Big Ten Weekend Recap

The Big Ten had some exciting match ups this past weekend and are shaping themselves up nicely for bowl games and the playoff selection committee. In the Big Ten standings, Michigan State, Ohio State, Nebraska and Minnesota are the top four teams, respectively.

Michigan State won in dramatic fashion against Purdue as it looked like the Boilermakers were going to pull out the win in the last minute. Purdue came back from being three touchdowns behind and had a chance to score for the lead before the Spartan’s defense clinched victory with pick six.

Joe Hermitt, The Patriot News

Minnesota, lead by quarterback Mitch Leidner, was able to beat Northwestern 24-17. To clinch their victory, Minnesota had a 100-yard kickoff return from Jalen Myrick in the fourth quarter.

Iowa proved dominant in a 49-24 victory over Indiana. This week, they face Maryland who originally opened as a 1.5 point pick over Iowa but moved up to a 3-point favorite 40 minutes later.

Rutgers is coming off of a bye week but is up for a tough schedule, especially the next two weeks. The Scarlet Knights will go on the road to face Ohio State in a tough battle in the horseshoe and then head to Nebraska the week after.

Michigan held Penn State to just 214 yards in a 18-15 win this weekend, moving them up to the tenth ranked spot in the Big Ten and helping the Wolverines avoid their first 0-3 conference start since 1965. Penn State is lacking serious depth in their roster, thanks to the sanctions from the NCAA, and it shows most in the offense. From play calling to the offensive line giving Hackenburg enough time to develop a play, the Nittany Lions have some things to fix during the bye week before they host Ohio State at home.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season continues to shape out. Any week, anything could change.