clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Sunday Morning Coming Down // Week “6”

It’s a disaster.

By GoForThree
Northwestern v Michigan State Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images

Ten B1G Things

  1. What a disaster
  2. What a mess
  3. What a stupid, stupid, farce of a season
  4. Wow, Northwestern, WTF?
  5. I would’ve given anything for MSU to be favored 4 in this game just to hear hearts break on the last play
  6. Speaking of...if you rewatch Nebraska’s final play in reverse, you’ll hear the sound of a car crash and John Lennon’s voice saying “Scott Frost is dead”
  7. Maybe the kids in the hospital should’ve organized a wave to the Huskers yesterday
  8. Penix went soft on Maryland
  9. Tagovailoa? Turnovailoa, more like
  10. Jimmy Football and Jimmy Ballgame really know how to make rock bottom look like “a classic B1G battle” if the announcers are to be believed
  11. This game marked the 899th victory for the PSU program, and it’s possibly they won’t get to 900 this year
  12. Michigan went 4-12 on third down despite an average of 3.8 yards to gain
  13. Rutger out here beating B1G West teams with a 3rd-string QB
  14. Ohio State cancelling on gameday is neither a good look nor indicative of a season that needs to be happening at all

The Rundown

Northwestern at Michigan State | Fitz flubs it, 29-20

The old rope-a-dope. Michigan State spent the whole season building a reputation for incompetence, only to invite the Wildcats over and beat them about the head. It seemed like Northwestern had gotten out of its own way, only to stall and the cede the lead back to Sparty. The last ditch lateral attempt that turned into a scoop & score for Sparty really topped off this colossal flop.

MNW: lololololololololol Every Northwestern fan who did the “Of ALL the years there’s no Rose Bowl” routine, every Northwestern fan who showed up (or re-showed up) here claiming the ‘Cats were underrespected, every Pat Fitzgerald who thought he could show up claiming disrespect and just MANBALL his way to a win over Michigan State......you idiots. Go away, and don’t come back.The absence of TE John Raine was pronounced. Northwestern lacked a passing threat when it turned out Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman wasn’t having a good “catch the ball” day, Isaiah Bowser is a shell of himself, and a bad offense that finally could not spell the defense caught up to an overrated Northwestern.Seriously, stop a fucking QB draw.A real Pat Fitzgerald special. Go ‘Cats, beat Illinois.

Anodyne Kommentaryski: Multi-score blowout upset. Never in doubt. Hakuna matata, bitches.

OK, not really. MSU found itself in possession of an early 17-point lead, helped generously by Fitzgerald being so damn arrogant that he repeatedly went for it on 4th down instead of pinning his opponent’s anemic offense deep, and also spent most of the game doing the one thing MSU’s defense is still good at stopping - running between the tackles. MSU’s DL whipped Northwestern’s OL more or less from wire to wire, and they got excellent CB play as well. Shakur Brown will get the headlines with 2 INTs, but true freshman Angelo Grose was fantastic tackling in space, and could be MSU’s next real standout in the secondary.Offensively, it was much more of an adventure. Rocky Lombardi, at one point late in the first half, was 2/8 for 90 yards and 2 TDs. He’s never going to complete 70% of his passes or be an NFL prospect, but he hits the long ball like (googles) Pete Alonso, and he’s a capable enough runner to command attention in that dimension as well. The real story for MSU here was finally getting a little traction in the running game. If they can start adding a bit more to Lombardi’s plate in the passing game without him melting down again, they do seem to have the playmakers on hand to drag this offense out of the ditch.

Maryland at Indiana | Hoosiers win game, challenge for worst uniforms, 27-11

Indiana may be in the driver’s seat now with OSU facing COVID trouble, but they don’t seem to know what to do with their newfound responsibility. Penix went 6-19 for a whopping 84 yards just one week after a 500-yard showing against OSU. Hangovers are tough at any age, I guess.

C4B: Indiana games against Maryland always seem to get weird. This one was no exception, and the Hoosiers were fortunate to get out mostly unscathed and with the W. The major bad news is that Mike Penix left early with a leg injury, and didn’t return. Fortunately, the defense was firmly in control of the game, and Jack Tuttle proved capable of handling the rest. There still exists the outside chance that Indiana is still playing for a conference championship berth, but that requires a lot of things outside of their control to happen. For now, another week, another win.

Penn State at Michigan | Winless no more, 27-17

James Franklin and the hapless Nittany Lions finally got that goose-egg off their backs by putting the Wolverines on theirs. McNamara and Milton both played at QB, with the former amounting to little and the latter to nothing at all. This game is a microcosm of a season we’ll all want to forget.

