Let's be honest, for the most part last week's match-ups left us with a unacommplished feeling of a wasted Saturday in which we shouldn't have procrastinated the chores around the house like our wives asked us to. It was filled with many "meh" games and highlights that you could have caught on Sports Center the following mourning while you were setting your fantasy football lineups and not missed a beat. But fear not, the upcoming games on tap for us this Saturday will provide plenty of "must see" action that can leaves those chores for just one more week. In honor of the highly hyped and highly entertaining UFC Pay-Per-View event in which you should have been watching last Saturday instead, we breakdown the four games in the conference in accordance to their weight class. Check it out.
Preliminaries
Miami (Ohio) at Illinois
Although Illinois is coming off a home loss to 17th ranked Washington, they are clearly the better and more talented team in the game. Before that they had won their first two games on the arm of quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase who has been one of the better stories in the Big Ten this year. Scheelhaase threw for a combined 728 yards and six touchdowns in his first two games and has is why his team ranks 20th in the nation in passing yards. if their was a better word than struggling I would use it to describe Miami. They've lost all three of their games so far and have only been able to put up a collective 21 points (7 point average) during that time. As putrid as their offense has been their defense ranks 109th in points allowed which makes it tough to put the blame on one area.
Coming off a week of rest and playing in front of their home crowd I expect Scheelhaase to continue his hot streak and led the Fighting Illini to an easy victory in this one as they try to get some momentum into the gauntlet of opponents they face after this week. Their upcoming schedule looks like this; at Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan State, at Penn State, at Indiana, Ohio State. Just to make sure, somebody should put a suicide hotline pamphlet in their locker room and remind them, it's just a game....
Lightweight
Northern Illinois at Purdue
Jordan Lynch and the Huskies came into the Big Ten in week one and upset Iowa on a game winning final drive with just minutes left. Lynch has been labeled as the comeback kid since dating back to last year he has seven game-tying or game-winning drives with under four minutes left. Now he will look to take down the Boilmakers as they look to get back to mediocrity after a tough 1-3 start to their season. The mildly talented Purdue has struggled in all areas of the game and will have their hands full with Lynch and his arsenal of attributes. Purdue does get to play in front of their home crowd which sometimes in the silver-lining of momentum a team needs, however they will surely be underdogs in this and rightfully so.
Middleweight
Iowa at Minnesota
The Hawkeyes and Gophers get their first taste of Big Ten action Saturday in what is a quality match-up on paper. Iowa is 3-1 (only loss to Northern Illinois, see above) while the Gophers remain unbeaten. Both these teams have the epitome of qualities of a Big Ten football as they both will run it down your throat with quality running backs and good offensive line play while playing hard-nosed defense. While Iowa has the edge on defense with their stellar linebacking core, Minnesota may have just found a spark on offense to put them over the edge. While already possessing the 13th ranked rushing attack in the nation the Gophers plugged in freshman quarterback Mitch Leidner with Phillip Nelson out with a hamstring injury. Leidner didn't do much in the air but ran for 161 yards and four touchdowns.
It's uncertain of head coach Jerry Kill will go with his main man Nelson if he is in fact healthy enough to play Saturday, or stick with the hot hand in Leidner. Nonetheless, if Nelson can go I expect Kill to bring Leidner in on certain packages to utilize his rushing ability to create mismatches. Even with their solid defense, Iowa will be hard pressed to contain both Leinder and the quality running backs Minnesota has.
Heavyweight
And now the main event!
Wisconsin at Ohio State
The Badgers come in to the fight with a record of 3-1with three knockouts.
The Buckeyes are a perfect 4-0 with four knockouts.
Wisconsin led by Melvin Gordon and James White have the best one-two punch in the country at running back.
Ohio State has two talented punches of their own with the athletic dual-threat Braxton Miller and fifth year senior Kenny Guiton who has looked flawless in his playing time. Miller is quicker, faster, stronger, but Guiton is the hot hand.
They both play solid and fundamental defense and make it extremely difficult for their opponents to delivery any big blows.
Unlike most fights in a neutral setting, this one's in the Buckeyes back yard.
Ultimately, this game will come down to who plays quarterback for the Buckeyes. You always have to put your best guys on the field and in this case would be Braxton Miller. However, Guiton has played admirably for Ohio State and has all the momentum with him. There is sure to be rust for Miller as he hasn't played a snap of live football for over three weeks and against a stingy defense like the Badgers he is sure to struggle in the early goings. This game will be a majority of running the football and playing good defense.
But when it comes down to the fourth quarter with the game tied up, and a big throw needs to be made, I will take Miller/Guiton over Wisconsin's Joel Stave. I expect with one of the best rivalries in football to produce one of the best games of the week. This is sure to be a fight until the last round with the winner on the fast track to holding the Big Ten Championship belt.