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B1G West Favorite? Minny has Easiest Sched? Nov 9 Key games: IOWA @Wisconsin; Penn State @ Minnesota

Holy crap. The B1G stunk it up yesterday.

Looking at the B1G West:

Iowa (3-0), of course, won at Iowa State.

Wisconsin (2-0) was idle.

Minnesota (3-0) somehow survived Ga Southern, 35-32.

Debbie (2-1) beat Northern Illinois

Illinois (2-1) lost to Eastern Michigan

Northwestern (1-1) beat UNLV

Purdue (1-2) lost by 21 to TCU.
 
Michigan at Wisky is huge this weekend.

College Football Power Rankings: Ohio State, Notre Dame tick up as BYU, Iowa enter

by Dennis Dodd
@dennisdoddcbs (Twitter)
Sep 16, 2019

#1 Clemson
#2 Alabama
#3 LSU
#4 Oklahoma

#5 Ohio State

Might be time to change my Big Ten pick. The Buckeyes are purring along like Urban Meyer never left (well, in some ways). A blowout of Indiana calms fears about previous road upsets to lesser Big Ten programs.

#9 Michigan
Preview of the Big Ten Championship Game? Michigan travels to Wisconsin with just about everything on the line. The Big Ten and a College Football Playoff berth for starters. Are we overreacting?

#12 Wisconsin
The Badgers look like they're ready to rise back to the top of the Big Ten West. We'll know more when the Wolverines come to town this week.

#18 Penn State
In the last (for now) Pitt-Penn State game, the Nittany Lions thrilled a crowd of 108,000 at Beaver Stadium with a defensive battle. Alex Kessman's 19-yard field goal attempt clanked off an upright after Pitt's Pat Narduzzi eschewed going for the game-tying from the Penn State 1-yard line with less than 4 minutes to go.

#22 Iowa
It took five hours due to weather delays, but the Hawkeyes survived Iowa State by a point on the road. Keith Duncan kicked four field goals. Next meaningful challenge: at Michigan on Oct. 5.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...o-state-notre-dame-tick-up-as-byu-iowa-enter/
 
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Minny finished last year off by beating Wisky & winning their bowl game.

This season they are 3-0 despite trailing for a total of 21:49 in the 4th quarter.

Watch:

 
As long as the child pornHuskers allow Mo Washington to play, I think Debbie will be a dangerous out.

It's pretty obvious why Scott Frost allows players charged with felons to play for his team.

Simply Watch for yourself:

 
Ohio State looks like the best in the B1G.

Is Wisconsin the best in the West? Are the Badgers for real? Are the contenders or spoilers?

From ESPN:

Is Pac-12 already out of the College Football Playoff race?

Big Ten

Top contender: Ohio State
Work to do: Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin

This conference is tricky. Though the league looks deep right now, it could be in trouble because Wisconsin has to play Michigan and Ohio State in crossover games. Can the Badgers emerge as a contender, or will they just play spoiler?

It's a delicate balance staying ranked by the selection committee when they all play one another, but the cross-division games make it even more difficult. We'll learn a lot more Saturday when the Badgers host Michigan. Both teams have had a week off to prepare, but the Wolverines needed it more after a double-overtime win against Army on Sept. 7. Michigan has struggled to find its offensive identity under first-year coordinator Josh Gattis, but it's still early. A win in Madison could quickly change that perception.

Overall, no one in the Big Ten has looked as talented and consistently dominant as Ohio State. The Buckeyes have made a seamless transition from Urban Meyer to Ryan Day, and transfer quarterback Justin Fields is already in the Heisman conversation. With Michigan State in danger of falling out of the Top 25, though, the Buckeyes might not face a ranked opponent until Oct. 26 against ... that's right, Wisconsin
.

https://www.espn.com/college-footba...-already-playoff-race-rank-conference-chances
 
Right now, is Iowa the 2nd best team in the entire B1G?

Are we headed for an Ohio State / Iowa B1G Championship game?

Do you agree with Dave?

Watch:


 
It's been 4 years since we have seen this postgame.

EEwU27FX4AAeOaX
 
Yes. We should root for Michigan State to beat N'western.

Barf.

Also, did you know the N'western's mascot's name? I learned something today.

Watch:

 
Wisconsin rolls at home vs Michigan

N'western loses by 21 at home to Michigan State

Debbie survives, winning by just 4 at Illinois.

Still looks like Iowa & Wisconsin as the 2 co-favorites in the West.
 
Ohio State & Penn State in the East.

Wisconsin & Iowa in the West.

One third into the season, there appears to be a clear top 4 in the B1G.

 
Northwestern is at Wisconsin on Saturday.

Does Northwestern have a chance?

Here are Fitz's comments on Jonathan Taylor & Wisconsin.

Watch:

 
@Jupiter Could we be looking at an 8-0 Iowa start?

From HawkCentral.com:

Leistikow: Revised thoughts on Iowa football's place in the Big Ten
Chad Leistikow, Hawk Central
Published 12:03 p.m. CT Sept. 23, 2019 | Updated 2:45 p.m. CT Sept. 23, 2019

Was Wisconsin that good … or Michigan that bad?

The Badgers’ 35-14 rout of the Wolverines was the most eye-opening Saturday result, both on paper and on film (it was 35-0 at one point). Before the season, these were the two Big Ten games I predicted the Hawkeyes to lose on their way to a West title — at Michigan on Oct. 5; at Wisconsin on Nov. 9.

