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.
