Uhhhhhhhh

We’ll all get enough time outdoors “enjoying” primitive camping after Purdue wins the B1G this year and our society and planet melt down in the aftermath, so let’s enjoy faux camping as long as we can.

It looks like we’re well on the way. So get your tents, pitch ‘em within twenty feet of a car, and take a nice, long, hot shower at the campground bathroom before it’s too late.

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There shouldn’t be a standard, rule, or guideline for overturning a call via replay. No more “indisputable video evidence,” no more looking through five camera angles showing a runner was down before fumble but because one looks like the fumble came first the call on the field has to stand.

Going forward, there should be a replay-only official who doesn’t watch or listen to the game (who really doesn’t even need to be at the stadium) with sole authority to decide what the outcome of the play being reviewed is. The referees on the field send the play on over to the replay-only official and only identify which call they need reviewed (i.e., Was this a reception? Was the runner down before or after the ball came loose?). The replay-only official then tells the on-field referees the answer (“the runner was down before the ball came loose”), giving not a single turd about the original call on the field, and his decision is the official outcome of the play.

What we have now is a replay system that requires the reviewers to give extreme weight to the call made on the field, during the speed of live play. Refs do the best they can, but it’s obvious that sometimes they’re just guessing—everyone knows there’s no way they actually saw whether the RB crossed the plane on a play run from the ¹⁄₂ yard line, but they’ve gotta make a call so they just make one! Unfortunately, because of the way replay is set up, the reviewers have to stick with the original, possibly guessed at or made up, call on the field, unless they can meet a burden higher than that of our theoretical criminal justice system.

My new brilliant, and honestly simpler, system would let the reviewer have all of the benefits the on-field referees didn’t have in the first place and make it more likely that the “correct” call is the final result, rather than simply the call for which there wasn’t indisputable video evidence to overturn (seriously, nobody who has read the comments on OTE would be so naive as to use “indisputable” as a definition for anything). And in the event the replay ref can’t figure out what the call should be (see, e.g., the pileup at the goal line, supra), the call on the field stands.

Prove me wrong.

The Disclaimer

If your team’s favorite player isn’t chosen as a Player of the Week, one of three things happened: (1) It involved a player not involved in Wisconsin’s most recent game; (2) your favorite team’s writer didn’t submit the player for POTW honors; or (3) you favorite team’s player really wasn’t as awesome as you thought.

Sometimes a player will get picked because of the awesome raw stats; sometimes he’ll get picked because of good stats plus situational significance; sometimes he’ll get picked because he did pretty well and plays for Wisconsin; and most of the time he just won’t get picked. Leave your complaints in the comments.

Defensive Player of the Week

Yetur Gross-Matos - DE - Penn State

10 tackles, 2 TFL, 2 sacks

Other than Yetur Gross-Matos (and McSorely from the waist down), it really seemed like most of the PSU players did what they could to lose to Indiana last week. Gross-Matos appeared to dominate for much of the game, leading (along with Indiana’s Ball) all tacklers with ten tackles on the day, including two sacks. I have nothing more to add.

Edit: Shaka Toney (DE-PSU) had four sacks on Saturday? Maybe he should have been OTE B1G DPOY. Oh well, too late to change anything now (NOTE: It’s 10:30pm on Sunday...there’s plenty of time but I’m lazy with having to format and such).

There were a lot of good team defensive efforts Defensive Players of Week 8

Markus Bailey - LB - Purdue - 15 tackles, 0.5 TFL, 1 Int, 1 pick-six - Big Ten DPOTW

Trevor Morris - LB - Rutgers - 8 tackles, 1 TFL, 0.5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery

Evan Bondoc - S - Wisconsin - 5 tackles, 1 Int, 1 forced fumble - 1st career start

Special Teams Player of the Week

Adam Korsack - P - Rutgers - Big Ten STPOTW

9 punts, 46.0 average, 79(!!!) long

Wow, what a week for B1G punters! Adam Korsack, and the three guys listed below, had some tremendous punts on a day when it seemed like doing anything through the air incurred special challenges and punishments. Korsack had the best day of the four, though, averaging the most yards per punt of the four, significantly helped by a single punt that, I assume, landed exactly seventy-nine yards away from the LOS and rolled perpendicular to sideline for a zero return. Even if “all” he did was punt it fifty yards through the air and have it roll twenty-nine yards further...he still kicked it from like his own five-yard line (seven yards behind the LOS) to the other team’s nine.** That’s crazy.

