Monday, October 23, 2006

Monday Morning QB ...
Just another hum-drum weekend in college football. Okay, so I lie! I cannot remember a weekend with as much drama as we experienced Saturday. Texas gets a break at Nebraska, almost loses their own fumble and then rides the leg of a walk-on to a huge road win. Tennessee overcomes a game full of struggles while knocking on the Alabama door and holds off the Crimson Tide. Washington connects on a Hail Mary to force overtime and then throws a pick to help Cal survive. Notre Dame does little offensively all day, and then drives 80 yards in three plays late and shocks UCLA in South Bend. Oh and in the Big Ten there was that little comeback by the team even I (the eternal glass is more than half-full optimist) had quit on.

Anyone who follows college football and saw the third quarter MSU-NU score (38-3) flash across the screen probably had to be pinched, kicked, slapped (JLS style) when they flipped on ESPN for Gameday later that night only to learn that Michigan State, the team known for blowing such leads, was on the winning end of an historic comeback. I know personally, I left the game at the half for my son's soccer game (his coach kicked for Northwestern, so you can guess how I felt!) and vowed not to go to another game all season. Then a fellow Spartan told me the news; "Michigan State has cut the lead to 38-31 and is driving." No way, now how. Not my Spartans. A few minutes later it was tied up and we'd picked off a pass. I got in the car in time to listen to Brett Swenson make the short field goal that gave the green and white the greatest 1-A comeback in history. I'm still floored by it. I just hope that things turn as right on this as they did wrong after the Notre Dame debacle...

Elsewhere, Ohio State cruised. Michigan overcame ultra-conservative play to hold off a game Iowa squad. The two are now 1-2 in the BCS ratings, which barring an epic collapse should set up the best game ever in the historic rivlary. Wisconsin dominated Purdue and is clearly the third best team in the conference. Penn State was sloppy but got back to winning ways with a win over the Illini. Minnesota had to block a field goal late to avoid the third Big Ten loss at the hands of a highly rated 1-AA team this year. Yep, just another ho-hum weekend of football in October.

Team of the Week...
Michigan and Ohio State are the obvious choices but of course the honor has to go to the Spartans. Biggest comeback in 1-A history. A possible season saving, job saving, turn around win for the ages.

Player of the Week...
It would be easy to give it to Ginn or Smith or even Michael Hart or the Wisconsin defense. But my game ball goes to the beaten and battered Drew Stanton. Stanton overcame more injuries against Northwestern to lead the epic comeback win for Michigan State.

Get Gamm status...
All but two went a perfect 6-0 this weekend and one nailed the point differential in the Michigan - Iowa contest to take the tiebreaker. This week's winner is Northwestern fan flakcat. Flak, I feel for you with the loss, but at least you won Get Gamm.

1 - mayo170: 53-11 (.828)
T2 - Buckeye Nation: 52-12 (.813) - 3 GG Wins
T2 - Dan Meyer: 52-12 (.813) - 2 GG Wins
T2 - andrewj1313: 52-12 (.813)
T5 - flakcat: 51-13 (.797) - 1 GG Win
T5 - phatsdawg: 51-13 (.797)
7 - Gamm: 50-14 (.781) - 1 GG Win
8 - BigTenSportsFan: 48-16 (.750) - 1 GG Win
9 - PUFan: 30-12 (.714)

This week's slate:
Illinois at Wisconsin
Michigan State at Indiana
Northern Illinois at Iowa
Northwestern at Michigan
Minnesota at Ohio State
Penn State at Purdue (Tiebreaker)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow I just keep falling farther and farther down in the standings ha.

WISCONSIN 42 illinois 17

MICHIGAN STATE 35 indiana 14

IOWA 42 northern illinois 31

MICHIGAN 33 northwestern 3

OHIO STATE 42 minnesota 6

Purdue 35 penn state 17*Boilers finally put it all together! I hope.

Dan Meyer said...

May have put on my rose-colored home field glasses by mistake.

Illinois 10 at WISCONSIN 38
Michigan State 21 at INDIANA 24--Overlooked in the Spartan euphoria over the result--how does a team get FIVE TDs behind NORTHWESTERN in the first place?
Northern Illinois 14 at IOWA 41
Northwestern 10 at MICHIGAN 31--I can't see ANY way that the Wildcats can recover anytime soon.
Minnesota 16 at OHIO STATE 38
*Penn State 20 at PURDUE 24--Biased pick or confidence that the Boiler D FINALLY is turning the corner? You make the call.

Andy Gamm said...

Maisel still sees 8 B10 teams going bowling (i.e. he has Indiana in). http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2627844&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

Anonymous said...

bIllinois 13 @ Wisconsin 38 -Badgers roll at home.
Michigan State 27 @ Indiana 24 - See-saw game with MSU winning on a FG.
Northwestern 14 @ Michigan 31 - UM easily.
Minnesota 6 @ Ohio State 38 - Buckeyes roll again before a Homecoming crowd with Jack Nicklaus dotting the "i" in Script Ohio.
Northern Illinois 23 @ Iowa 31 - closer than the Hawks would like, but Tate is out and Wolfe can run.
Penn State 24 @ Purdue 21 - A pick 'em game that PSU usually finds a way to pull out.

Anonymous said...

Illinois 10 at Wisconsin 31
Michigan State 29 at Indiana 21
Northern Illinois 16 at Iowa 18
Northwestern 3 at Michigan 41
Minnesota 6 at Ohio State 56
Penn State 19 at Purdue 24

AndrewJ1313 said...

Wisconsin 49, Illinois 14;
Michigan State 34, Indiana 27;
Michigan 42, Northwestern 6;
Iowa 21, Northern Illinois 16;
Penn State 28, Purdue 17;
Ohio State 38, Minnesota 3.

GO BUCKS!!!!!!!!!