18 B1G Things
- Gotta protect the national championship assets
- Jeremiah Smith and a prayer, apparently
- Not even garbage time scores?
- The Whoopsie Daisy King does it again!
- Dead man Locksley
- So, how you like losing on the last play of the game?
- Please lord let Koby Howard be fine!
- Oh Raiola doesn't suck anymore? Must be the change of scenery
- The Big Ten West will live on!
The Rundown
Northwestern gets robbed: Indiana 29, Northwestern 23
They probably would be less robbed if they didn't have the atrocious start on offense, but still, that foot was clearly out at the 11.
MNWildcat: Alas. A moral victory.
Northwestern looked to be paddling uphill for most of this -- its first two drives starting with its ass in its own end zone (and its first play from scrimmage resulting in an IU safety), defensively down a couple cornerbacks and struggling to contain Indiana's wide receivers (especially Nick Marsh and Charlie Becker, who feasted)...
...and yet the 'Cats notched an improbable third-quarter touchdown on a fourth down throw from Aidan Chiles to Griffin Wilde just a play after Chiles was out having a dislocated finger popped back in, coming just a kinda-crappy two-point conversion away from actually tying the game for a minute. Indiana, down its star running back, decided it'd be fun to play with its food: untimely penalties, bizarre reads by Josh Hoover, and their defense failing to cover Northwestern tight end Luke Dehnicke even for a second. Alas, Northwestern gifted Indiana a facemask on third-and-forever, then allowed the Hoosiers to march 80 yards and score a touchdown that would make it 22-13. That, ultimately, was just enough to get an especially-cantankerous Curt Cignetti and the Team Cuban Bought over the finish line against the Hoosiers' fellow historical bottom-feeders.
The takeaways for Indiana? I'll leave that to others. Methinks a little more of a non-conference tuneup might've made sense, but you know that.
The takeaways for Northwestern? I wrote on Friday that they needed Chiles to "go absolutely nuts" alongside improved play on the offensive line and in the defensive secondary. The latter two didn't quite happen, and Chiles wasn't quiteflawless, though he did go absolutely nuts especially in the second half. But the same takeaways apply: the 'Cats have weapons in Chiles, Wilde, and TE Luke Dehnicke, to go with what Joe Himon II showed out of the backfield against Colorado. Before Northwestern had to throw it almost exclusively, Gavin Sawchuck was doing a little bulldozing with the ball, as Chip Kelly experimented with "let's put a wide receiver 10 yards deep, but in motion almost like it's the CFL." Because why not, he went 1/2 on those plays being effective. It was incredibly stupid.
Above all, I'm honored to announce that the 'Cats are back: Northwestern is competent AND not boring.
Could it still all fall apart from here? Of course. But the 'Cats punched up with a Top 25 team tonight. As I started with: moral victory. Now comes the real test – a home matchup with Penn State as New Ryan Field comes into existence.
BuffKomodo: Indiana statistically dominated this game. It makes it weird to talk about. There’s a handful of missed opportunities to blow it open (goal line stop, chiles Houdini move, etc) that would have made you feel so much better as a Hoosier. Also…nobody wants to hear it including me…Northwestern is pretty good.
I mean, shit, Indiana outgained the cats on the ground by over 200 yards. Outgained overall by about 150 yards. It’s hard to look at this and say Indiana is a CFP team. Yet, Northwestern is….pretty frickin good.
Is it sinking in? The Hoosiers played a good team, didn’t play well for 60 minutes, and won. Are the Hoosiers the number 5 team in the nation? Probably not? But hell, who is? If Northwestern had a 22 or 20 next to their name, we’d be thrilled. They don’t right now so it feels like it sucks. Will it suck still when they’re 9-3? Who knows.
The point is Indiana didn’t play great but the Hoosiers pulled out a win. 4-0 going on a 2 game road trip. We’ll see what happens at the mighty ‘Gers next week.
LincolnParkWildcat: I thought we’d get our asses handed to us by the reigning national champion. After last week’s blowout against Colorado I thought hey, we might have a good team this year. Maybe we’ll make some noise and make it interesting.
