter lead, and it’s not that you wasted a 252 yard day from running back Marcus Coker… it’s…. well, no it’s all that. Hey, do you guys know that Minnesota has this thing called an onside kick? Yeah, it’s really cool… when you play 15 yards off the ball they just tap it 10 yards and jump on it. Totally legal or so I think, I mean they’ve done it to you 2 years in a row and no penalty. Must be. There’s also this thing called defense… na you guys wouldn’t be interested. Moving on…
Next up: Michigan
Purdue (4-4)
Lost to Michigan 36-14
Hey Danny Hope, remember last week when you said "We’re still in control of our own destiny?" So much for that. Now you get a pissed off Wisconsin, a resurgent Ohio State, and a desperate Iowa who might be fighting for a bowl game against you. Good luck with that.
Oh, an hey look at this, Michigan has an offensive weapon other than Denard Robinson, at least against Purdue’s defense they did. Running back Fitzgerald Toussaint rushed 20 times for a career-high 170 yards while finding the end zone twice. Yeah, I’m not sure who Toussaint is either but he had a total of just over 400 yards coming into the game so that should be testament to the boilermakers defense. For Purdue, Caleb TerBush passed for 156 yards and rushed for 38, both tops for the team. That should just about sum it up for Purdue.
Next up: Wisconsin
Northwestern (3-5)
Beat Indiana 59-38
Next up: Nebraska
* O'Shaughnessy totally sounds like a cheap Irish whiskey… that or a venereal disease (damn dude, I got O'Shaughnessy again!)