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Sunday Morning Coming Down // Week 10

Chief Illiniwek returns to earth in this week’s madcap installment of B1G Football

By GoForThree
/ new
Michigan State v Illinois Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images
  1. CJ Stroud had more yards running than throwing—and not in the way that helps a Heisman campaign
  2. Home Alone 3 pitch: Ryan Day goes to suburban Chicago and leaves something critical at home
  3. This game was, if nothing else positive, a potential preview of what will happen when Bama and Georgia have to play north of the Mason-Dixon for once
  4. Another ancient Michigan record is saved, as OSU did not score 44+ points in this week’s matchup at Soggy Bottom Bowl
  5. Mel Tucker had the Spartans coming out swinging, for the second week in a row.
  6. Was Illinois for real? Or was this just a team in the imagination of an autistic child holding a snowglobe, whose father is the janitor at an ageing Boston hospital?
  7. Kaliakmanis should probably just keep the job, even adjusting for Nebraska defense
  8. Minnesota is now bowl-eligible for the 4th time in 6 years under Fleck
  9. Kaleb Johnson tallied 200 yards, becoming the first Iowa back since Wadley to do so
  10. Purdue’s kryptonite appears to be...a defense? Wind? Kirk’s stultifying gaze?
  11. Wisconsin leaning into the old model of just running large human beings into a melee until the melee gives up.
  12. Imagine for a moment what Tagavaioloa could be on another on team—try Ohio State and Purdue, as a though exercise
  13. Mo Ibrahim’s streak of 100+ yard games continues—can he make it through the whole season?

The Rundown

Ohio State at Northwestern | OSU sees your bad weather, raises you worse football, 21-7

GF3: Honest to god one of the worst games in recent memory. Just 4 quarters of buffoonery. Shame on you, Ryan Day. Shame!

MaximumSam: Late in the OSU-Northwestern game, the wind blew the ball away from the center, causing the refs to blow the play dead. This game was stupid and I feel dumber for having watched it. Go Bucks.

MNQ: In 2018 Northwestern took a 17-0 lead on Michigan in the second quarter, only to watch as that slowly trickled away in the second half. Today, in alternating monsoon and straight-line wind conditions, Northwestern did everything right for about 40 minutes: they ran the ball, controlled the box on defense, and made Ohio State bring their own juice to Evanston. The Buckeyes looked like they wanted to be anywhere else for the first half and then, reminded at halftime they would need to actually go and win the game, remembered they could simply run around Northwestern. CJ Stroud pulled the ball on a couple reads, ran for 70-something yards, and Northwestern got too cute with the ball in the third quarter, calling a couple baffling plays out of the Wildcat formation that doomed a pair of drives. But we’re going to miss the hell out of Evan Hull when he’s gone, Cam Porter had a day on the ground, too, and Brendan Sullivan showed some moxie as the kind of escape artist quarterback who also can throw that Northwestern hasn’t had in quite a while....and then he got concussed. So fuck that, here comes 1-11, congrats on the multi-score moral (and pyrrhic) victory. FUCK.

lincolnparkwildcat: Crap. I hate moral victories. I’m glad that we, with a big help from Mother Nature, humbled the #2 team in the country and made them bother to wake up and work to put away a foe that is probably beneath their notice. I’d love to see the playoff committee bump OSU down a few pegs since they didn’t blow us out of the water. I can’t wait to see how much Michigan clowns Ohio State later this month. There is no way OSU should be the #2 team in the country.

Michigan State at Illinois | Spartans beat up Illini, 23-15

Actually Kindahappyski: Consider my gobs thoroughly smacked. With 8 players suspended and another fistful injured, MSU found a way to get a win as a 17-point underdog despite being outgained by about 150 yards. Finally finding a way to get the opponent off the field certainly helped, turning the Illini away on all four of their 4th down attempts, but Illinois’s flat-out bad playcalling was a part of that picture too.

So maybe last week turns out to be the bottom after all. There’s two eminently winnable games left to get MSU into bowl season, and maybe if things shape up right, MSU can throw a decent punch at Penn State and end the season on a high note. And…just going to bookmark that clock management by Tucker at the end of the game. Because while they got away with it this time, that ineptitude is going to cost them games even if they do get the rest of the program back in order.

