What really mattered and what’s important from Week 2 of the Big Ten college football season?
– Cincinnati at Ohio St, Syracuse at Maryland, CMU at Wisconsin
– Colorado at Nebraska, Illinois at UConn, EIU at Indiana
– Buffalo at Penn St, WMU at Michigan St, Minnesota at Fresno St
Iowa 30, Rutgers 0
And there’s the Rutgers offense. There was hope that the passing game was going to get going after a big performance against UMass – after a rough start – but Texas Tech transfer McLane Carter and Artur Sitkowski combined to connect on 9-of-26 passes for 41 yards and two picks. The O didn’t go anywhere.
The Iowa offense had nice balance to take the pressure off of both sides. It took a little while to put the game away, but Nate Stanley was a sharp 16-of-28 for 236 yards and three scores. Imhir Smith-Marsette caught two touchdown passes as the deep threat.
At the very least, Rutgers has to be a whole lot tighter. If you’re going to be bad, don’t be -3 in turnover margin and get flagged seven times. How good was the Iowa D? Rutgers came up with just five first downs.
Michigan 24, Army 21 2OT
Survive and advance … survive and advance. It’s a win. It was ugly, sloppy, and very, very rough, but again, it’s a win. Run out of the stadium, get on the bus, and move on … it’s on to Wisconsin after two weeks to prepare. The defense came up with the plays it had to at the very end, it held the Army ground game to just 200 yards and three touchdowns, but …
There were WAY too many penalties, there were WAY too many turnovers, and there were WAY too many mistakes. The four fumbles – losing two – were a part of a disturbing trend of putting the ball on the ground, the eight penalties all seemed to come at the absolute worst times, and it was an ugly all-around performance.
The offense stalled too often. The up-tempo attack appears to have taken away the physical part of the Michigan attack, but Zach Charbonnet was the game-saver with 100 tough yards and three scores on 33 carries. He didn’t bust out anything big, and he was stuffed on a few big downs, but he was a steadying force when the passing game wasn’t working.
Purdue 42, Vanderbilt 24
And that’s how you get her a disappointing, crushing loss. The Boilermakers might have collapsed in the second half against Nevada, but they were terrific after halftime against Vandy. Elijah Sindelar threw for 509 yards and five scores with a rushing touchdown, and Rondale Moore was his fabulous self with 13 catches for 220 yards and one score.
The Purdue offense is pushing the ball down the field more. Sindelar isn’t afraid to give his receivers a shot deep, and he has the arm to get it there. Vanderbilt gave Georgia’s Jake Fromm a hard time last week, and this week, Sindelar bombed at will.
There were a whole slew of mistakes on both sides. The eight penalties would’ve been alarming if Vanderbilt didn’t get nailed for 13 sins for 100 yards. The Boilermakers were able to overcome it with great D for three quarters – this became a surprising breeze.
NEXT: Cincinnati at Ohio State, Syracuse at Maryland, Central Michigan at Wisconsin …
– Iowa at Rutgers, Army at Michigan, Vandy at Purdue
– Colorado at Nebraska, Illinois at UConn, EIU at Indiana
– Buffalo at Penn St, WMU at Michigan St, Minnesota at Fresno St
Ohio State 42, Cincinnati 0
Remember when Cincinnati was supposed to give Ohio State problems? yeah, good times. It took a quarter to get rolling, and then the talent level came through as the Buckeyes showed off their dizzying array of skill parts, but …
This was about the backfield. Could Justin Fields do it for a second game in a row? Yup … and then some. He connected on 20-of-25 passes for 224 yards and two scores with two rushing touchdowns, and JK Dobbins got going. He wasn’t bad against Florida Atlantic, but he wasn’t able to bust free. 17 carries, 141 yards and two scores with a home run – he was fantastic.
This is a tough, hard-nosed Cincinnati team that went absolutely nowhere. There were plenty of short, midrange throws, but the ground game only had a few good runs and it made the mistakes OSU didn’t. To blow this, the Buckeyes had to screw up – no turnovers, two penalties. Cincinnati? 10 penalties, two giveaways.
Maryland 63, Syracuse 20
Whoooooooa. Now THAT’S what you call a statement. Syracuse – at least according to the rankings – is the second-best team in the ACC, and Maryland deleted its account. The offense was magnificent on the way to a 42-point first quarter, Josh Jackson was wonderful, and everything clicked against a fantastic defense with one of the best pass rushes in college football.
Jackson has been the quarterback the program has been missing over the last few seasons. There were plenty of misfires, but he threw for almost 300 yards and three scores with a pick, and he led the rest of the parts do the work. The running game? On the great Orange defensive front, it ripped off 354 yards and six scores with big dash after big dash.
The defense wasn’t a rock, but with Syracuse needing to push to keep up, it couldn’t do it. Syracuse was supposed to have the killer pass rush and the star ends, but they only had one sack. Maryland came up with four sacks and kept pressuring Tommy DeVito.
Wisconsin 61, Central Michigan 0
That’s exactly what you wanted to see out of the Badgers. They’ve won their first two games by a combined score of 110-0, and now they get two weeks to gear up – and get healthy – for Michigan. The best part? The banged up defense that missed a whole lot of key parts allowed just 58 yards of total CMU offense.
Jonathan Taylor was at it again. The Badger star ran 19 times for 102 yards and three scores, and he caught three passes for 17 yards and a score before leaving early in the blowout. The passing game clicked, too, with Jack Coan hitting 26-of-33 passes for 363 yards and three scores, including two scoring passes to Quintez Cephus. On an interesting note, star freshman got in, hitting 4-of-5 passes for 35 yards.
