The Whistlestop Tour: Week 8 of Big Ten Football

I went to Big Ten football this weekend, and Purdue was not playing. For some reason my son has really started to like Oregon. I saw there were very cheap tickets online to their game at Illinois and it is a short drive from Indy, so yesterday my son and I went to Chambana.

We also saw the preseason No. 2 team in the country get beat by double digits by a team Purdue mostly dominated. In fact, Illinois is on a completely different quarterback now. I don’t think Illinois suddenly got better, especially on defense, but there was little question after the opening drive that Oregon is kind of ass.

This weekend the Big Ten reverted to form with properly mansome scores of 13-6, 13-10, and 21-10. It was a day for defenses, or maybe really bad offenses. Who knows.

Here are this week’s rankings:

1. UCLA (Last Week: 2, 7-0, 5-0) – Beat Michigan State 28-10 – It’s a bizarro year in the Big Ten. UCLA is on its backup quarterback and is now one of the last unbeaten teams in the country after a terrible year. Oregon is on its backup quarterback and is unranked after a great year. The Bruins are looking like a strong playoff team.
2. Ohio State (Last Week: 1, 6-1, 4-0) – On BYE – What are the Bucks walking into this coming week at USC? Does their quarterback situation look any better after a week of practice for Luke Fahey? Lot’s of questions here for the preseason No.1.
3. Indiana (Last Week: 3, 7-1, 4-1) – Beat Michigan 13-6 (OT) – The toughest challenge the Hoosiers have left is a home game against USC, but there are some definite concerns offensively. They have escaped three times now and are lucky to not be 4-4.
4. Northwestern (Last Week: 4, 6-1, 4-1) – Beat Rutgers 42-14 – Northwestern is a contender this year, and the last of four as we get closer to November. They had no problems with Rutgers, and now their game at Ohio State looks very interesting.
5. Wisconsin (Last Week: 9, 5-2, 3-1) – Beat USC 24-7 – I am not really sold on the Badgers, but they are much better than originally thought. This week against Iowa the first one to 10 wins.
6. Minnesota (Last Week: 13, 5-2, 3-1) – Beat Iowa 13-10 – Good for Goldy! Minnesota now holds all three of its major rivalry trophies for the first time since 1978. They also hold the $5 Broken Bits of Chair trophy but they do not have the Governor’s Victory Bell. That win by Purdue looks really good right now (and maybe we can beat Iowa?)
7. Iowa (Last Week: 6, 5-2, 2-2) – Lost to Minnesota 13-10 – Is Iowa just not capable of playing a rivalry game that doesn’t end with a score where both teams look allergic to points? At least Kirk Ferentz ran a fake punt in this one.
8. Nebraska (Last Week: 8, 5-2, 2-2) – On BYE – The joke going around is that they lost the bye week because Scott Frost beat a ranked team with Central Florida before Nebraska did.
9. Washington (Last Week: 10, 4-3, 1-3) – On BYE – They woke up their offense against Purdue. Can they keep it going this week?
10. USC (Last Week: 5, 6-2, 3-2) – Lost to Wisconsin 24-7 – Congratulations to everyone reading this post. You, personally, outrushed USC as a team this week.
11. Purdue (Last Week: 12, 3-4, 2-2) – On BYE – I really want this win in Happy Valley this week. It slams the door open for a bowl game AND it makes Penn State suffer as a program. Imagine the collective freakout if they go to 0-5 in the league after firing James Franklin.
12. Illinois (Last Week: 14, 4-3, 2-2) – Beat Oregon 21-10 – Illinois absolutely pushed the Ducks around on Saturday. They ran for 224 yards and hit on a big pass play at the end.
13. Oregon (Last Week: 7, 4-3, 2-2) – Lost to Illinois 21-10 – Oregon looked really good on the opening drive yesterday, then did pretty much nothing offensively the rest of the way. Oh, and they missed three field goals.
14. Michigan (Last Week: 11, 4*-3, 1-3) – Lost to Indiana 13-6 (OT) – The Michigan defense is transcendent, and if we had it in West Lafayette we would be a playoff lock. Michigan’s offense is an afront to God and man. As is their special teams after three missed kicks Saturday.
15. Rutgers (Last Week: 15, 2-4, 1-2) Lost to Northwestern 42-14 – That’s the Rutgers we’re more used to. They still have a conference win, which is more than we can say for everyone below.
16. Michigan State (Last Week: 16, 2-5, 0-4) – Lost to UCLA 28-10 – Another team with an offense that is just putrid. When they face Michigan on November 7^th that’s going to be a slap fight.
17. Penn State (Last Week: 17, 3-4, 0-4) – On BYE – Penn State’s offense has been bad. Hopefully we don’t let them wake up like we did with Washington.
18. Maryland (Last Week: 18, 2-5, 0-4) – On BYE – They fired their coach and jumped first into the coaching search pool. Maybe if they hire Brian Kelly we can finally beat them.