I didn't expect this.
I didn't expect what looked like a heavyweight boxing match, and us not making it easy for the Hoosiers. What if we didn’t get that face mask penalty when the momentum was clearly on our side in the third quarter, could we have hung on to win? We’ll never know.
This game is a statement to the rest of the big ten: you're in for a serious fight when you play us. Look, we almost took down Indiana. Penn State, we're going to take out this frustrating loss on you as we open up new Ryan Field.
Narrator: Bad news, Penn State is looking to take out their frustrating loss on you!
IUinVA: This will forever be known as the Lee Beebe Jr game. Dude played every snap after Turbo went down, rushed for over 200 yards, and made the game-sealing play on effort alone. Really proud of that guy. It sounds like Turbo avoided a major injury, but RB depth is still a big concern until he and Khobie Martin are able to return.
IU’s WR room is full of freaks that also flat out dominate in run blocking. Hoover needs more reps with his WR’s, but after the 1st quarter and in crunch time, he looked calm, locked in, and made huge plays. This is the type of win that can galvanize a team.
Not a bad contest between the two losingest programs in the history of the sport, eh?
That defense though: Ohio State 42, Illinois 19
Illinois had no problem moving the ball on the Buckeyes, they just didn't have the ability to stop Jeremiah Smith. A team with the ability to score and take Smith away may put a world of hurt on Ohio State.
He was a high school QB: I miss John Cooper.
Transient Buckeye: Illinois adopted the strategy that NBA teams used to attempt against the Chicago Bulls – "Let Jordan get his, and stop everybody else." In this case, the plan was to let Jeremiah Smith do whatever he wanted, and control the rest of OSU's offense. This went...poorly. Offensively, Illinois looked pretty good all game. OSU's defense got gashed far too much for my liking. OSU is going to have to outscore a lot of teams this season. Can they? Potentially. Will they? Color me skeptical.
thumpasaurus: I mean what do you learn from a game like this? Came into it thinking Illinois is a bad football team. They played like a bad football team. My little baby boy was representing them well today: wearing orange and blue with a diaper full of piss just like the illini
MaximumSam: The Buckeye defense looks like chewed bubble gum. Luckily Bert thought there was a rule against throwing to the same guy on every play.
AlmaOtter: The weather was glorious, the seats at Ohio Stadium were absurdly good. My wife and FiL and I had a great weekend together, despite several complications that could have thoroughly wrecked the trip. I had a few beers and some jalapeno cheddar sausage bite things at the stadium. The Buckeyes fans around us were remarkably kind, despite my Illinois gear. It was a wonderful day.
The game? Oh, it went exactly as I assumed. Illinois didn't look like a pack of dipshits, but we never came close to covering Jeremiah Smith and we didn't do enough on the offensive side to ever threaten. That'll do. The turtle stays in Columbus for an 18th year.
Maryland gets dog walked: UCLA 54, Terps 3
Mike Locksley cannot still have a job after this game. Bite the bullet already.
Notre Dame 49, Purdue 10
No shame in losing to the Irish by a bajillion this season. They're a title contender, and you're looking to get out of the Big Ten basement.
BoilerUp89: Fire Kevin Kane
glass: The Maryland home game on November 7 is Purdue's only realistic chance at avoiding 1-11. It also has the potential to be a wildly entertaining contest between two profoundly bad teams. Mercifully, we will be a week into basketball season by then, so I will be a good deal more interested in VCU @ Memphis or Nebraska vs Providence at the Mohegan Sun.
HoustonBoiler: Notre Dame dominated as Purdue was totally outclassed. While I already knew, this was further confirmation that Purdue is still not ready to challenge, even a little, a very good team. While Purdue has made some progress, this game showed there is still a lot, I mean a LOT, of work to be done to make Purdue football competitive again. Needless to say, it's going to be a long season.