87townie: Well, we didn’t lose. So at least PSU hasn’t gone 0-6 in program history. We played more freshmen than I’ve ever seen, which may be a good thing. Our offensive line is better at run blocking and worse at pass protection than in 2019. Our secondary is a hot mess. And if Shaka Toney is Superman, then clapping is his kryptonite.

Aaron Yorke: A win in Ann Arbor is a win in Ann Arbor. No one is going to give Penn State a medal for finally putting together a good 60 minutes of football against this floundering Michigan team, but this was much needed. It was a good sign that Cade McNamara looked a lot worse against PSU than he did against Rutgers last week, and it was a good sign that Sean Clifford played an entire football game without turning the ball over. It turns out you don’t need to force the passing game if you run the ball, play good defense, and take care of the football. Now all James Franklin needs is a fullback and he can man-ball its way through the final two opponents.

Nebraska at Iowa | Hawkeyes hamblast Husker hopes, 26-20

Me: “Hey, Nebraska got lucky on that Iowa doink...they’re moving the ball...they have a chance to win this!”

Me, exactly one play later, as Martinez gets decleated and fumble-passes to a Hawkeye: “Order has been restored.”

Dead_Read: Nebraska cannot get out of its own way. Does this team have the best personnel in the conference? Nope. Are they at least average? Probably. Can the coaches draw up good plays? Yes, some of them are beautiful. Can the team string enough of them together? Nope. Can this team even consistently master the most basic football skill, snapping the ball? Nu-huh. Will the mental errors and special teams breakdowns ever end? Ever? Yeah probably, but that day seems distant. Maddening. (edited)

I really thought Nebraska might win this one, on the presumption that Iowa would give in to human nature after the putrid Illinois performance. Being underestimated can be a superpower. Maybe they’d overlook us enough. But again, nope. Not enough. (edited)

The narrow win over PSU seems like a dead cat bounce. Until the Huskers learn to conquer the enemy between their ears, this drunken walk of underperforming football will continue.

GBR.

Stewmonkey: Well, we didn’t lose. Six in a row is pretty good against anyone, even if UNL has been almost rutgersian in the time. Iowa’s offense is just putrid. UNL sold out to so the run, darting Petras to beat them with his arm, and he just couldn’t. Luckily UNL decided to give the game away, regardless.

Spencer Petras is just not there. The number of off target throws heavily outweighs anything on the numbers. He just seems incapable of being comfortable in the pocket, and gets happy feet. And every throw seems like it’s double clutched, which makes the accuracy random at best. But nothing here will change, and it’s already cost Iowa two games.

I guess I should also mention Ferentz and Frost’s tiff. Frost accused Iowa’s sideline of imitating their snap clap, which caused the snapping issues.

  1. The clapping didn’t cause the snaps to go at the knees or over the head.
  2. Really?
  3. Really?!?
  4. Ferentz didn’t deny it, and I think that’s hilarious.
  5. If watching tape was enough to see this, maybe change your damn snap sequence.
  6. lol

Creighton: Thank god this year doesn’t count, because Iowa is bad. The system doesn’t need a great QB, but it does need a functional one and right now we don’t have that. Petras has zero feel for the pocket, and he has a mini heart attack every time he drops back to pass. I’ve never seen a QB get spooked and throw an INT from having protection that was too good before... until Friday that is. He has the composure of a spider monkey that found a bag full of cocaine, and I’m not sure if you try to fix that or move to the next man in.Give credit to Nebraska, they went all in on stopping the run knowing that Iowa can’t pass, and it paid off. Iowa struggled to stop Nebraska from getting the edge on run after run, and they didn’t really have an answer for Wandale. Thankfully Nebraska is still Nebraska. Mistakes aplenty were made. QBs were switched out in the middle of drives just because and they couldn’t get a rhythm going on offense. Hawkeyes were bad and made some mistakes, but the Huskers were also bad and made even more mistakes. I guess I should be happy that we keep pulling off these wins, but it feels so empty at this point

Rutger at Purdue | Scarlet Fever outbreak, 37-30

Brian Brohm sure gets paid a lot of money to be a loud, clean-shaven Joe Tiller. That’s all I’m saying. Regardless, I’m really glad to see Greg Schiano finally figured out how to stop the Purdue offense. Where was that genius two years ago, big guy?

BoilerBettor31: I’m done with this season. Fuck you, Bob Diaco. Fuck you, B1G Refs. (edited)

Next Up

Who the f*** knows really?