Big Ten Review: Week 2

The week after I praise Indiana for having the potential to be not terrible this year, they go and lose.  In doing so, they became the only B1G team to lose this week.  So, yeah, way to go Indiana.  Oh, what's that?  You came here to find out what happened in those other Big Ten games?  Well then do I have the post for you...

Michigan State 21 USF 6

For the second week in a row, the Spartan defense outscored the Spartan offense.  Three different MSU quarterbacks played in this one (Andrew Maxwell, Connor Cook, and Tyler O'Connor), combining to throw for only 94 yards.  The Spartans did, however, find marginal success running the ball, picking up 171 yards on 38 carries.  The Spartans are going to be in major trouble once they meet up with a team that can do something against their offense (Although to their credit, their defense is pretty outstanding right now).  After I praised Langford last week, he had somewhat of a down week this go around, picking up only 38 yards and touchdown.  He's still someone to watch, but as with this entire Michigan State team, more needs to be seen.

Wisconsin 48 Tennessee Tech 0

One of my favorite non-Penn State players, Melvin Gordon, picked up a casual 140 rushing yards in one half of football, to add to the unreal total of 387 rushing yards for Wisky as a whole.  Stave passed for 219 with 3 touchdowns, spreading the ball around to 8 different receivers.  While it's an FCS opponent, a 48-0 beat down is still impressive for the Badgers.  They are definitely a less talented team than the past few years, but they certainly aren't playing like it yet.  I'll wait until Big Ten play to make any bold assertions, but for now, this Wisky squad look legit.

Illinois 45 Cincinnati 17

Ew.  I hate to say good things about Illinois, but they looked pretty good in this one.  Cincy played well enough last week to make me think they had this one in the bag as well, but I guess I forgot about 17th year senior Nate Scheelhaase.  Scheelhaase threw for 312 yards with 4 touchdowns, as the Illini cruised past the Bearcats.  Unfortunately for Cincy, they also lost starting quarterback Munchie Legaux to injury, in the 4th quarter no less.  This game was still within striking distance for the Bearcats entering the 4th, when Beckman's squad found some inspiration to pour it on, adding 17 in the 4th quarter (amateurs).  My opinion of Illinois still hasn't changed, though.  They still need to do more to prove to me that they're not staring 2nd to last in the Big Ten in the face.

Iowa 28 Missouri State 14

Iowa won for the first time in 11 months.  Let that sink in for a second.  11 months.  1.  1.  11.  Wow.  Jake Rudock and Mark Weisman both ran for 2 touchdowns each, the last of which helped quell a 4th quarter rally by the Bears of Missouri State, after they had pulled to within a touchdown.  Aside from the win itself, the bright spot for the Hawkeyes was Mark Weisman.  The running back picked up 180 yards on 30 carries, along with the 2 touchdowns.  On the downside for Iowa, they have to play a real team next week.  And although Iowa State did lose to Northern Iowa in week one, they're coming off of a bye week now, and into a rivalry game.  Iowa better be prepared to put on a little bit more of a show next weekend if they want to continue this winning streak.

Purdue 20 Indiana State 14

Hooray Purdue!  Darrell Hazell became the newest Purdue coach to win a football game, as his team was able to barely hold off the Sycamores of Indiana State.  Purdue should have had this game easily in hand, if it wasn't some serious miscues in the red zone.  In the first half, Purdue had the ball on the 1 yard line for 6 plays, and took a combined 3 points way from those plays.  Indiana State had one last chance to steal this game away, but Ricardo Allen grabbed the game ending interception on the final drive to seal the deal for Purdue.  Indiana State out-gained Purdue in total offense, which is something the Boilermakers cannot expect to win with in the future.  Rob Henry was only able to throw for 150 yards on the Sycamore defense, which has to be disappointing for Boilermaker fans.

Ohio State 42 San Diego State 7

Well, at least you didn't get shut out, Aztecs.  After Braxton Miller left the game with a sprained knee, Kenny Guiton came in and proceeded to show yet again, why he's one of the better back up quarterbacks in college football.  He didn't light the world on fire, but he didn't need to.  The Buckeyes smashed their way to 263 yards on the ground, while San Diego State was only able to find 64 yards worth of rushing space.  This game went pretty much as the entire country expected it would.  OSU jumped out with 3 touchdowns in the first quarter, and never looked back.  San Diego State was able to avoid the shutout by picking up a touchdown with less than 2 minutes remaining.  The fact that Guiton led the team is rushing could be seen as a positive or a negative, but there's no doubt that he could be a starter for most teams (But not Brady Hoke, because he would put Johnny Manziel behind Devin Gardner on a depth chart).