Narrator: There are six writers for the State of Indiana. 7 Big Ten teams lack a writer. This is your official invitation to joins us if you're a fan of: Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington
No extra second needed: Iowa 20, Michigan 19
Iowa gives Michigan a taste of its own medicine, as Hank Brown finds Reece Vander Zee for a touchdown with no time left, with two seconds left to play. This almost didn't happen, as Iowa, with an opportunity on 4th and 1, proceeded to have a false start, try for the 50-yard field goal, and miss it.
Never try to out-Iowa Iowa. You'll lose every time.
RockymtnBlue: I haven't seen the game yet, not even the final play. But if you out-gain a team 3:2, but leave yourself in a position that a final second matters, then you deserve to lose. There's a lot of work to do.
Brian Gillis: Give Iowa credit. Despite doing virtually nothing offensively for three quarters, the Hawkeyes hung tough, and eventually took their first lead of the game early in the early in the fourth quarter. Michigan answered with a touchdown to retake the lead, but was unable to run out the clock in subsequent possessions. Given one final chance, the visiting Hawkeyes embarked on a most unlikely of drives, covering 91 yards on 11 plays in under two minutes, culminating with a last-second, toe-tapping touchdown pass that sent the home crowd home in quiet disbelief.
For Iowa, its undefeated season continues. For Michigan, its season-long trend of shooting itself in the foot with critical mistakes and critical penalties continues. Only this time, it cost them.
Wisconsin Stuns Penn State 24-20
Penn State's offense without Koby Howard is garbage. The defense gifted them 14 points, put the Lions up 17-0, and all they could muster was a measly 3 more points since. Howard can't come back soon enough.
Kind Of...: Two things can be true at once:
1) Colton Joseph was awful almost all of yesterday and Wisconsin's offense looked no better than the Phil Longo day. But, thanks to some Matt Campbell exploring the tortoise shell he found at halftime, and a blown coverage that couldn't have been more inopportune, Wisconsin absolutely stole a game in State College they had no business winning. Seriously, they committed three dumb penalties on the winning drive. This is NOT a sound football team. Still...
2) Yeah, PSU was missing their best offensive weapons, and, yeah, PSU was super conservative, but Wisconsin's defense played lights out. PSU had two drives longer than 40 yards, and their longest was 56. Badgers are flawed, but they may scum their way to an 8-4 record and save Fickell's job. Not sure if that's a good thing long-term or not.
Nebraska 31, Michigan State 13
So it was year four, not year three!
BigRedTwice: The Huskers are 4-0, 1-0 in conference play, and I've experienced enough Husker football to not complain about that. MSU didn't look particularly strong, but an early season road game is still a test, and I'm happy the Huskers emerged unscathed and with little drama.
Of concern is that Jamal Rule, so far the standout back of the season, and Jacory Barney, Nebraska's main returner, both left early with injuries. That could be significant.
Next week the Huskers are home again, but hopefully won't need home field advantage to take care of Maryland, who appeared utterly defeated this weekend ahead of their usual October slump. The Huskers need a good win and no more injuries, because things take a turn for the challenging after Maryland.
Oregon 41, USC 27
USC, you're useless.
Minnesota does what it does best, beats Washington 27-24
Too bad Penn State won't be able to replicate that performance in November, because when the defense gives them gifts, they just decide to suck their own dicks instead for three and a half quarters.
WhiteSpeedReceiver: That was a goddamn nightmare. Minnesota may have defeated Washington pretty easily. The Gophers, led by defense and special teams like we all expected, made Desmond Williams miserable with 7 sacks and countless more hurries and hits. The offense did enough, and PJ’s handbrake was applied thoroughly through 4 of 6 punts were killed inside the 10.
We're 3-1 and the loss to Clanga looks better and better all the times, so maybe the world isn't ending just yet.
Biff: I'm awake, still wondering whether I truly experienced my first-ever regular season road win. The pictures on my phone tell me I did. The Gophers made it closer than it needed to be at the end but the defense did what it needed to do, Drake Lindsay did a nice job distributing the ball evenly, TJ Thomas is looking to be at least a replacement-level running back, and we seem to be learning lessons from the Mississippi State game.
Speaking of learning lessons, there's some poor person in HR at the University that has to remind PJ Fleck to complete his required annual bloodborne pathogen training.
