The Final Score - Your source for Big Ten Sports

Gaining clarity, one game at a time...
We're still very early in conference play, but there seems to be some clear separation between the top, the contenders, the pretenders and the nobodies. The weekend saw some great comebacks - Nebraska and Michigan - the backing up of a bold statement (Penn State) and more clarity on who's who this season.

The best part? It gets even better this coming weekend with a slate of meaningful games on tap.

The good...
Michigan. Nebraska. Penn State. Illinois. Purdue.  Nice wins by all five.  Two solid comebacks. One statement backer. Two more good wins even in games that were near givens.  Nebraska was most impressive to me because the fans had turned on them, OSU was in control and things were spiraling fast.  Patience, a defensive surge and the Martinez-Burkhead combo were the nails in the Buckeye coffin.  Michigan overcame an ugly first half to dominate a NU team that looked inexplicably lost for two quarters.  Penn State had to back up the "Iowa is a wrestling school" call out by a player and did so with a dominating if not awe-inspiring performance.  Illinois and Purdue rolled - and should have.

The bad...
Ohio State and Northwestern.  The Buckeyes finally woke up their dormant offense and looked to be on the road to a romp in Lincoln.  Then Miller got hurt and that was all she wrote.  Bauserman looked - as my 12 year old said - fat, old, slow and with an arm of a middle schooler.  What a shame that the six-time defending champ has fallen so hard so fast.  Northwestern looked the part of contender until halftime.  Then it all unraveled.  The 'cats forgot the great spy defense that kept DRob in check early and let him right back in the Heisman race...

The ugly...
Iowa. Indiana. Minnesota.  The latter are not a shock and require no further comment (or beat down).  But Iowa? Really? That offensive display was, well, offensive.  Highly.  What happened to the offense that worked so well in a comeback win over Pitt?  And people, Pitt bull-whipped a good USF team so we know that was a nice win for Iowa.  There was no fight from the wrestling school that had owned PSU in the 2000s.

No winna...no dinna
For the first time this year, I beat all comers by taking the tiebreaker from Phats - who rebounded nicely after a bad week five.
This week...
Indiana at Wisconsin
Purdue at Penn State
Michigan at Michigan State (Game of the Week)
Ohio State at Illinois
Northwestern at Iowa