A quick breakdown of all the Big Ten games from week three. Not included is the Ohio State game, which has it’s own wrap on Buckeye Lane . I will talk more about the Washington game later on this week. Notre Dame (0) at Michigan (38)
Michigan’s Ryan Mallett won the true freshmen battle over Jimmy Clausen.
Mallett out threw Clausen 90 yards to 74, these teams are truely amazing.
Check out what our fellow Big Ten Bloggers have to say about it:
ISU kicker Bret Culbertson made five of six field goal attempts in this upset.
Iowa fans were thinking about a possible Big Ten title after wins against Northern Illinois and Syracuse. However, the Hawkeye fans were put in their place after losing to a team that had lost both of its previous games to Kent State and Northern Iowa.
Check out our Iowa blog- it always has interesting content- this week it should be really interesting.
Purdue junior quarterback Curtis Painter, who threw for 3,985 yards and 22 touchdowns in 2006, threw for 360 yards and three touchdowns.
Painter is quietly putting up a Heisman type of season, so far he has completed 81 of 118 passes (68.6%) for 952 yards and has 13 touchdown passes without an interception.
Check out our Purdue blog - it is the newest member of the Big Ten Bloggers-
For a week up until kickoff, Buckeye fans were biting their nails wondering if they would become the next big-time program to drop a game early in the college football season.
The first half of the Ohio State @ Washington game didn’t ease any tensions that a Buckeye fan might have, as Ohio State went into the locker room trailing the Huskies 7-3 after senior wide receiver Anthony Russo caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jake Locker (redshirt freshman or sophomore, depending on the source).
The score should have been 14-3, when the ball slipped out of quarterback Todd Boeckman’s grasp deep inside his own territory. A Huskie defender picked up the ball and would have had an easy touchdown, but a whistle blew the play dead. The play wasn’t reviewable, since the whistle blew, and the play was ruled an incomplete pass.
The Buckeyes did commit 10 penalties, however it could’ve been worse. There were a few personal foul calls that weren’t called against what looked to be a dirty Buckeye defense. One play, Locker had his head pulled around right in front of a referee. Another play that occurred almost right after was when a Buckeye defender ripped off the helmet of a Washington ball carrier.
So the Buckeyes got some breaks, which is what happens when you are the No.10 team in the country. On Monday, Ohio State moved down to No.8 spot in the AP top-25 poll.
Boeckman looked terrible in the first half and had most of Buckeye Nation yelling at their televisions to get another QB in there. However, early in the third quarter, Boeckman tossed up a perfect touch pass to Brian Robiskie on a 68-yard touchdown, which made the score 10-7 Buckeyes.
From then on, Boeckman played with confidence and it showed. Boeckman finished with 218 yards (14 of 25 passing) and threw for two touchdowns.
The Buckeyes had their best offensive game of the ‘07 season against their toughest opponent, which has to give Buckeye fans some hope of a Big Ten title.
Robiskie finished with four catches for 107 yards and fellow wide receiver Brian Hartline caught six passes for 88 yards and had a receiving touchdown as well.
Chris ‘Beanie’ Wells (right) had a great game. You could finally see that Wells was becoming a more patient runner and still has the power to run over defenders. He finished the game with 24 carries for 135 yards and scored a touchdown.
True freshman Brandon Saine was very impressive, he rushed for 83 yards on nine carries (9.2 yards per carry) and scored a touchdown.
On the defensive side, junior linebacker James Laurinaitis had a great game. He finished with eight tackles, two inceptions and had a sack.
Jim Tressel, showed the most emotion I think I have ever seen from him, when the Buckeyes blocked a Ryan Perkins field goal on Washington’s opening drive of the second half, won his 200th game.
It was that blocked punt that led to the long touchdown pass from Boeckman to Robiske. Then Washington fumbled the kick return and Wells scored on a 14-yard touchdown run, making the score 17-7.
That was pretty much the ball game - those four almost consecutive plays - blocked field goal, long touchdown pass, fumbled kick return and Wells’ TD run.
Sorry, I know this a basketball blog right before the Buckeyes’ biggest football game of the early season, but it is a big one.
It has been reported that former 68 year old freshman Greg Oden, who was drafted No. 1 overall in the 2007 NBA Draft, will miss the entire 2007-2008 season after knee surgery.
Oden underwent exploratory surgery on his right knee On Thursday in Vancouver.
