The next 2 weeks in the B1G

After our bye this week and what should be a bye next week, we should be rolling into Ann Arbor 4-0. I took a peek at what will have transpired by then in the conference.

Michigan plays at Wisconsin this week. This will not only give one of them a loss, it should reveal how good Wisconsin is and if Michigan has improved on offense at all.

MSU goes to NW this week. I could care less about MSU, but this will give us a great read on how our defense will stack up with NW offense.

PSU plays at MD next week. I know MD got exposed by Temple, however, this is a night game with both teams coming off byes.

NW at Wisconsin next week. An important west matchup that will be fun to see one take a loss.

Minn at Purdue next week. Another west matchup and someone loses.

OSU at Neb next week. It will be great to see Neb get crushed.

The joy of watching football after Iowa had already won or is on a bye.
 


good recap, we'll have a much clearer picture in 2 weeks. And of course someteams will show improvement during the year and others wont. The thing is jNW and Min. are teams who generally improve as the year moves on (assuming healthy)
 


After our bye this week and what should be a bye next week, we should be rolling into Ann Arbor 4-0. I took a peek at what will have transpired by then in the conference.

Michigan plays at Wisconsin this week. This will not only give one of them a loss, it should reveal how good Wisconsin is and if Michigan has improved on offense at all.

MSU goes to NW this week. I could care less about MSU, but this will give us a great read on how our defense will stack up with NW offense.

PSU plays at MD next week. I know MD got exposed by Temple, however, this is a night game with both teams coming off byes.

NW at Wisconsin next week. An important west matchup that will be fun to see one take a loss.

Minn at Purdue next week. Another west matchup and someone loses.

OSU at Neb next week. It will be great to see Neb get crushed.

The joy of watching football after Iowa had already won or is on a bye.

Damn, NW and Wisconsin look really busy. Oh, wait I mixed up "this" week and "next" week.
 








Gotta plug the nose and cheer for Harbaugh and Dantonio this weekend. The goal for Iowa is to win the west and that very much helps our cause.

Yep and I mentioned the same on a post a few days ago. And we generally want the home team to win in the West vs West matchups unless it is Illinois maybe pulling off a big upset over our rivals. But if Mich beats Wisky this weekend I would like to see Wisky beat jNW to give them both a loss. But it is hard to say, would you want Wisky to lose 2 in a row even though it gives jNW, the reigning West Champ, a big road victory.

Road wins have to be really hard to come by, even though the hawks have been pretty good at it lately, that is why a road win is a big deal and if our rivals get one it is almost like them stealing a win.

Of course the hawks winning almost all of their games will make this much easier for the team.
 


Its going to be an interesting few weeks. Iowa should handle MTSU although they didn't back down at all from Michigan a few weeks ago. Then they have their 2 crossovers.

Normally the crossovers aren't quite so big but this year with how even the West looks every single game has meaning. Obviously its easy to pull for East teams to beat West teams to help Iowa. But what's going to get crazy is when West teams start playing each other. It will be hard to know who to root for.

I still remember posters here being giddy over Nebraska choking against NW last season. But in reality that was bad for Iowa. IMO Iowa was flat out better than NW last year and pissed the bed against them. But even had Iowa won that game, that Neb/NW result would have loomed very large in NW still going to Indy for the championship.
 


Its going to be an interesting few weeks. Iowa should handle MTSU although they didn't back down at all from Michigan a few weeks ago. Then they have their 2 crossovers.

Normally the crossovers aren't quite so big but this year with how even the West looks every single game has meaning. Obviously its easy to pull for East teams to beat West teams to help Iowa. But what's going to get crazy is when West teams start playing each other. It will be hard to know who to root for.

I still remember posters here being giddy over Nebraska choking against NW last season. But in reality that was bad for Iowa. IMO Iowa was flat out better than NW last year and pissed the bed against them. But even had Iowa won that game, that Neb/NW result would have loomed very large in NW still going to Indy for the championship.

Yes, Nebby had such a bad record last year at the time they played jNW that we needed Nebby to win even though they were the road team.

As each week goes by and Iowa plays these teams the records and tie breakers of head to head competition will dictate who we cheer for. But always of course we want East to beat West unless the hawks are playing and sometimes like last year it was just delightful to see Purdue smash OSU like the hawks did the year before. Loved it even though it gave Purdue momentum.
 




Yep and I mentioned the same on a post a few days ago. And we generally want the home team to win in the West vs West matchups unless it is Illinois maybe pulling off a big upset over our rivals. But if Mich beats Wisky this weekend I would like to see Wisky beat jNW to give them both a loss. But it is hard to say, would you want Wisky to lose 2 in a row even though it gives jNW, the reigning West Champ, a big road victory.

