Another great weekend of football with lots of upsets and near-upsets to keep it lively. West Virginia was the first elite team to fall (as I predicted) but then it turned into a trend with Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas also suffering ugly losses.
(I can't say I got much pleasure out of the Florida loss. As the Gators know well, it's not how you lose but when. Better to lose in September and win in January.)
In the Pac 10 USC had all it could handle with a very talented Washington team and Cal had to battle it out with Oregon to remain undefeated.
The Big 10 continues to struggle as a dominant conference with Michigan nearly falling to Northwestern and Wisconsin barely getting past Michigan State. Penn State fell to the upstart Illini and Indiana was surprisingly good in its defeat of Iowa. Meanwhile Purdue quietly moves into the national picture with its easy win over Notre Dame (worst team ever), setting up a big showdown next Saturday night at home against Ohio State.
My Buckeyes played well though struggled to roll up the score as they had last week against Northwestern (and last year when they beat the Gophers 44-0). Minnesota played its brains out and still only managed 7 points while surrendering 30 to OSU's methodical attack. The pass to Robiskie at the end of the first half was without a doubt the highlight and showed how explosive the offense is becoming. Wells's ankle continues to be a concern, and Hartline seemed to struggle, and both will be needed as we get deeper into the conference schedule. Kudos to Trapasso and to Tressel for the fake punt; a gutsy and timely call that really changed the course of the game.
In order to beat the Boilermakers at Purdue, OSU will need to play as well as they did when they traveled to Washington earlier in the year. Purdue has an explosive offense and they will be motivated to make a statement against the Buckeyes whom they haven't seen for a few years. But it is hard to see the defense allowing them more than the season high 14 points they gave up to the Huskies. It will really come down to turnovers, field position, and whether or not the offense can do its job against a Purdue defense that hasn't been tested much this year.
OSU has moved up to #4 in the polls which certainly exceeds my expectations for what seemed like a rebuilding year.
Meanwhile, my little CSU Rams lost again (this time to TCU) and seem pretty hopeless. They haven't won since October of last year and now seem unlikely to do much with this season. Is Coach Lubick contemplating retirement?
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Listening to: Modest Mouse - Steam Engenius
via FoxyTunes
