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Ten Fourteen Eighteen B1G Things
- USC finally built a lead large enough even they couldn’t blow.
- Meanwhile, Rutgers is threatening to go 4-8 after starting 4-0.
- Ohio State caught looking ahead.
- Death Star keeps rolling.
- Washington keeps out gaining their opponent but losing anyway.
- Losing a close one > Losing by 49.
- Did I hear “water bottles”?
- Don’t boo injured players, assholes.
- Does Mike Locksley come back for another season?
- I’m just realizing Penn State might be the team who sends him packing.
- What’s a rivalry if the teams don’t fight each other every time they play?
- So, like, that NewKirk stuff from 2015, is it back?
- Keep your heads up Badgers, you can still knock off Oregon. Please!
The Rundown
USC finally keeps a second half lead, beats Rutgers 42-20
The Trojans took a 28-12 lead to the half, and, after the Scarlet Knights opened the third quarter with a touchdown drive to cut the lead to eight, USC responded with two more touchdowns to seal the game.
RUready4Brazil: Rutgers did as well as could reasonably be expected in a game where the opponent had 40 more four-star players on their roster, on a short week, cross-country flight with a defense that is too slow to tackle anyone fast unless they are in perfect position and/or have a pass rush. Rutgers just has no defense so to salvage anything positive in their season (including a solid recruiting class) needs to scheme up something for a suddenly red hot Minnesota team who Rutgers always seems to play at the peak of their Gophers powers. The Scarlet Knights are probably going to miss a bowl game after a 4-0 start.
Death Star takes advantage of Washington miscues, win 31-17
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Washington outgained its opponent, but shot themselves in the foot one too many times and took themselves out of the game. Credit to Indiana for doing it with their backup quarterback.
BuffKomodo: They actually did it.
The Hoosiers have hosted Big Noon Kickoff and College Gameday this season in consecutive weeks. They are ranked top 15 in the country. And most importantly, they are 8-0.
Indiana wins this game by double digits without veteran QB Kurtis Rourke. It didn’t matter though and to this point, the Hoosiers have not trailed this season. 8 weeks in, and Indiana has also not given up a 1st quarter score either.
The defense was amazing today. Ponds had 2 picks and one was a pick six. I could not be happier to be a Hoosier fan, where next week the Hoosiers chase after a school record of a 9-0 start.
Ohio State caught napping, beat Nebraska 21-17
Yes, close losses and all that, but after getting the doors blown off you a mere week ago, having the ball with an opportunity to win against the No. 4 team in the country, on the road, is a sign of progress.
BRT: Well, on the one hand, they had a lot of chances today to make a massive splash, and they blew it. That is a bit disappointing.
On the other hand, last week we lost by 49 points, and looked baaaaad. This was a tough road game where they seemingly had no chance for victory. I expected to get a lot of yard work done. I’m very tired of moral victories... but I am also impressed at the resilience and improvement I saw this week. Hopefully, they can keep their heads up, return to the friendly confines of Memorial Stadium next week, and smash UCLA for a trip to a bowl game.
Also, we still ruined Ryan Day’s week, which is fun.
MaximumSam: Downgrading from a first round draft pick at left tackle to a used vacuum cleaner is not ideal.
GoForThree: Anybody want to play left tackle?
Oregon boos injured players too
Go hang out with Iowa fans, seems like y’all will get along. On the other side of the ball, Illinois ran on first down, to the surprise of Oregon podcasters everywhere!
AlmaOtter: We got our asses kicked by those interlopers from Eugene. That’s ok. 6-2 with a very winnable slate is better than any Illinois fan could have asked for this year. We shot our metaphorical (or literal, for some folks?) wad last week; everything from now out is extra helpings.
Last week, I reminded the 3 of you that read the full SMCD post to enjoy the wins and endure the losses. This week, we just had to endure the wrath of a much better team. Next week, we’ll continue Bert’s bloodfeud with the state of Minnesota. Enjoy the ride.
HWAHSQB: I got the game I wanted to win last week. I honestly just didn’t care about this game at all and I think maybe the team felt the same way.
