18 B1G Things
- Wait, so losing a single player is enough to derail one's season?
- Huh.
- HUH.
- Chip Kelly couldn't beat his former team a second time.
- Come on Nebraska, this has to be some sick joke at this point.
- That dead cat didn't bounce too high.
- The bull stays home.
The Rundown
Iowa blankets Wisconsin 30 to nothing
So maybe it's a conference-wide rule that, if you get a big win, you must lose the week after. Funny thing, Wisconsin's 235 total yards of offense are usually good enough to beat Iowa, but you gotta score the points.
Mr. Grizz: Having shat itself in explosive fashion last week, Iowa was clearly ready to take out some frustrations on somebody. But Wisconsin looked like it finally had something going this year. Instead, in this game the only thing Wisconsin had was a 7 point improvement on the drubbing it took from Iowa last year.
This was a dominant performance, good in every way it was bad last week. The offensive line looked good again. This is the most accurate Hank Brown has ever been. It seemed like the play calling was better though the former factors can make it look that way. Still a couple of fumbles which need to stop but in this game, but everything else worked so well it didn't matter. The defense didn't have to carry 70 or more percent of the load and it showed. 362 yards of offense and most of it passing though well over 100 yards running are winning numbers for Iowa.
This Iowa performance restored the idea that it could run the table the rest of the regular season. Last week's is a reminder that this weeks performance means nothing beyond this game. Except that Fickell should really stop 'circling' games.
Kind of...: Wisconsin has four wins over ranked teams the last two years. Three were defensive dominations. One was over a PSU team that never should've been ranked. Collectively they constitute the fool's gold that allow some to think Luke Fickell is this close to turning the corner. In response:
-Cumulative score of the 16 quarters of football between Iowa and Wisconsin that have occurred with Luke Fickell on the sideline:
Iowa 124--Wisconsin 16
-Colton Joseph is earning a tidy sum of money this year to upgrade Wisconsin's offense. Taking away a 72 yard TD pass that featured 60 YAC by a TE after PSU horrifically blew coverage, Joseph, this year, in B1G play, has completed 49 of 101 passes (48.5%) for 522 yards (5.17 YPA)
-Luke Fickell fired OC Phil Longo in a 2024 season that saw Wisconsin average 22.6 ppg (109th nationally), following a first year where Wisconsin averaged 23.5 ppg (93rd nationally). Longo was awful. He thought chanting "Mike Leach" was enough to stay relevant as an OC, and just got fired from Sam Houston because he was 3-17 there. With OC Jeff Grimes calling plays, Wisconsin, in 2025, scored 12.8 ppg (135th nationally). "But they were down to their fourth string QB!!!" folks wailed from Superior to Fond du Lac. This year, for the first time in Fickell's four years, QB1 has stayed healthy. And Wisconsin, after yesterday's shutout loss, is averaging 23.6 ppg, good for 98th nationally.
Illinois takes Maryland's best shot, wins 20-17
Vegas man, they know what they're doing.
He was a high school quarterback: We did just enough to beat a bad non-September Maryland team, which I’ll take given that it was a conference road win.
thumpasaurus: The Detroit Dream survives another week after the Illini offense struggled against one of the league’s worst defenses (see the Purdue game for how this can go wrong), but Illinois found a way to capitalize on a litany of mistakes by the terrapins and in doing so narrowly avoid their second loss to the #18 team in the week’s Power Poll. Katin Houser returned at quarterback for reasons I don't understand and he struggled mightily with his surgically repaired throwing hand. That rhymed. Anyway, Houser was a loose cannon all game but Colin Dixon had an incredible catch to extend the game winning drive and then the Illini settled in for a short field goal to break the tie. Not a super inspiring win by any means but I thought we'd lose today and we're now 5-3.
Get Nebraska at home and then take three ass kickings en route to Detroit and I’ll be a happy man
AlmaOtter: Illinois is not a good team. Houser is not a good QB. But, goddammit, Bert remains a pretty decent coach. A bad bad bad first half in the hellish environs of nearest Maryland (aka College Park) was followed by a very workmanlike second half. Houser looked better, the defense clamped down, and Illinois sealed the thing by taking a knee at the 1 with 1:30 left to play. Run the clock out, kick the FG, done and dusted. Nothing fancy, nothing flashy, nothing particularly special against a mega bad team. But a win's a win. We just need one more against Nebraska/Iowa/UCLA/Northwestern to get to bowl eligible.
Michigan beats Rutgers 28 to 21
Vegas man, they don't know what they're doing.
