Around the Big Ten: Week 11
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Another week of Big Ten football has passed us by, and the top teams once again dominated the national spotlight. Around the Big Ten is your one-stop shop to recap all of the action from around the Big Ten. As always, our recap will get all of the blowouts out of the way first before we get into the close matches. Let’s get to the games!
The Blowouts
No.1 Ohio State 34, Purdue 10: Happy to say that there will only be one game in this segment this time. To give credit to Purdue, they played hard in a game where they were completely overmatched. Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin played a solid game, hitting on 27 out of his 33 passes for 303 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. Their running game was able to move the ball at will as well, as the Buckeyes totaled 170 yards and three touchdowns off of 43 rush attempts. Ohio State’s defense was able to suffocate the Boilermakers enough to secure the easy win.
The Close Games
No.19 USC 38, Northwestern 17: I was considering putting this game in the blowout section, but since this was an 11-point game heading into the fourth, I decided otherwise. Despite it not being a blowout, that doesn’t mean it was particularly close. USC handled Northwestern on both sides of the ball. On Defense, the Trojans forced two fumbles and registered 2 sacks in their efforts to slow the Wildcat offense down. On offense, USC put up 309 passing yards, 1 passing touchdown, and 1 interception. They also showed their might in the ground game, rushing for 173 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries. USC would pile up 10 more points in the fourth quarter to secure the comfortable win.
Nebraska 28, UCLA 21: Nebraska rallied around its backup quarterback to take down UCLA in Los Angeles. Cornhusker quarterback TJ Lateef would complete 13 of 15 passes, good for 205 yards and three touchdowns. Their rushing attack would total 156 yards and 1 touchdown. Their defense was able to hold off the Bruins’ attack as well, totaling three sacks and six tackles for loss. UCLA would score once late to make the game 28-21, but Nebraska was able to ice the game on a last drive that took over four minutes off the clock.
Wisconsin 13, Washington 10: Wisconsin’s leading passer in this game was a punter. You read that right, Badger punter Sean West was the leading passer for Wisconsin in this game. He completed one pass for 24 yards, and his team won. The Badger running game put the offense on its back to move the ball down the field, while Washington failed to solve the Wisconsin defense. The Badgers registered four sacks and nine tackles on the day to help guide their struggling offense to an ugly injury.
No. 2 Indiana 27, Penn State 24: What. A. Catch. If you haven’t seen the catch Omar Cooper made to give Indiana the go-ahead score, go watch it. Penn State battled the Hoosiers down to the wire, but could not do enough to pull off the victory. Both teams were relatively even on offense, despite the Nittany Lions having two turnovers while Indiana only had one. That was likely the difference in this game. The Hoosiers had a 20-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter before Penn State rallied to score two touchdowns. With the game on the line, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza found Cooper in the back of the end zone to stall the momentum swing. The Hoosier defense would hold on the rest of the way to seal the win.
N0.9 Oregon 18, No. 20 Iowa 16: Can you say clutch? Game on the line, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore would lead his team down the field, with less than two minutes left, against a very tough Iowa defense, to set up the game-winning field goal. With no time left on the clock, Atticus Sappington drilled the 39-yard field goal to secure the win for the Ducks. The interesting thing about this game is that Iowa dragged Oregon into the game they wanted to play—an ugly defensive matchup at home. However, despite Iowa’s best efforts, Oregon was able to survive the bear trap. This ability to grind out an ugly win against a ranked team and effectively execute a two-minute drill to win the game makes Oregon our Big Ten Star of the Week.
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