Unless the computers think something drastic changed today, then Illinois will be a slight favorite in the four remaining regular season contests. When you look at rutger and nern floundering, those look pretty winnable. minnesota and msu are doing better, but Bert don’t lose to Peejus and we get msu after our last bye and Bert is something like 16-2 after byes….I don’t know, man. We might have a pretty good season on our hands.
Thumpasaurus:
Oregon built on the blueprint Penn State initially laid out to beat Illinois: simply be vastly and overwhelmingly better than the fighting illini in every phase of the game
illinois had their worst game of the season against the best opponent on the schedule and the result was a game that effectively ended just before halftime at 35-3. oregon had six drives in the first half and five of them resulted in touchdowns. luke altmeyer decided today was the day he beat the “pretty good” charges and chucked a freebie straight to an oregon safety with the score 14-0 oregon. that was effectively the game. the fighting illini extended their streak of not getting shut out to 38 consecutive games with a field goal and then kicked the ball out of bounds on the ensuing kickoff. they couldn’t execute anything right, and what they executed was poorly conceived. they kept dropping gabe jacas into coverage. jacas is a 275 pound pass rusher. what are we doing out here?
The fact of the matter is this is a 4-8 football team with a 6-2 record.
But we had at least a 6-win team last year. won 5. we should have won 11 in 2022, won 8. should have had 6 in 2021. got 5. so we stole a few? cool. let’s steal a few more to get even. get that fucking hat.
I was hoping to come away with no injuries but oregon had other ideas. what’s incredible is that once again, no player has ever been ejected from a game against illinois for targeting. they headhunted pat bryant, who we will need later. Good job guys.
Hey coach. are their weights in their weight room heavier than ours?
We have such a long way to go before we can compete with anyone anywhere, and so much of that is in the trenches.
i don’t care how many of our wins are fake and fraudulent as long as there’s a lot of them
every other fucking school in this conference (especially northwestern and minnesota) seems to find enough miracles to get a total pile of shit team to a bowl game every year
so it’s our turn in the bathroom
and you’re not gonna want to go in there for a while.
Minnesota is now an Air Raid team, beats Maryland 48-23
The Gophers flipped the script, and instead chose to throw the ball all over the field to the tune of 320 yards. The Gophers had 15 yards in the first half and still led 34-10.
Larry31: Remember last week? Maryland looked pretty good by beating USC, and Nebraska looked like total ass. This week, they did a switcharoo. Nebraska looked pretty good against OSU but, just couldn’t pull of the upset. Whereas, it was Maryland’s turn to look like total ass. Pre-seaon projections using advanced stats had Maryland winning 7 games. Of course, that was before anybody knew how good Windiana would be. The two units that were predicted to prevent Maryland from being more successful was the defensive secondary and the offensive line. This forecasting was very accurate. Minnesota totally exposed these units this week.
WhiteSpeedReceiver: It’s been a long time since Minnesota delivered one of these “AND STAY DOWN!” beatings, and hooboy did Maryland receive it today. The Terps passing game was seeing ghosts, and the Gopher offense efficiently sliced up the turtle defense. And once again, 80’s ski movie villain Koi Perich was everywhere and problematic for the opponents. I’m just disappointed that he appeared on offense today because I was hoping that would be a surprise Fuck You present to Luke Fickell.
Mr. Hyde shows up: Iowa 40, Northwestern 14
Seems like Iowa is alternating between disastrous offensive performances and beating the brains out of their opponent each week. This week it was Northwestern’s turn to get its brains spilled.
Also, what is it with Iowa and scoring exactly 40 points?
LincolnParkWildcat: I had more fun today taking my family to trick or treating at the businesses in town and watching my son ride his big wheels down the block than watching this foul abomination. We suck.
MNW: Didn’t watch. Did we have fun?
I assume under 4 yards per attempt is fun. Not scoring an offensive touchdown. Things of that nature.
Beat Purdue, etc.
They did What?: Michigan 24, Michigan State 17
The Wolverines passed for 123 yards in this game. That has to be a record. What is not a record, however, is the fight that broke out after the game. That’s just another Saturday in the Michigan/Michigan State series.