He was a high school QB: This was old school Same Old Illinois. Dominated every statistical category for the entire game, except on offense on 4th down. On 9 4th downs, they punted 3 times for grand total of 63 yards. Yep, 21.0 yards per punt. Oh, the other 6, they went for it and failed 5 times. Barry Lunney Jr just seems to have problems calling plays when it really matters, on 4th down and in the red zone. People talked about Daniel Barker transferring to MSU from Illinois, but the transfer that hurt us the punter for MSU, Bryce Baringer. It sucks to lose when you gain 150 more yards, 10 more first downs, 40 yards less penalties, 26 more plays, more yards per play, and more TOP. I’m honestly not mad about the loss though. Nothing I saw today changes my mind about the trajectory of this team. Under Bielema, we have bounced back from losses well and have corrected mistakes. We still control our destiny in the West. Win 2 of the final 3 and we should get a January bowl.

thumpasaurus: If they don’t beat michigan, the illini are playing syracuse in the pinstripe bowl.

I cannot believe i actually thought I was gonna get a chance to be at an Awesome Sports Moment in person for...illinois football...next week. the good news is we can probably get some cheap ass tickets now. But it’s okay. those are for people who aren’t illini fans. just beat purdue. maybe recruit a punter who wasn’t a cop and doesn’t suck ass? maybe next year get a quarterback (RIP Big Time Tommy, you were always a pumpkin in disguise. as orange as you are it was a thin disguise).i sure as shit don’t understand why we choose to do the things we choose to do in the red zone. at some point we have to start kicking field goals because we DO NOT SCORE. if we’d kicked field goals every time we got in the red zone and made them, we win the game.we remain illinois, and when we illinois, nobody’s better at it.

Minnesota at Nebraska | Boat rowers > Corn rowers, 20-13

BRT: Huskers played ok, but not well enough, and lost by a score. What a fresh, novel situation.Both last week and this week, the Huskers started off really well— which is great! But both weeks they struggled to score in the second half— which is not great. Would have loved to see this one with Casey Thompson, but them’s the breaks, aren’t they?

Deadread: Nebraska is not a good team. It is admirable that they continue to compete in what has become a lost season. Another effortful loss, same as it

WSR: Nebraska is bad and Minnesota should be ashamed of playing with their food for so long. Peejus needs to get his shit together soon or he’s eventually going to get the Glen Mason treatment.

Iowa at Purdue | Glimpses of glory past, 24-3

stewmonkey13: This was the most complete game Iowa played so far this season. Now that’s a very low bar since they’ve steadfastly refused to play offense so far. But Iowa doesn’t have to play stellar offense to dominate a game like they did against Purdue. They merely had to be not horrid and Iowa’s defense, which has struggled against Brohm’s Purdue, put the clamps down and ensured the game was never really close.

Iowa’s OL seems to have gelled a bit and gotten into a halfway decent rotation. Opening some holes and allowing True freshman Kaleb Johnson to spring lose for over 200 yards rushing. Johnson isn’t much like any RB Iowa has had for quite a while, he’s a bit taller and almost glides around with longer strides. He’s also the best at running in the zone scheme Iowa’s has for more than a decade. He’s patient and always knows where the hole is.Want to touch on a little pettiness that I witnessed in the game. Not that anyone really blames Charlie Jones for leaving Iowa’s offense for Purdue’s, but there certainly seems to be a bit of resentment towards Purdue for how it happened. Seems like Iowa thinks there was some tampering.

BoilerUp89: Uhhh... well it was windy and we lost. Didn’t watch the game. Came down with the flu late Friday and slept thru Saturday. Doesn’t look like I missed anything

Boilerman31: He didn’t.

Maryland at Wisconsin | Maryland is, once again, not for real, 23-10

Kind of...(Chris): It was like old times. Two Badger RBs broke the century mark, and Wisconsin’s defense absolutely dominated an allegedly high-powered Maryland offense, dropping the Terps to 6-3 in a convincing home victory. That was a fund sentence to write. Unfortunately, with the weather the way it was, there’s no way of knowing if Wisconsin is rounding into form, or just was handed the game on a platter. Take the win and move on.

Penn State at Indiana | Penn State bounces back, 45-14

87townie: Penn State Breaks Tradition! Comes out and lays the wood to basketball school. And said basketball school will beat PSU by a comparable margin on the hardwood.

misdreavus79: Penn State had a quiet beatdown of Indiana. For the second time this season, Penn State has avoided letting a loss turn into two. That’s about all I have to say on this one.

BuffKomodo: Indiana starts the basketball season on Monday, which is convenient because the football season just ended. That’s all I got for you all.

Michigan at Rutgers | Everyone stays in-role, 52-17

GF3: No comments from our peanut gallery on this one, because why bother?

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