Well, like everyone said the conference is down this year, and much like the Brewers failed to take advantage of a weak NL Cenral this year, I fear the Badgers will not seize the opportunity at hand. A rundown of the teams following yesterday.
Ohio State: Beat Purdue convincingly. During the broadcast, Herbstreit said this could be better than last year's team. Here's a thought for sports broadcasters: don't hire analysts who are sooooooo close to their alma mater that they can't think clearly and let them cover said alma mater's games. Here's who the mighty Buckeyes have beaten this year: Youngstown State, Akron, Washington, Northwestern, Minnesota, Purdue. Wow, a real murderer's row. Up next: Kent State. And this team will be ranked #2 or 3 later today? All that said, this is clearly the best team in the Big Ten at this moment.
Illinois, Wisconsin: see yesterday's game report.
Michigan: They're back? Why is that again? Because they beat a 2-4 Eastern Michigan team by 11 in front of the most consistently quiet 100,000+ crowd on the planet? Their other victims since being embarrassed to open the season are Notre Dame, Penn State, and Northwestern. Impressive.
Indiana: Better than I thought, I see them finishing 4-4 or 5-3 in conference.
Purdue: Just not ready for prime time yet. Are they ever?
Penn State: Came back nicely yesterday after back-to-back tough losses, should be favored by about 5 over us this week. Will lose another couple games in conference.
Michigan State, Iowa: Those heart-stopping wins we had to open the Big Ten don't look so good any more, do they? Oh well, it's good for recruiting.
Northwestern: Didn't see that one coming yesterday, Michigan State's defense is atrocious.
Minnesota: Big stretch against Northwestern and North Dakota state will determine whether they finish with one, two, or three wins this season. My guess is they win one game. NDSU is #2 in Division 1-AA; their running backs coach is a guy from Iola, Tim Polasek.
Long way to go. If you made me bet right now, I'd say Ohio State wins the conference with one loss, to Wisconsin.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Week 6 Big Ten recap
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
5 comments:
Because there is nothing more fun (and obviously useless) than forecasting Bowl games in October, I took a look at Sportsline this morning. Sort of like those Joe Lunardi selections in January.
They have UW playing Kentucky in the Outback Bowl. Would be pretty happy for a New Year's Day bowl and think that is very realistic. They only gave the Big Ten one BCS bowl slot.
Where do you think the Badgers end up in the polls?
I meant this week after the loss...
Not to bring the PAC-10 into this discussion, but unbelievable win by the nerds this weekend. I have to laugh at all of the media hype about ASU -- everyone here is making such a big deal about ASU being "bowl eligible". I feel like I'm living in the state of Minnesota.
As for the Badgers, I find myself playing the "what if" game. What if the Badgers took care of Illinois and somehow found a way to fix their D. What if LSU doesn't come back in the 4th quarter against Florida. And what if Willie would have accidentially "lost" his drivers license near A-Rod's table at the restaurant, leading to A-Rod hand delivering the lost item to Willie's apartment on the way home.
Anxiously awaiting an angry Packers blog, since you witnessed the meltdown in person.
This post might get lost in the shuffle because you've had a few updated blogs since this one, but I can't believe five people (as of Wednesday noon) had voted for UW as the favorite in the Big Ten race.
(In my best Seth Meyers voice) Really? Do people think the rotten tackling and the lack of healthy playmakers on offense are things the Badgers can overcome down the stretch?
I said 9-3 before the season began and I'm sticking with it. From the start, I wasn't sold on depth at several positions, especially d-line, WR and RB. They were pretty healthy throughout the 2006 season; I just figured that they couldn't get that lucky two years in a row.
Discuss.
Post a Comment