RockyMtnBlue: The first 27 minutes of this game went almost exactly how I expected (I expected MSU to be killing Michigan through the air, not on the ground). MSU lead 7-0, but was dominating. The MSU yardage lead with 3 minutes to play in the first half was 148-37 and Sparty had held the ball more than 19 of those 27 minutes. Then a weird thing happened: a little rational play calling combined with actual, honest-to-God decent quarterback play. Michigan went 64 yards in 10 plays in 2:29 for a touchdown. Then forced a fumble on MSU’s second play of the ensuing possession to set up a field goal before the half. Davis Warren (the guy who threw six picks in the first three games) was 6-6 with a TD in those last 3 minutes. The second half saw Michigan pull out to a 14pt lead on trick plays while MSU continued to look like the better team overall.
Michigan remains a very deeply flawed team, but the offensive game plan made sense for the first time in a month, and there was a marked reduction in general dick-tripitude. The wolverines had no turnovers and no penalties (thank you RNGesus for not testing Michigan down field). Alex Orji was used purely as a situational wildcat QB, a role he excels at.
Even when everything goes well this is still a team that gets out-gained 352-265 at home by a marginal Michigan State program. Oregon, @Indiana, and @Ohio State will be blowout losses, probably by a combined 120 points. But bowl eligibility is back on the table if they can beat Northwestern in Ann Arbor in week 13.
Brian: It took awhile, but Michigan finally got rolling. Well, moving. With Davis Warren back under center, the Michigan offense scratched and clawed its way to 24 points and its defense held off a last gasp drive by the visiting Spartans to hold on for a hard fought 24-17 victory.
It wasn’t easy, Michigan State played very well in defeat, in but Michigan got back into the win column … and holds onto Paul Bunyan for another year.
Big Green 96: I only saw the first half as prior obligations got in the way of seeing my team lose again. I was encouraged by what I did see. Both offense and defense appeared to be making steady progress, especially early.
But an uncharacteristic missed chip shot field goal from a very reliable kicker, and continued struggles in the red zone were key missed opportunities in a tight game. Fellow Spartans, please fill me in more on the second half.
Penn State pulls away late, beats Wisconsin 28-13
Penn State lost Drew Allar, Dani Dennis-Sutton, and Anthony Donkoh, and still managed to take the lead in the second half, one they wouldn’t relinquish.
MC ClapYoHandz: I’ll say this: we’re trending in the right direction. After some convincing wins, a top team came to town and Wisconsin largely looked like they belonged on the field, which doesn’t sound amazing but is a marked improvement from earlier in this very season. Wisconsin came out swinging and took the lead into halftime, but Penn State figured out their rush defense and forced a monumental Pick-6 that changed this one for good. Kudos to them, they lost their QB at the half and were able to keep executing.
At some point, progress needs to translate to quality wins. That hasn’t happened yet, but I’m growing more and more optimistic that it’s on the horizon as this season goes on. Beat Iowa.
Kind of...: Braedyn Locke throws an INT every game, but this one was truly horrible and an absolute killer. That it occurred just before PSU’s backup QB played lights out, thanks to some actually imaginative play-calling, not whatever Phil Longo is doing, just drives home that Wisconsin was going to have to be perfect to win. And they were far from that.
The defense was pretty good until the 4th. The offense was...not. PSU has an excellent defense and is just better at most every position. The Badgers look better than last year, but if they lose @Iowa next week, they’re still going to be 5-5, needing to beat either Nebraska or Minnesota to secure a bowl bid, just like last year. There is definitely a hard ceiling on what Wisconsin can accomplish so long as Longo is the OC or Locke is the QB, or both.
Purdue loes bye
BoilerUp89: Normally I wouldn’t add anything during a bye week, but the big news from this weekend is that Ryan Walters is likely to get more time to fix Purdue. That’s a loss. Add in vball getting swept by the Badgers and men’s bball losing to Creighton in a defensive no show and it wasn’t the greatest sports weekend for Purdue fans.
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