– How dominant was this? The Badgers outgunned the Chippewas 599 yards to 58, partly by converting 11-of-13 third down chances. CMU converted just three first downs.
NEXT: Colorado at Nebraska, Illinois at UConn, Eastern Illinois at Indiana
– Iowa at Rutgers, Army at Michigan, Vandy at Purdue
– Cincinnati at Ohio St, Syracuse at Maryland, CMU at Wisconsin
– Buffalo at Penn St, WMU at Michigan St, Minnesota at Fresno St
Colorado 34, Nebraska 31 OT
How did the Huskers possibly lose that? On the plus side, the offense woke up after a sleepy game against South Alabama. Other than a few fumbles, this was more like the Adrian Martinez we were all waiting for, with 290 yards and two scores to go along with 66 yards and two touchdowns. However, the running game still isn’t up to par – it got stuffed and stalled way too often.
The O line couldn’t keep the Buffs out of the backfield. Colorado came up with six sacks – including a big one in overtime – but Maurice Washington still found a little room to move with 77 yards rushing and 118 yards with a 75-yard score receiving. The attack went dark for a bit, but …
This is on the defensive meltdown in the fourth quarter. The Huskers couldn’t stop the great Colorado receivers, couldn’t generate a key stop, and they looked a bit gassed – welcome to Boulder. This showed how far the team still has to go – it needs more guys. It needs more defensive playmakers.
Illinois 31, UConn 23
It wasn’t a thing of beauty, but it’s a non-conference road win – that just doesn’t happen for Illinois. It took a while to wake up, and then it all worked with a 24-point second quarter to all but put the game away. However …
The offensive line needs to generate more of a push for the ground game. Jakari Norwood led the way with 62 yards, and almost all of them came on one play. The Illini averaged fewer than four yards per carry, but the O was saved by Brandon Peters, who threw for 227 yards and four scores.
It was sloppy. There were three turnovers, nine penalties, and a rough start that made the team have to push a bit. Even so, with Eastern Michigan up next before Nebraska comes to Champaign, it’s a win to put on the pile. However, this same performance won’t be good enough to get by EMU.
Indiana 52, Eastern Illinois 0
Jack Tuttle struggled. The other two IU quarterbacks were fantastic, with Peyton Ramsey hitting 13-of-14 passes for 226 yards and two scores, and Michael Penix threw for 197 yards and two scores. They were taking target practice, partly because they had all the time in the world to work.
Stevie Scott ran for a team-high 61 yards and a score, ran just fine, and then didn’t need to do anything else. This was a game to get the backups involved – the Hoosiers had this in the bag by the end of the first quarter.
The defense wasn’t going to be pushed too much, but it still did what it was supposed to do. EIU got nothing out of any phase, it couldn’t move the chains, and it couldn’t handle the Hoosier defensive front. This is as tuned as the team can be before hosting Ohio State next week.
NEXT: Buffalo at Penn State, WMU at Michigan State, Minnesota at Fresno State
– Iowa at Rutgers, Army at Michigan, Vandy at Purdue
– Cincinnati at Ohio St, Syracuse at Maryland, CMU at Wisconsin
– Colorado at Nebraska, Illinois at UConn, EIU at Indiana
Penn State 45, Buffalo 13
It took a half to get revved up, and then the machine started working. The Nittany Lions came up with 28 third quarter points after getting down 10-7 going into halftime. It appeared to be a case of not clicking in the first half as opposed to there being any major problem, but …
The running game didn’t work. Sean Clifford threw four touchdown passes, but he shouldn’t be the team’s leading rusher. He ripped off one huge dash, and finished with 51 yards on the ground, but there wasn’t enough of a push up front. Buffalo held up well, at least early on.
The O never seemed to have the ball. Buffalo controlled the clock and the game, mostly because Penn State couldn’t hit on third downs. It turned into a blowout win after executing better in the second half, but the final score was misleading.
Michigan State 51, Western Michigan 17
That’s what Spartan fans have been waiting a long, long time for. The defense did its part for three quarters, but it didn’t have to work too hard. The O did its part with 21 first quarter points in an explosive overall performance from that side of the ball … finally.
Elijah Collins ran for 192 yards, and Darrell Stewart caught ten passes for 185 yards and a touchdown, but this was about Brian Lewerke looking like he’s supposed to. He hit WMU for 314 yards and three scores, and he took the stress out of the game right away.
Now the competition is ramped up a bit with Arizona State coming to town, but there’s not a whole lot of offensive punch to worry about. The D that allowed just 67 WMU yards on the ground and forced three takeaways shouldn’t have a problem.
Minnesota 38, Fresno State 35 2OT
2-0 is 2-0 is 2-0, but for the second straight week, the Gophers had to work WAY too hard to get the job done. When needed, they went all Big Ten on the non-Power Fiver and rammed the running game to the win. It wasn’t a consistent ground attack – averaging under three yards per carry – but it was there when needed.
The defense was fantastic against the run, but it took a pick from Antoine Winfield in overtime to finally take away the Bulldog passing game. The Gopher D generated pressure and forced two interceptions, but it struggled too much to take over the game.
Minnesota can’t be so sloppy. Too many of the seven penalties were in big moments, and the three turnovers – all fumbles – kept Fresno State alive. Next week against Georgia Southern and its running game, the Gophers have to take over the time of possession battle early, get the O line in a lather, and the D has to get off the field fast.
