Let’s try something different:
Guys! The Big Ten is really good this year! Four teams in the top 10! Nebraska is ranked 18. Why isn’t Minnesota ranked? They’re 8-3. All of their losses have been 7 points or less. Two of them were to ranked teams and one was to Iowa who, while struggling early, has shown they can play like their 1 loss selves of last year. Indiana has harnessed the Chaos and turned it into a capable defense (I’m pretty sure they’re responsible for the snowy wonderland that was the fourth quarter. I really wish I had gone to that game). They’ve hung with top 10 teams the past two years and without so much turnover trouble they’d be.. 7-4? 8-3? Michigan State… well Tyler O’Conner sucks, and they have like 47 freshmen starting… but those 47 freshmen now have 10 games under their belt and are starting to look like a football team. They’ve played respectable games the last few weeks, often without their best defensive player. (Also, Dantonio is a good coach but stop saving ALL of your good plays for Michigan if it means you’re going to lose to Indiana, Northwestern, Illinois and Maryland). Michigan and OSU are both in the playoffs. Even Purdue and Rutgers…
I’m just kidding they suck. I don’t know how good the Big Ten is… I hope they’re as good as the rankings show.. or that the other conferences are bad because the Big Ten is going to be thought of pretty highly during bowl selection and there’s a possibility of a really big let down.
Let’s talk about this week… For Michigan fans, it’s the game. The Bad: Speight looked terrible against Iowa and didn’t play this week due to injury (because every time Michigan looks like they could beat Ohio the football gods decide that the QB doesn’t need 2 arms anymore). John O’Korn (Go Coogs!) was a bit of a let down as he spent much of the game looking like BYU’s Grandpa Simpson (get it! BYU is old because they’re Mormons) QB last year. My opinion: yes he looked like a scared kitten. But our O-Line did not do him many favors. And again, when he did make a play the receivers let him down with a couple of drops (Butt and Chesson). If he plays against OSU it could be rough. He’ll need others to step up to win, but I can see him not losing it for U-M.
On the plus side:
Ohio State has looked mortal several times this year. They were out-gained by MSU (well.. really just LJ Scott) last week. JT Barret has been up and down. If Michigan’s defense plays like they can this could be tight low scoring game.
As a side note: There’s a very real potential that a 1 loss OSU team would be left out of the playoff picture. If Penn State wins, they would go to the Big Ten Championship over OSU (Michigan has the tie-breaker if they win this week). So the Big Ten championship could be Wisconsin vs Penn State. Winner goes to the playoffs along with Bama, probably Clemson, and probably Washington if they win the Pac-12. Committee may have some interesting choices on their hands… I’d defer to Larry Culpepper for the decision.
…MSU fans, as much as I hate OSU, beat Penn State anyway. It’s their fault Rutgers is in the Big Ten now.
Go Blue!