No. 17 Iowa made a statement Saturday afternoon when it rolled through No. 20 Northwestern by a score of 40-10, putting it in control of its own destiny in the Big Ten West.
Michigan State-Michigan. That is all.
1. Stave’s roller coaster ride
Defensive coordinator Dave Aranda self-admittedly has a difficult time talking about what his defense does well.
Many of the Badger faithful expected Wisconsin (2-1 Big Ten, 5-2 overall) to roll over a weak Purdue team (0-3, 1-6). While it wasn’t as lopsided as expected in the beginning, UW defeated the Boilermakers by a respectable 24-7 score.
After a thrilling and much-needed win against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the Badgers return home next week to face the Purdue Boilermakers.
One week after Iowa traveled to Camp Randall Stadium and upset the Badgers in a close game, they looked to solidify their position as one of the favorites to win the Big Ten West with a win over Illinois. Coming in as 10-point favorites, many expected Iowa to command the game from the start.
Bouncing back from a tough week against Iowa, redshirt senior Joel Stave earned the title of MVP this week by leading the Badgers on not one, but two game-winning drives.
As a kid, Derek Watt and his brothers T.J. and J.J. would play football with their two neighbors, utilizing three full backyards to create a field as close to a real gridiron as possible.
There’s no question that Rafael Gaglianone deserves an enormous amount of credit for Wisconsin’s 23-21 win over Nebraska last Saturday.
Wisconsin’s long-standing tradition of offensive dominance is well documented. A wildly successful lineage of running backs and offensive linemen have accounted for the vast majority of the Badgers’ success.
After their latest underwhelming victory, Michigan State has fallen from its perch in the Big Ten power rankings. A big week lies ahead for the conference, as four of the teams in this week’s power rankings square off against one another.
1. Gaglianone the great?
What a wild week of college football. Of the 20 ranked teams that played this week, five won by just one score and three more lost to unranked teams. No. 10 Alabama struggled mightily against 2-4 Arkansas before pulling away in the fourth quarter, while No. 1 Ohio State got everything they could handle from Maryland.
This Sunday will mark the 12-year anniversary of the last time Purdue (0-2 Big Ten, 1-5 overall) beat Wisconsin (1-1, 4-2). It isn’t easy to find many people who think that streak will end when the two teams play Saturday. The Boilermakers’ season has been a bit of a mess, as their only win came Week 2 against the Indiana State Sycamores, and despite giving Michigan State a scare in their fifth game, their 13-41 loss to Minnesota last week was a microcosm of their season as a whole.
LINCOLN, Neb. — Since Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011, the Huskers and Badgers have had a number of high-stakes contests that have led to a budding rivalry between Big Ten powers, and this week’s battle for the Freedom Trophy was no different.
Even with the offense totaling 320 yards and possessing the football for more than half the game, the Badgers struggled to form any semblance of a rhythm in their 10-6 loss to No. 22 Iowa last Saturday. But the defense, led by senior outside linebacker Joe Schobert, held an Iowa team that scored 62 points in its win against the University of North Texas to a mere 10 points, all off turnovers. The defense surrendered just 30 yards total on both Iowa possessions that yielded points. Schobert came into Week 5 with an FBS-high 9.5 tackles-for-loss and continued to build on that total, adding four additional tackles-for-loss.
1. Protecting the ball A yard shy from punching the football into the end zone and taking a late fourth quarter lead against Iowa, redshirt senior quarterback Joel Stave tripped over redshirt freshman right guard Micah Kapoi and fumbled the ball, gifting the Hawkeyes possession and the game as a result. The botched handoff, however, was the most colossal turnover in a game defined by carelessness with the football.
Defense wins championships. It’s an old adage, but one that has withstood the test of time. Over the past decade, ignoring Auburn’s sieve of a defense in 2010, NCAA Championship teams have had, on average, the fifth-best defense in the country.
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Solutions by The State News
