The Big Ten offered up plenty to talk about this week, and typically I would start out by having some fun and taking shots at the fact the West Division is now 0-2 against Western Michigan or the fact Iowa lost out on the September version of the FCS national championship. Penn State commemorated the 50th anniversary of Joe Paterno’s first game as its football coach.
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But this time we’re gonna start by talking about how stinkin good the East Division contenders really are.
The Big Ten heavyweights spent the first three weeks of the season beating up on lesser opponents while climbing the rankings. But just three weeks into the season, it’s shaping up to be even better than that.
The first team to play on Saturday was MI, and for about a quarter, it looked like the Wolverines were going to struggle playing a team with a pulse as the trailed Colorado 21-7.
Peppers had nine tackles, a sack and 3.5 tackles for loss while also producing 204 total yards, including 99 yards on punt returns. That is what we are going to have to do this weekend, so hopefully the way we bounced back against Detroit is something we can take positives out of, even though we were probably a little bit exhausted in our legs but our mind led us and we played a good game. “We have to win from now on”, said sophomore midfielder Abdi Mohamed.
Ohio State continues to move closer to a No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press top 25 poll, while MI stayed put and Toledo received six votes.
“You’ve got to be able to make big plays when the lights come on, big time”, Spartans coach Mark Dantonio said after his team’s 36-28 win at Notre Dame. Now the Spartans head into next week’s matchup with Wisconsin riding high with confidence. Nebraska will host Michigan State Friday and Michigan Sunday. I think both teams are confident going in to their opening weekend, and they are at home so they are going to feel both the confidence and maybe a little bit of pressure that they need to open up strong.
The Wolverines will be coming off a game with 6-2 Iowa. After its loss to Ohio State, Oklahoma fell from No. 14 to No. 25. Look for Coach Chryst to get his 1’s quality reps while also working in some other players to get them more ingrained with the system, which is the overall goal of these games. We have absorbed all kinds of knowledge against both teams, watched a lot of film, and I think both games will be close games. “But I was proud of the way they battled and fought”. Redshirt freshman receiver Noah Brown catching four touchdown passes, including one that might not be topped as the best highlight-reel snag of the season.
It was all an indication on Saturday that we might have undersold how good the East battle will be. “We had four critical mistakes in the first half and they didn’t have any”.
Iowa was everyone’s favorite and still might very well win it again and play in Indianapolis in December.
Iowa got bumped out of the AP Top 25 on Sunday after losing to FCS power North Dakota State. Nebraska now welcomes in No. 22 OR this Saturday. His 34-yard touchdown run with less than three minutes to play was the winning score as he threw for 200 yards and three touchdowns while running for 95 yards and the final TD. The jury is still out after just two games and a bye week for Purdue, but there should be a much clearer picture of where the program stands heading into Big Ten play after it hosts Nevada on Saturday.
But they aren’t ordering the championship rings yet. “We’re 3-0 going into the Big Ten”, Nebraska coach Mike Riley said. Even when they lost to Pitt, the Nittany Lions still seemed to feel good about their progress outside of the Big Ten – but they will be put to the test this week at MI. “I thought I played (OK) but we did miss some opportunities”. Wisconsin struggled to beat Georgia State. So they could very well be 7-0 and Kirk Ferentz could be signed to yet another massive contract extension by the time Wisconsin comes to Iowa City on October 22. “The majority of teams, we will go for 2 down there”.
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Certainly there are teams in the country with better resumes than Ohio State right now. It’s hard to win. But Iowa is no average team, either. Then the big boys took over.
