will have a lot of work to do this off season. NorthwesternĪ bad ending to a bad season, Pat Fitzgerald and co. Yet another one-score loss! I guess I’m glad it’s not just Penn State that has these issues, but on the other hand, I’m not sure I want to share much in common with Big Red. IllinoisĪ resounding 47-14 win over rival Northwestern is a nice way to cap off a season, even if the Illini are most likely staying home for the holidays. But I was expecting a bit more fight from the Scarlet Knights.
I’m not saying I was expecting Rutgers to win, because a game between two 5-6 teams shouldn’t have any expectations. Maryland scorched Rutgers 40-16, punching themselves a ticket to the postseason. In a game battling for bowl eligibility, one team came out on fire, and the other did not.
What if Stout makes the extra point and field goal? What if MSU doesn’t convert on 4th and 15 for a touchdown? What if Penn State abandoned the run and simply continued to shred the porous MSU pass defense? Alas, we can’t know. In a season of what ifs, the game against Michigan State was filled with what ifs. Bad on you for losing weird games earlier in the season and not heading to Indianapolis instead of Iowa. Good on you, Gophers, for beating your rivals. They beat rival Indiana 44-7, and are the top of the “third tier” of Big Ten teams. Not much to say here about the Boilermakers. Oh come ON Wisconsin! All you had to do was beat middling Minnesota and the West was yours! After a rocky start to the season, you finally looked good! Then you go and lay a 23-13 egg, and hand the West crown to Iowa. We’ll see where the Spartans head in the postseason. Did they? No, and the jumped out to a 14-0 lead, and then made the plays they needed to down the stretch to get the 30-27 dub. You could argue that OSU should still be #2 in the conference, but with two 10-2 teams, I’ll go with the one heading to Indy.
Yes, OSU lost by 2 scores, but I have a hard time believing they’d do that to many more teams on this list. At 10-2, and finishing the season with a 28-21 win over Nebraska, Iowa will take on Michigan for the Big Ten title. Iowaīegrudgingly, the Hawkeyes have earned the #2 spot. A 42-27 win over the previous #1 is an easy way to jump to the top yourself. What else is there to say? Michigan straight up out-muscled Ohio State, running the ball at will, and making the OSU pass defense look silly. Raise your hand if you had “Michigan beating Ohio State by two scores” as your prediction! Then put your hand down you liar! What an exciting end to the season, and after years of “more of the same” at the playoff level, it looks like we’ll get some fresh blood in there this year.
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