Northwestern 48 Syracuse 27

The Wildcats certainly showed why they deserve their top 25 ranking on this day.  They held a 34-7 lead at halftime, and just obliterated the Syracuse defense in doing so.  Trevor Siemian threw for 3 touchdowns on 259 passing yards, while Kain Colter threw for 116 with a touchdown, and ran for 87 and a touchdown.  Drew Allen, who was clearly still upset about the week before, threw 4 interceptions for the day, making offense a simple task for the men of Northwestern.  Cuse was at least able to put up a few late touchdowns to make the score look somewhat respectable.  The Wildcats picked up 206 yards on the ground, and 375 through the air on their way to earning their second win. over their ACC enemy, Saturday.

Navy 41 Indiana 35

Navy played with the fire of playing for Coach Niumatalolo's late mother, and took down the Hoosiers of Indiana.  Using their famous triple option, Navy attempted only 4 passes on the day, instead opting to rush for 444 yards on 70 carries, to take down the continually, defensively weak Indiana.  On Indiana's side of the ball, Nate Sudfield had quite a game despite the loss, throwing for 363 yards with 4 touchdowns and 1 interception.  However, as great as the potential of the Hoosier offense is, they will continue to fail as long as their defense remains the worthless sack of crap that it is.  They also suffered on the ground a little bit, as 118 total rush yards, is not the number you want to see for a high octane offense.

Nebraska 56 Southern Miss 13

In a surprising change from their normal style, Nebraska's defense decided to play some big boy football this weekend.  Stanley Jean-Baptiste and Ciante Evans each returned interceptions for touchdowns in the first quarter  The Huskers racked up 479 total yards of offense, getting another strong performance for 57th year senior Taylor Martinez.  Martinez threw for a very efficient 170 yards and 3 touchdowns, to go with 34 rushing yards.  Ameer Abdullah added 114 yards on the ground to help supplement the strong defensive showing.  If the Huskers can find some sort of consistent defense to pair with their powerful offense, this could very well be the team to beat in the Legends division this season.  But that won't be the case if the next team has anything to say about it...

Michigan 41 Notre Dame 30

This game was incredible.  It had huge momentum swings, fantastic plays, loud fans, great atmosphere, the works.  Not to mention a record crowd of 115,109 fans to watch it.  On a night where Devin Gardner honored Michigan legend Tom Harmon by wearing his old number 98, Michigan was able to end this rivalry (for the time being) in style.  Michigan was in control for most of the game until Gardner decided to do something that someone wearing #98 normally would try to do at quarterback.  Too much.

While I admire the effort, this might have been worse than buttfumble.  Because this took effort to accomplish, whereas buttfumble was just Mark Sanchez being terrible at his job.  But anyways.  Michigan was able to hold on despite this pick 6, punching the ball in the endzone one more times on the next drive.  Despite that terrible play, Devin Gardner played a hell of a game.  He finished with 294 yards passing and 82 yards rushing, accounting for 5 total touchdowns.  I still think Penn State is going to win when the Wolverines come to visit, but Gardner will give us all we can handle, that is for sure.

Minnesota 44 New Mexico State  21

Minnesota played like the potential bowl game team that they are on Saturday.  They picked up 342 yards on the ground, mainly thanks to Williams Jr. and QB Philip Nelson.  The Gophers had two different rushers go for over 100 yards, as the team went for 342 yards altogether.  One of the main concerns for this Golden Gophers squad, however, remains the defense.  Giving up 21 points to New Mexico just isn't good.  All of the rushers seemed very confident when bowling through defenders, and finding lots of success doing so.  The Gophers exploded in the 2nd quarter, putting up 24 points of pure college football chaos.  As is the case with so many other Big Ten schools right now, Minnesota needs to have a stronger defense.  Whether that means more conservative play calling, or whatever else, something must change.  The Gophers better prepare for B1G play, and they better do it quickly.

Tired now.  Sleep.  Go State.  Go Hawks.

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