B1G Recap: Week One

Welcome to what will officially be my weekly segment in regards to in-season coverage.  Each week, I'll give ya'll a summary of what went down each week in the B1ggest of all the conferences.  So let's get to it.

Indiana 73 Indiana State 35

Newsflash: Indiana's offense is going to be a fun one to watch this year.  Nate Sudfeld and Tre Roberson combined to throw for 319 yards and 6 touchdowns, while the Hoosiers picked up an insane 313 yards on the ground.  Indiana scored at least one touchdown in each quarter of this game, with 3 touchdowns each in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters.  In terms of their defense, they surely couldn't have been happy to give up 35 points to Indiana State.  While Indiana will have a dangerous offense this year, they won't be putting up 70 points on Big Ten defenses, and Big Ten offenses are (mostly) better than Indiana State.  They have adjustments to make, but Indiana certainly got off to a wonderful start to the season.

Minnesota 51 UNLV 23

Guess how many passing yards Minnesota had?  You're wrong.  They only had 99.  They picked up 221 yards on the ground, but that seems a little low, right?  Well the Golden Gophers chose to score in some other types of ways in this one.  A 98 yard kickoff return for a touchdown, a 51 yard blocked kick return, and an 89 yard pick six provided plenty of punch for the Gophers on this day.

Michigan State 26 Western Michigan 13

If any Michigan State fans were hoping for the kind of performance that gives them faith in their offense, those people went home disappointed.  Both MSU quarterbacks just couldn't get anything going at all, combining for just 116 yards on the day.  One thing Sparty fans can hang their hat on though, was Jeremy Langford.  The new starting ball carrier in East Lansing looked fantastic, bowling over defenders, as well as showing nice lateral movement, and smooth cuts through the defense.  If they want to continue winning games, their passing offense will have to start showing up, but for now, their elite defense and powerful running game should keep them afloat.

Ohio State 40 Buffalo 20

Buffalo actually made this a game late in the 2nd, getting the deficit down to 10 points.  Unfortunately for the Bulls, Jordan Hall was waltzing into the endzone for the Buckeyes, less than 20 seconds later.  Not much to say about blowouts like this from the #2 team in the country.  Jordan Hall finished with a sparkling 159 yards, averaging 7.6 yards per carry, while picking up his 2 touchdowns.  Braxton Miller threw for 178 yards, to go with 2 touchdowns and an interception.  A point of concern for Buckeyes fans in this one was Ryan Shazier being carted off the field for cramps.  I'm no D1 football player, or D1 doctor, but for a guy to be carted off for cramps and to have an extended stay in the locker room, I would assume there's something else going on there.

Wisconsin 45 UMass 0

Joel Stave was solid in this one for Wisconsin.  He threw for a modest 197 yards with 2 touchdowns and a pick, while rushing for one as well.  The thing I was most excited about in this game (As a football fan, not as a Penn State fan), was the performance put on by Melvin Gordon (144 rushing yards and a TD).  I was never a big fan of Montee Ball.  I thought he was overrated, and that his huge stats were owed in huge part to his offensive lines (Paging 2005 Shaun Alexander).  While Melvin Gordon will surely never touch the TD record, I think he will be known as a much more dangerous back than Ball was, when all is said and done.  But, to make sure I'm fairly passing around the love here, James White also had 143 yards of his own.  Anyways, the Badgers picked up just shy of 400 yards on the ground and ran away with this one.  Miss you already BERT.

Illinois 42 Southern Illinois 34

I feel dirty talking about Illinois, so I'll keep this one short.  Nathan Scheelhaase threw for over 400 yards with 2 touchdowns and a pick.  It's a good thing he was able to do that damage in the air, because the Illini defense still gave up 34 points, and the running backs only found 49 yards to work with on the ground.  Don't let the scoreline fool you, this team is still going to finish last, or second to last in the Big Ten.

Cincinnati 42 Purdue 7

This game was tons of fun to watch early on.  The two teams traded two of the more ridiculous interceptions I've seen in a while before Cincy decided to get down to business.  While Cincy is a very solid team and would give anyone trouble, this was a disappointing effort out of Purdont.  They couldn't get anything going on offense, passing for just 161, and rushing for only 65.  Cincy, on its end, was able to put up over 200 yards of offense in both phases of the game, wearing out the Boilermakers defense.  I'm sure Purdue fans would also love to not see 4 turnovers in the future (Although like I said earlier, the first interception was ridonkulous).

Michigan 59 Central Michigan 9

Hey, at least they scored.  Devin Gardner wasn't anything special in this one, but it didn't really matter.  And we got to see some of Shane Morris in this one as well (Highly touted QB recruit from the 2013 class).  The Wolverines pounded their way to 242 yards on the ground with 6 touchdowns to boot.  This one was never close as the Wolverines started off their 2013 campaign in quite the style, despite the opponent.

Northern Illinois 30 Iowa 27

I think we broke Iowa, guys.  The Hawkeyes continued in their losing ways from last season right away.  Jordan Lynch is considered to be one of the top QB's in the nation and today he played like one, throwing for 275 yards and three touchdowns while adding 56 on the ground, giving Northern Illinois all the firepower it needed to complete the 4th quarter comeback over Iowa.  With 5 minutes to go in the game, Iowa held a one touchdown lead before Lynch found Da'Ron Brown to tie it up.  Then, with four seconds to go, N. Illinois kicker Mathew Sims hit a 36-yarder to seal it for the Northern boys of that state Tim Beckman lives in.

Nebraska 37 Wyoming 34

This was almost the shocker of the week.  With a 16-point lead late in the 4th quarter, it looked like the Cornhuskers were ready to pack it in and glide to the finish line.  Well, Wyoming and quarterback Brett Smith were having none of that.  Smith had a huge day, throwing for 383 yards with 4 touchdowns, while running for 92 as well.  With 1:32 to go, Smith found Robert Herron for a 47 yard touchdown which put Wyoming in position to pull off the upset.  After Wyoming forced a three-and-out after recovering the onside kick, Smith tried to make magic happen once more.  It seems like Tinkerbell had left his side by then, though.  Two holding penalties negated any chance they had to go down the field, and the game ended in Wyoming heartbreak as Nebraska's terrible defense lives to be cheated into wins for another day.

Northwestern 44 California 30

For the fanfare about how great of a coach Pat Fitzgerald is, I am continually dumbfounded by his lack of packages and plays for Kain Colter.  Dude is probably the best athlete in the B1G, and yet he's only take 3 or 4 snaps, getting a couple rushes, and a pass or two per game.  I might be blinded by my man crush, but I'm going to continue to complain about it anyway.  Trevor Siemian was solid, throwing for 276 yards, and a touchdown, and two picks.  The Wildcats were able to find 209 yards worth of rushing room with 129 of them coming from Treyvon Green..  For Cal, Jared Goff aired it out quite a bit, throwing for 445 yards on 63 attempts.  He connected with 2 of his men in the endzone, but also completed passes to 3 Northwestern defenders as well.  Northwestern will need to improve their defense if they want to live up to their #22 ranking, but a win's a win.

That's all errbody.  Hope you enjoyed the first weekend of college football as much as I did.  Stay B1G.  Go State.

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