** Obviously I didn’t actually see the punt and my three-second attempt to find a jif or clip on Google failed, so if I got a couple of the numbers wrong...okay.

Rutgers Sure Punts A Lot And We Should Recognize Workhorse Punters Punter(s) of Week 8

Too many great punting performances this week to limit it to just one! Here they are, ranked by punt length:

Jake Collins - P - Northwestern - 7 punts, 39.1 avg, 70(!!) long

Will Hart - P - Michigan - 8 punts, 45.8 avg, 65(!) long

Tyler Hunt - P - Michigan State - 11(!!!!) punts, 41.5 avg, 60 long

Offensive Player of the Week

David Blough - QB - Purdue - Big Ten OPOTW

24/43 passing, 378 yards, 3 TDs, 0 turnovers

The disclaimer is up top, but after last week, I need to add another: I don’t just give the OPOTW award to whichever player accumulates the most total yards. If I did, Adrian Martinez, who had a crazy awesome game, albeit against a horrid team, would have won this award. Instead, David Blough, who led his team’s offense to a blowout (at least compared to the pregame spread, if not an actual blowout) of the formerly-#2 team in the country, won the award. Blough protected the ball and made sure it got into the hands of his best and most important players. This far into the season, and Blough is no worse than the 2nd-best QB in the B1G. Crazy that that other QB for Purdue whose name I can’t remember right now got so much run early in the season.

Yes, I am preemptively worried about Wisconsin’s secondary and pass rush against Blough later this year.

Basically just Purdue and Nebraska’s skill players Offensive Players of Week 8

Adrian Martinez - QB - Nebraska - 25/29 passing, 276 yards, 3 TD; 15 carries, 125 yards, 1 TD - Big Ten Co-FOTW

Devine Ozigbo - RB - Nebraska - 12 carries, 152 yards, 3 TDs

Stanley Morgan - WR - Nebraska - 10 receptions, 163 yards, 2 TDs

Rondale Moore - WR - Purdue - 12 receptions, 170 yards, 2 TDs - OTE B1G FOTW - Big Ten Co-FOTW

D.J. Knox - RB - Purdue - 16 carries, 128 yards, 3 TDs

Freshman of the Week

Rondale Moore - WR - Purdue - Big Ten Co-FOTW

12 receptions, 170 yards, 2 TDs

As with the OTE B1G OPOTW battle between Blough and Martinez, this week’s OTE B1G FOTW pits a Purdue player against Adrian Martinez. Rondale Moore absolutely torched Ohio State repeatedly, shedding pass defenders, running over and through tacklers, and scoring one of the most morale-destroying TDs I can remember. Again, it’s not a ding against Martinez or his fault that his murdered a trash program, but as the Disclaimer says above, great performances in top level games matters.

This low-key contender for Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year (think about it! QBs are sooooo boring) is absolutely going to single-handedly beat Wisconsin in a couple weeks, and I’m already sad about it.

Nebraska’s offensive future looks really bright Freshmen of Week 8

Adrian Martinez - QB - Nebraska - 25/29 passing, 276 yards, 3 TD; 15 carries, 125 yards, 1 TD - Big Ten Co-FOTW

Maurice Washington - RB - Nebraska - 14 carries, 109 yards

Award Formerly Known As “Honorary Purdue Boner of the Week” Boner of the Week

Purdue!!! You did it, but in a way that actually matters this time!!!!! You won an huge game against a top-notch opponent and once again in such an impressive and resounding performance that no amount of boners you committed—of which, I assure you, there were oodles in the first half—could cost you the game. Ohio State, on the other hand?

I assume 53 was attempting to claim he got blocked into the punter?

Also re: Ohio State, see the Rondale Moore play from above.

Actually Really Good Play of the Week