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Football Mon Oct 11 2010
Big Ten Football Monday: The Weekend That Was
Michigan State and Ohio State continued to prove themselves as title contenders, Purdue showed a lot of heart on the road and Illinois earned a big win against the spiraling Nittany Lions.
Come along as I generously decline to kick Denard Robinson while he's down and review The Weekend That Was in Big Ten football (plus Notre Dame, because they own this town).
Best win -- Michigan State 34, Michigan 17
Best Bachman Turner Overdrive* -- Ohio State 38, Indiana 10
Et cetera -- Illinois 33, Penn State 13 ... Wisconsin 41, Minnesota 23 ... Purdue 20, Northwestern 17 ... Notre Dame 23, Pittsburgh 17.
Sitting this one out -- Iowa
Best Charley Steiner** -- Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State
A few caveats: Indiana's pass defense is pretty bad and Pryor spent most of the game casually surveying the field from the pocket, unmolested by any pass rush. (Possibly these two things are connected?)
But it was hard to watch Pryor zip line-drive completions all over the field without marveling at how far he's come as a passer. He completed 24 of 30 passes for a career-high 334 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. It was his first 300-yard game, surpassing the personal record of 266 passing yards he established in last season's Rose Bowl win against Oregon.
Six games into his junior season, Pryor is no longer the raw athlete who got by largely on natural talent the past two years -- and his maturation couldn't come at a better time for an Ohio State team with very legitimate championship aspirations. Pryor didn't run the ball at all against Indiana -- his three rushes were sacks -- and you've got to wonder if the quad injury he suffered last week at Illinois will make him mostly a pocket passer for the rest of the season.
If that's the case, Saturday's performance suggested he might be up to the task.
Victim of bureaucracy -- Michigan State
The Spartans look every bit as strong as Ohio State and Iowa, but they won't play the Buckeyes this season because the Big Ten, of course, does not have a title game or a full round-robin schedule. If both teams keep winning, the Buckeyes surely will stay ahead in the national polls -- and get the Big Ten's automatic BCS berth -- because that's where they started the season, thanks to their success in previous years. Isn't college football great?
Still learning -- Denard Robinson, Michigan
I won't repeat last week's column, but we saw clearly against the Spartans that Michigan's quicksilver quarterback, for all his skills as a runner, still has a lot to learn about passing. Michigan State plugged most of his running holes -- no, pundits, Greg Jones is not a one-man defense -- and Robinson, unlike Pryor, could not answer with his arm. He completed 17 of 29 passes (prime number alert!) for 215 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Two of the picks came at the end of long drives: one in the end zone, one right at the goal line.
But hey, he's just a sophomore who barely threw any passes last season. Give him some time.
P.S. If you didn't see Ivan Maisel's ESPN column on Robinson last week, it's worth reading -- and improves in many ways on the point I was trying to make.
Best halfback pass -- Jason Ford, Illinois
Illinois capped its first drive of the third quarter, taking a commanding 27-13 lead in Happy Valley, with one of the nicer halfback pass plays you'll see. It started out as a third-down option play from the Penn State 4-yard line, with Ford and quarterback Nate Scheelhaase running to the right behind a fullback and a tight end. This forced an extra defensive player to step forward to account for the quarterback as a ball-carrier, opening plenty of room in the end zone for Evan Wilson, the tight end, who had slipped free behind the defense.
Best running back tandem -- John Clay & James White, Wisconsin
It would be news if Wisconsin didn't have the best running back tandem in the Big Ten, but Clay and White proved again their importance as a complementary duo for a team fighting to stay atop the conference's second tier. Clay, the bruiser, rushed 21 times for 111 yards and three touchdowns; and White, the more dynamic athlete, matched those numbers almost exactly: 19 for 118 with two scores.
Best push -- Kawann Short, Purdue
Short teamed with Justin Kitchens to overwhelm left guard Colin Armstrong at the point of attack and reached up to block a 41-yard field-goal attempt that would have extended Northwestern's lead to seven points with 8:13 remaining. Rob Henry and the banged-up Boilermakers offense took over and mounted one of their best drives of the night, scoring the go-ahead touchdown when Dan Dierking rushed 7 yards on a fourth-down draw play.
NEXT WEEK
Worth watching -- Ohio State at Wisconsin
Also -- Iowa at Michigan ... Illinois at Michigan State ... Minnesota at Purdue ... Arkansas State at Indiana ... Western Michigan at Notre Dame.
* Bachman Turner Overdrive: "Taking care of business"
** Charley Steiner: "Follow me to freedom"
