NCAA Football Midwest; 5-0 Northwestern Heads to Penn State
The explosive Colter and unbeaten Northwestern invade Happy Valley today.
This isn’t the first time the Northwestern Wildcats have started 5-0 but it is one of the rare times where people are actually taking this start pretty seriously. Now the Wildcats take their show on the road to Penn State where a ‘white-out’ will await along with a Nittany Lions’ team that has won three straight after losing their first two games of the season.
Northwestern ran up over 700 yards in defeating Indiana last week 44-29. Do everything Kain Colter accounted for almost 300 of those yards himself and scored four touchdowns. For Penn State, improved offensive consistency and defense carried them to a solid 35-7 win over Illinois. While no one is going to confuse this PSU team of being a championship caliber one, a winning performance by Northwestern will still make the buzz grow louder in Evanston.
Wisconsin 27 at Nebraska 30 – Taylor Martinez rallied the Cornhuskers from 17 points down to knock off the Badgers in Lincoln. Martinez combined his rushing and passing yards to the tune of 288 and provided three touchdowns. Monte Ball of Wisconsin had 90 yards and three touchdowns himself on a hard-fought 32 carries.
Ohio State 17 at Michigan State 16 – Although the Buckeyes remained unbeaten, I’m not really sure what to take from it. Michigan State is a very nice team defensively, but they are setting offensive passing skills back thirty years. Either way it was a big road win for OSU who was led by QB Braxton Miller who gained over 200 yards running and passing and provided a TD pass as well. The Spartans struggled to get Le’Veon Bell going on the ground and had to resort to a passing attack that is struggling to put it mildly.
Ohio 37 at UMass 34 – The unbeaten Bobcats had to rally to beat the Minutemen behind RB Beau Blankenship and his 269 yards on the ground. He also accounted for three touchdowns. Ohio QB Tyler Tettleton returned after a missing a game due to injury and accounted for 229 passing yards and three touchdowns. The Bobcats remain a non-AQ team to watch but must play better defensively.
Looking ahead to this week
Northwestern (+3) at Penn State – My gut tells me that Penn State has recovered somewhat from its’ early struggles and will find a way to win this game proving that maybe Northwestern isn’t quite as good as they appear. Unfortunately, I’m not listening to my gut. The Wildcats have proven they can get defensive when they need to and PSU on offense doesn’t exactly scare anyone. I’ve got the Wildcats winning in Happy Valley.
Can TerBush and the Boilermakers knock off Michigan today?
Michigan (-3) at Purdue – Michigan has not played since losing the Denard Robinson-turnover fest in South Bend two weeks ago. What got lost in that game was the fact that the Michigan defense seems to be better than it was thought to be giving up just 13 points. The Boilermakers ran up 51 points on Marshall last week but gave up 41 in the process. Keep in mind, most of the Herd’s scoring came in the second half after falling way behind in the first. Of the three Big Ten teams Notre Dame played this season, Purdue arguably played them the toughest and I like the Boilers to knock off the Wolverines behind QB Caleb TerBush. They will force Denard Robinson to throw and that isn’t good for Big Blue.
Miami (+14) at Notre Dame – Catholics vs Convicts it isn’t, but it’s still nice to see these teams get after it once again. Notre Dame is really good defensively and will need to be against the Canes and hot QBÂ Stephen Morris who tossed for 500 yards last week. The advantage ND has besides being at home is that Miami is struggling defensively as they give up a lot of yards and points. Because the Hurricanes have a lot of athletes on offense, I think they keep the spread under 14, but I have the Irish winning and moving to 6-0.
Other games I lie (My picks in BOLD)
Central Michigan (+12) at Toledo
Michigan State (-15 1/2) at Indiana
Kent State (-3) at Eastern Michigan