Road wins have to be really hard to come by, even though the hawks have been pretty good at it lately, that is why a road win is a big deal and if our rivals get one it is almost like them stealing a win.

Of course the hawks winning almost all of their games will make this much easier for the team.
I would very much prefer to have to duke it out with jNW for a West title than Wisky.
 






After our bye this week and what should be a bye next week, we should be rolling into Ann Arbor 4-0. I took a peek at what will have transpired by then in the conference.

Michigan plays at Wisconsin this week. This will not only give one of them a loss, it should reveal how good Wisconsin is and if Michigan has improved on offense at all.

MSU goes to NW this week. I could care less about MSU, but this will give us a great read on how our defense will stack up with NW offense.

PSU plays at MD next week. I know MD got exposed by Temple, however, this is a night game with both teams coming off byes.

NW at Wisconsin next week. An important west matchup that will be fun to see one take a loss.

Minn at Purdue next week. Another west matchup and someone loses.

OSU at Neb next week. It will be great to see Neb get crushed.

The joy of watching football after Iowa had already won or is on a bye.

Just to revisit this. So after 2 weeks:

Michigan is not nearly as good, or talented, as was originally thought. Especially on both lines, there is not very much talent there. Also, their "Don Brown" defense is severely overrated. We should own them in the trenches on both sides, and as long as we can stay in our zone against those receivers, tackle, we have a great chance to beat them easily.

Wisconsin is a very good team, however, after playing NW, we were all shown a blueprint on how to slow them down and beat them. Our 4-3 is a great counter to their offense, and it will be tough sledding for Taylor against us. Can Coan beat us? Maybe, maybe not, but that is where the battle is. Their defense is not great on any level, they are good, but especially in the secondary where they can be exposed. I like our matchup with our senior quarterback and our talent at WR. The team that plays cleaner and wins the turnover battle will more than likely win this game. Kind of like all of our games with them.

NW. Their defense is game, they stop the run, but they can't hold up forever, because their offense is atrocious. And I mean atrocious. MSU showed us what to do with them, to stuff the run and make either of their healthy quarterbacks beat us which they wont. As long as we don't turn the ball over, have a bunch of penalties or have a string of other fluky stuff happen, this is a great matchup for us.

Pedo State still really hasn't been tested. Maryland has already mailed it in. But Pitt did show us that playing a semblence of defense and limiting the run can shut this team down. Their defense is really good and will be tough to score on, however, on the road in the big ten, you need a leader at quarterback and I like our guy a lot better than their guy.

Purdue is struggling, has little confidence, lots of injuries and cannot run the ball at all. Bad formula in this conference, and again, barring bunch of turnovers, penalties and big plays we win this game handily.

Minnesota. As much as I hate to say it, this is not a bad team. They are better in the trenches on both sides of the ball than everyone in our division except us and Wisconsin. Their receivers are talented and their quarterback is confident and I believe they are building an identity. Against us, it will be hard for them to run, but with their RPO action it will be a difficult matchup, where they can ugly the game up enough to get it in the fourth quarter. I like that this is at home.

Nebraska. We dominate them on both sides of the ball in the trenches and we will get to see the fight die from their eyes in second half.

So I think we physically dominate Nebraska, NW, Purdue, Illinois and Michigan. I think we are a more complete team on both sides of the ball against MN and Pedo St. and they are at home. I think Wisconsin is a toss up.
 


I posted this earlier in the season. This feels like it could be a special season. The schedule is very similar to what we had in 2005 when we went 12-0. Football runs in cycles and we are at the top of that cycle again. Let’s hope we can have the same results except for one. A win in the B1G championship game! Then a place at the CFB Championship table. Why not us? Why not Iowa? Believe it or not, this team, despite the obvious future personnel losses is looking good for the future too.
 


I posted this earlier in the season. This feels like it could be a special season. The schedule is very similar to what we had in 2005 when we went 12-0. Football runs in cycles and we are at the top of that cycle again. Let’s hope we can have the same results except for one. A win in the B1G championship game! Then a place at the CFB Championship table. Why not us? Why not Iowa? Believe it or not, this team, despite the obvious future personnel losses is looking good for the future too.
We’ve got to beat Wisconsin. There’s not much way around it. If we beat Wisconsin we could even afford losses to Penn State and Michigan and still win the West. I think Wiscy loses to aOSU, only and hopefully us.
 


We’ve got to beat Wisconsin. There’s not much way around it. If we beat Wisconsin we could even afford losses to Penn State and Michigan and still win the West. I think Wiscy loses to aOSU, only and hopefully us.
Yeah OSU looks pretty good. I know it was Nebraska, but they had a couple plays that made me go, dam that's shit you see on Sundays.
Wisconsin is going to have a game on their hands in that one.
 




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