RUReady4Brazil: Well Michigan stinks, and Rutgers couldn't complete a single pass in the second half. Had they, they might have somehow won a game in which the Knights managed just 9 first downs. Michigan ran the exact game plan everyone expected, run into the line and have your QB scramble around on 3rd until someone gets open. Just more of the same for Rutgers who half the time gets blown out and the other half just can never get over the hump.
Brian: Michigan avoided an upset in Piscataway, but the seven-point victory will do little to quell the unrest in Ann Arbor.
Indiana continues their 2014 Florida State run, beats Minnesota 23-16 in overtime
Better lucky than good!
BuffKomodo: Indiana has some shit to do over the bye week. The Hoosiers tried SO hard to lose this game. Minnesota required a flea flicker and a 60 yard field goal for 10 points to go along with a terrible bobble by Indiana followed by a missed FG and a blocked FG and two shitty punts.
Hoover was replaced for “injury” but honestly the offense looked more competent at times under Grant Wilson so who know what’s going to happen.
The reality is Indiana once again out gained an opponent decisively but struggled to put points on the board. A win is a win and a bye week will help. The dream of 11-1 and heading to Indy remains and a consistent offense remains the biggest hurdle to that reality. Thank God for the bye week because I got high school tryouts and our only Saturday practice this week. Go Hoosier.
IUinVA: I missed the second half and overtime due to trick-or-treating. My son ended up with an impressive candy haul, and I had a few Snickers bars. I also received a litany of “OMG” and “WTF” text messages. Indiana (and fans) get a much needed bye week.
WhiteSpeedReceiver: Man, fuck.
It's OK Northwestern, you're still having your once in a 10-year period season
That Oregon/Ohio State game is going to be a banger, ain't?
LincolnParkWildcat: Well shit we lost. I was out trick or treating with my family and friends. There were adult beverages consumed (I had a bag full of beer) and my friends directed us to houses that offered Jell-O shots. I got home just in time to watch the last few minutes. Damn. This would have been a nice one to win.
MNWildcat: Things I wouldn't recommend:
- Getting strep on Halloween.
- Trying to win many games in the Big Ten with your second-string defense..
I was lucid for most of the second half. Turns out that was the wrong part to be lucid for.
UCLA 27, Nevada 0
Moving on.
Penn State gets its first Big Ten win of the season, 31-17 over Purdue
Thank god for Purdue's run defense, huh? With both Chase Sowell and Kobe Howard out, Penn State is running out of wide receivers to throw the ball to.
BoilerUp89: Purdue played Penn State. In football. Need i say more? Fire Kevin Kane.
HoustonBoiler: That's two games in a row where Purdue's opponent had not previously won a conference game and then just dominated Purdue. In both cases, Purdue's offensive and defensive lines could do very little while their opponent had not trouble running the ball and converting third and long, which has been an issue all season long. I don't know what Purdue did during the bye week, but it sure didn't appear that they practiced football. I will give credit to the punt coverage team for blocking a punt and getting a scoop six. A this point, I don't think Purdue will win another game this season.
USC beats Ohio State 30-18
I'm thinking the national title streak ends at 3.
Transient Buckeye: I called this game as a loss for Ohio State in the preseason, but the circumstances were completely different than what I'd expected. If you'd told me Ohio State would roll up almost 200 rushing yards against USC, I'd have felt pretty good about their chances. But it was not to be. True freshman QB Luke Fahey was up and down all night. He definitely had his share of freshman QB moments, but he absolutely was not the reason OSU lost. When you have a freshman quarterback, everybody else needs to step up to help him out, and that absolutely did not happen. Dropped passes, blown blocking assignments, horrifically-timed penalties. Ohio State took a look at the fuckup buffet, and decided "we'll pile a little bit of everything on our plate." What galls most isn't the loss, it's the fact that we may have resuscitated Lincoln Riley's coaching career. That's probably good for the rest of the Big Ten, but I could've done with it being someone other than us to provide that boost.
MaximumSam: Ryan Day is playing the long game, getting Lincoln Riley an extension.
Washington 17, Nebraska 10.
Hey, at least they didn't blow a fourth quarter lead this time!
Narrator: They did, in fact, blow another fourth quarter lead.
DeadRead: We did it. Again. We pissed another one away. Someone had better learn how to close a game out, or the Huskers are going to keep churning through coaches. You know when you are watching a series on TV, and the finale transitions to the pilot in back-to-back episodes? That is where I am now with the Husker Industrial Complex.
I feel like I've seen these episodes so many times before....and I do not like them!
GBR, etc., etc.
Narrator: Formatting intentional.
BRT: Woke up and saw the score. I assume this was yet another profile in inevitability.
