Around the Big Ten

[WingsFan]

[THE_WIZARD_]

I can see it in your eyes...I can see it in your smile....

[THE_WIZARD_]

don't judge me....just trying to gay this thread up a little so Talent feels more at home

[AlabamAlum]

Heh.

[KidD]

You might bring MT3 back out of hiding you keep it up...

Sent from my LG-F670L using Tapatalk

[Detroit Dan]

Michigan beat Penn State by 39, but I doubt Ohio tops them by 19. Penn State has been on an upswing, and Ohio has slipped a bit.

[froot loops]

No doubt, OSU is definitely slipping as evidenced in Madison.

[WM Wolverine]

They dominated that second half.

[iam416]

OSU railed two teams: Bowling Green and Rutgers. Both are spectacularly awful.

OSU struggled for a half against Tulsa before blowing their doors off. Tulsa is probably a mediocre offensive team and a bad defensive team. Holding them to 3 was impressive. Offensively, I think they only scored 34 of the 48, so that was not so good. This script was followed in the IU game where the defense was really good but for one drive (and one jail break screen) and the offense was really bad -- mostly JTB being late with everything. The offense eventually settled down and scored enough to win, but it wasn't pretty.

OSU handled OU on the road. OSU matched up well with OU because (a) OU's OL wasn't good enough to get a ton of push on OSU's DT; (b) OU's DL wasn't good enough to handle OSU's OL; and (c) OU's WRs weren't good enough across the board to challenge OSU's secondary. That said, JTB played a great game. If he's average (or if Noah Brown isn't spectacular), then it's a different game.

OSU got thoroughly beat by Wisconsin in the first half and turned the tables on them in the second half. Wisky kicked 3 FGs; OSU kicked 2 FGs and threw a pick in the end zone. The thing that bothered me a bit was that OSU's WRs didn't really make a single play until Dontre Wilson made a nice catch on their drive to tie the game at 23. JTB put the ball in spots on deep throws that were there to be had -- probably on 3 occasions -- 2 for TDs -- and he didn't get any plays from his WRs -- contrasted against the OU game.

So, I have 2 games that don't matter one lick in assessing OSU. Two games that show where OSU has issues on offense (Tulsa, IU) and one game that shows a few chinks in the defense (Wisky).

I've never thought this was a top 2 or 3 team and I still don't. That said, they're better than I thought they'd be at this stage of the season and, as I said in the OSU thread, I really like the fact that they have two huge road wins. Night games in Norman and Madison. Those will test a team, IMO.

[froot loops]

Saying the same thing twice doesn't make the AA-like sandbag any more convincing.

[The Oracle]

You expect me to read all that shit twice?

[iam416]

Yes

[Kstat]

Rutgers definitely covering. They may win outright.

[iam416]

Wisky-Iowa has potential for 2pt conversion to decide cover. I said 17-13. Unfortunately it's looking like 17-14 or 17-12 even after the reversal of the TD.

[The Oracle]

Got Wisky at 4'. That TD scared me at first, then realized they'd need to get the 2pt too. Get this onside and call it good.