Now, I’d change the Michigan game to toss-up; which is wild considering the Wolverines were 14½-point favorites over Iowa in preseason lines. (Iowa sportsbooks were listing it as Michigan by 3½ on Monday.) And now the Wisconsin game looks like a more serious uphill climb.

The most surprising revelation about the Wolverines was how frequently their defense was out of position. They have the athletes, but they were either outsmarted or poorly coached. That looks like a team that can be bullied.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, looks a lot like Iowa’s ideal blueprint. Well-coached. Physical offensive line. Sure-tackling defense. Solid quarterback play, married with good-not-great talent at receiver. But the biggest difference is Jonathan Taylor. A dynamic running back in that system is a game-changer, and Taylor’s 72-yard untouched jaunt in the first quarter was emblematic of that.

But, to answer the original question, the truth is probably somewhere in between. Wisconsin took advantage of Michigan’s first-quarter misfortune — a fumble inside the Wisconsin 10-yard line and a horrible replay-review ruling — and put the game out of reach early. If they played that game again, I doubt Wisconsin would be up 35-0.

That rugged Iowa schedule suddenly looks manageable.

Iowa is an early 23-point favorite against Middle Tennessee, which lost handily to Michigan (40-21) and Duke (41-18). If the Hawkeyes take care of business and stay healthy, they'll be 4-0 and met with a four-game October stretch that looks a lot less daunting than originally feared.

Oct 5: The Michigan game is there for the taking.

Oct 12: Imagine the electric home atmosphere Oct. 12 at Kinnick Stadium if the 5-0 Hawkeyes are hosting 5-0 and top-10 Penn State (very possible, considering the Nittany Lions face Maryland and Purdue the next two Saturdays).

Oct 19: Purdue on Oct. 19 is going to be tricky, no matter what, considering what Jeff Brohm has done to the Hawkeyes the past two years. But it’s at home, and the Boilermakers (1-2) are facing a lot of adversity already — a quarterback with concussion issues, a shaky offensive line and their best defensive player out for the season.

Oct 26: The Oct. 26 game at Northwestern suddenly moves into “should-win” turf for the Hawkeyes. The Wildcats (1-2) are usually bad in September, but they looked way behind schedule with Hunter Johnson at quarterback in an ugly 31-10 home loss to Michigan State. It wasn’t really that close.

I’m not suggesting Iowa will go 4-0 in that stretch, but 4-0 doesn’t seem far-fetched — and 0-4 certainly seemed on the table in the preseason. If Iowa can head to Madison on Nov. 9 at 7-1, big goals are still within reach.

With Nebraska comes a renewed appreciation for disciplined, clean football.

Nebraska gained 690 yards at Illinois. What fan wouldn’t love those kind of video-game numbers from the Hawkeyes' offense?

But, boy, the Cornhuskers (3-1) needed every one of those yards to escape with a 42-38 victory. They committed four turnovers (all fumbles) and 119 yards’ worth of penalties and have a disastrous kicking game. It’ll be fascinating to see how Nebraska handles No. 5 Ohio State and ESPN's "College GameDay" coming to town this weekend.

While that's going on in Lincoln, here's the national statistical profile for the team in Iowa City:

* Third in fewest penalty yards;
* fourth in time of possession;
* tied for sixth in turnover margin;
* 15th in net punting;
* tied for first (at 100%) in red-zone scoring efficiency.

Those may not be eye-popping numbers. But they’re winning ones

Iowa's resume warrants a No. 14 national ranking. But …

This three-week time largely behind the curtain — with Middle Tennessee being the only opponent between Iowa State and Michigan — is a crucial time of improvement for the Hawkeyes’ entire season.

It was all good news that Central Florida got beaten at Pittsburgh; that the Pacific-12’s best playoff hope, Utah, went down at USC; that Notre Dame won't go undefeated. But in this case, coach talk is real talk: Iowa (and the rest of the Big Ten) can only take advantage by taking big week-to-week steps.

Iowa doesn't play its first Big Ten West opponent until Oct. 19. Purdue and Northwestern could have come to life by then. Minnesota might be sizzling by November. Nebraska might have things cleaned up by Game 24 of the Scott Frost era on Black Friday.

The Hawkeyes' next step is their biggest step: Taking care of Middle Tennessee in dominating fashion would be an ideal way to finish September.

https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/s...athan-taylor-nebraska-scott-frost/2417337001/
 
Ummmmmmm....... you are the only one posting in this thread and you keep changing the title. It’s weird dude. Just start a new thread.
 
Ummmmmmm....... you are the only one posting in this thread and you keep changing the title. It’s weird dude. Just start a new thread.
but here's the thing. it starts with the preseason cleveland.com predictions along with many others' predictions.

and now perspectives have changed.

and the weekly power rankings change, too.

why do we need new threads on the same topic?
 
Minnesota is about to beat Purdue on the road.

They have the easiest conference schedule in the B1G West.

They will be 4-0 after today and have Illinois at home next week.

Rutgers, Maryland & Penn State at home are their cross over games.

Their Conference Schedule:

BYE WEEKS: Sep 21, Nov 2

HOME:

Oct 5 Illinois,
Oct 12 Debbie,
Oct 26 Maryland,
Nov 9 PSU,
Nov 30 Wisky

ROAD
:

Sep 28 Purdue--WIN
Oct 19 Rutgers,
Nov 16 Iowa,
Nov 23 Northwestern
 
The top 2 teams in the B1G West appear pretty clear right now.

Wisconsin & Iowa.

Iowa, of course, still have to play #2 (in the B1G, after Ohio State) Wisconsin, #3 Penn State and #5 Michigan.

 
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