Big Ten Football Rankings And Reactions, Week 10
Week 10 Big Ten rankings and reactions: Nebraska's win over Michigan State changed everything up, while Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin kept on rolling.
Big Ten Football Rankings Week 10
1. Ohio State (9-0)
W, Minnesota 28-14: Michigan State was playing with fire and looked like a team just waiting to get nailed by a bad day/weird loss. That’s not quite Ohio State – it really hasn’t been truly challenged outside of the end of the Indiana game. Could the road trip to Illinois be like Michigan State’s date at Nebraska? J.T. Barrett is back, the running game is great, and the defense has been excellent, but it’s time to wake up out of the malaise. It’s not that the effort doesn’t appear to be there – it just looks like this team is really, really bored. Getting up for Michigan State and Michigan obviously won’t be a problem. Caring about Illinois? This is the possible trap.
2. Iowa (9-0)
W, at Indiana 35-27: Is there any reason to worry about the run defense slipping? Indiana’s Jordan Howard took off for 174 yards and two touchdowns, and while the Hawkeye defense did a nice job of slowing down the pass, it got gouged up front. Minnesota and Purdue can’t run, and Nebraska is hardly the Big Red Machine, so there’s no issue for right now, but Ohio State might just pound and pound some more in the Big Ten title game – assuming that’s the matchup. Indiana just provided the blueprint.
3. Michigan State (8-1)
L, at Nebraska 39-38: Yeah, it was a bad call and a bad break, but the bigger problem was that Michigan State allowed Nebraska to go 91 yards in four plays with less than a minute to go and no timeouts. Tommy Armstrong is okay, but he’s not Tommy Brady – he marched the team down the field way, way, way too easily. The Spartans are still okay, though. Beat Maryland, beat an unbeaten Ohio State – assuming it’s unbeaten – on the road, beat Penn State, beat Iowa win the Big Ten title, go to the playoff. No problem.
4. Michigan (7-2)
W, Rutgers 49-16: Shhhhhh. It’s not being talked about at parties, but Michigan is now knee deep in this thing. All it needed was a Michigan State loss to open things up, and now everything might be on the table with a little help from the Buckeyes. First, Michigan needs to get by dangerous road games at Indiana and Penn State. Do that, hope for Ohio State to nail the Spartans in Columbus, and then the November 28 showdown in Ann Arbor is for the Big Ten West. Here’s the thing: if Michigan beats an unbeaten Ohio State, and beats an unbeaten Iowa for the Big Ten title, will 11-2 be enough for the playoff? The Wolverines would be more than happy just to have that scenario.
5. Wisconsin (8-2)
W, at Maryland 31-24: This works out almost perfectly. As good as RB Corey Clement was against Rutgers, the team showed what life is like without him against Maryland. The offense didn’t move, there wasn’t the same swagger on both sides of the ball, and the ground game was merely average. But the Badgers got the win going into a bye week, and now Clement gets two weeks off to let his injured groin heal up a bit more just in time for Northwestern. While getting to the Big Ten title game is a distant dream at this point, beat the Wildcats and beat Minnesota, and a 10-2 Badger team will get one of the Big Ten’s better bowls.
6. Northwestern (7-2)
W, Penn State 23-21: There’s the Justin Jackson the offense needs. Northwestern manages to find ways to generate points, but the offense needs Jackson to be rumbling to have any control of games against teams like Penn State. Jackson ran for 186 yards, the offense came up with just enough third down conversions to keep things moving, and the defense did its job coming up with the late stops give Jack Mitchell the chance at the game-winning kick. With winnable games against Purdue and Illinois still to play, there’s a chance to be the No. 2 team in the Big Ten West with a win at Wisconsin. As is it’s an effective season. Considering the offensive problems, just being 7-2 is impressive enough.
7. Penn State (7-3)
L, at Northwestern 23-21: What does it say when your offense works better when the supposed star NFL prospect isn’t under center? Christian Hackenberg completed 21-of-40 passes for 210 yards and a score, but the offense was more dangerous when Saquon Barkley was under center in the Wildcat – sorry, wrong choice of terms for this game. This was the game for the run defense to rise up, and considering Northwestern was down to its backup quarterback, that Penn State couldn’t stop Justin Jackson, and that Hackenberg couldn’t move the chains late, won’t sit well in a very, very winnable game.
8. Illinois (5-4)
W, at Purdue 48-14: Where did that running game come from? Illinois failed to run for 100 yards in any of the last three games, and only ran for over 200 yards once. And then, from out of nowhere, the Illini barreled and blew through Purdue for 382 yards and three scores averaging 9.32 yards per carry. Ke’Shawn Vaughn was brilliant, taking off for 180 yards including a 78-yard bomb, and Josh Ferguson ran for 133 yards on just 12 carries. Do that, take the pressure off of Wes Lunt and the passing game, and the Illini really might have a puncher’s chance against Ohio State.
9. Nebraska (4-6)
10. Minnesota (4-5)
L, at Ohio State 28-14: If you were told at the beginning of the season that Mitch Leidner would grow into the type of passer who could throw for over 900 yards in a three-game stretch against Nebraska, Michigan and Ohio State, you’d probably assume either 1) the Minnesota offense was on fire or 2) the running game was absolutely dead. It’s the latter. Minnesota has failed to hit the100-yard mark rushing in three of the last five games, and while Leidner has been fine, the ground attack needs to work. It won’t against Iowa, Illinois or Wisconsin, so it’s all on Leidner’s shoulders.
11. Rutgers (3-6)
L, Michigan 49-16: No Leonte Carroo, no passing game. Michigan is the wrong team to play without having all the weapons in place, and not having Carroo took away a downfield playmaker to possibly work around. Not that the star receiver would’ve made up for the problems on defense, but the Scarlet Knights would’ve come up with more than 11 catches for 97 yards.
12. Indiana (4-5)
L, Iowa 35-27: The Hoosiers are playing well enough to get to a bowl game, but there’s little margin for error left with Michigan, at Maryland and at Purdue, needing to win two of the final three games. The chances were there to pull off the upset against the Hawkeyes, and the running game did what it was supposed to with Jordan Howard back and rumbling, but Nate Sudfeld was off. The Hoosiers will have to push the passing game to have any shot against the Wolverines. Sudfeld has to bomb away for 300 yards and hit his third down throws, because Howard won’t be going anywhere.
13. Purdue (2-7)
L, Illinois 48-14: Pfffffft. That’s the air coming out of the balloon after the big win over Nebraska. That’s the Purdue season – it’s good enough to hang around with some of the better teams from time to time, but when it doesn’t have it, it really doesn’t have it. The Boilermakers got destroyed by an Illinois running game that wasn’t doing much against anyone, giving up 382 yards and three scores, allowing more than nine yards per carry. Who’s next? At Northwestern, at Iowa, Indiana. The run D is in huge trouble.
14. Maryland (2-7)
L, Wisconsin 31-24: What’s been Maryland’s biggest overall problem? Turnover margin. The Terps have given up the ball a whopping 30 times on the year and lost the turnover battle in every game but the loss to Michigan – they were dead even, turning it over three times and coming up with three takeaways. Now on an ugly six-game losing streak, this is a good enough team to have been far better, and the loss to Wisconsin was very, very winnable, but to have any shot against Michigan State, they have to be a +2 – at least.