“Greg had an arthroscopy and a micro fracture surgery today,” said team physician Dr. Don Roberts, who performed the surgery. “He was found to have articular cartilage damage in his right knee. The area of injury was not large and we were able to treat it with micro fracture, which stimulates the growth of cartilage. There are things about this that are positive for Greg. First of all he is young. The area where the damage was is small and the rest of his knee looked normal. All those are good signs for a complete recovery from micro fracture surgery.”
Washington (2-0) is coming off a big win against then-No.22 Boise State, by a score of 24-10.
The Broncos' held a 14-game win streak, which was the longest in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
The Football Bowl Subdivision is what we are supposed to call Division I-A football now. A subdivision of 118 or so teams - sounds stupid, but let's get back to the Huskies.
Because of Washington's first win over a ranked opponent in 12 games, (last was on Nov. 22, 2003 - against No.8 Washington State) the school received 95 votes in the AP top-25 poll this week. Currently, they are ranked 30th. Just a reminder, Youngstown State and Akron didn't receive any votes.
So, saying that Ohio State is going into their toughest game of the 2007 season so far would be an understatement.
The Huskies feature a mobile sophomore quarterback by the name of Jake Locker. Locker has rushed for 167 yards on 26 carries and has three rushing touchdowns in Washington first two games (@ Syracuse and vs. Boise State).
In comparison, Locker has rushed for more touchdowns than the entire Ohio State team.
Washington has a solid running back Louis Rankin (left) that has seven career 100-yard rushing games, including a 147-yard (17 carries - 8.6 yards per carry) and three-touchdown performance @ Syracuse this year.
Compare that again to Ohio State, who’s leading rusher (Chris ‘Beanie’ Wells) has one career 100-yard game.
Currently, the Buckeyes are ranked No.10 in the AP top-25 poll, but are favored by only 4.5 points.
Ohio State will be trying to get their 16th straight win against an unranked opponent this Saturday, but it won’t be easy.
For the first time this season, Ohio State has cracked my top-ten list of games.
Here is my helpful guide to the college football world.
1) #1 USC at #14 Nebraska (8:00 p.m. ABC) USC faces their first tough opponent 2) #22 Tennessee at #5 Florida (3:30 p.m. CBS This game is a huge rivalry - UT is UF’s first quality opponent 3) #16 Arkansas at Alabama (6:45 p.m. ESPN) Last year this game was very entertaining and both teams are currently undefeated 4) #10 Ohio State at Washington (3:30 p.m. ESPN) OSU gets first tough test and longest plane ride of the season 5) Notre Dame at Michigan (3:30 p.m. ABC) The ratings will be through the roof for the ‘Toilet Bowl’- everyone wants to know who to make fun of 6) #4 West Virginia at Maryland (7:30 p.m. Sept. 13th ESPN) WVU are 16.5 pt. favs, but I think Maryland is underrated- anything can happen on a road Thur. night game 7) #21 Boston College at #15 Georgia Tech (8:00 p.m. ESPN2) This game could turn into the week’s best - if USC is blowing out Neb.- switch it to ESPN2 8) #9 Louisville at Kentucky (7:30 p.m. ESPNCLASSIC) Has the two best NFL QB prospects - rivalry that UL has dominated in recent history- UK will make it close this year 9) Fresno State at #19 Oregon (7:00 p.m.) Fresno almost beat Texas A&M (45-47) on the road last week - Oregon this week is another tough place to play - should be interesting how Oregon rebounds after crushing Michigan last weekend 10) Ohio at #18 Virginia Tech (1:30 p.m.) How will VT bounce back after the big loss to LSU? They are starting a true freshman QB in Tyrod Taylor. Also, keep an eye on Ohio’s RB Kalvin McRae, he is one of the nation’s best, but will his o-line give him any room to run against a strong VT defense?
Big Ten Picks
BUCKEYE LANE’S 2007 RECORD: 18-4
#7 Wisconsin over Citadel (Citadel @ WIS- noon- BTN) #12 Penn State over Buffalo (Buf. @ PSU- noon- BTN) Indiana over Akron (Ak. @ IND- noon- BTN) Michigan State over Pittsburgh (Pitt. @ MSU- noon- ESPN) Illinois over Syracuse (Ill. @ SU- noon- ESPNU) Purdue over Central Michigan (CMU @ Purdue- noon- ESPN2) Minnesota over Fl. Atlantic (Minn. @ Fl. Atl.- 1:00 p.m.) Iowa over Iowa State (Iowa @ ISU- 1:30 p.m.) #10 Ohio State over Washington (OSU @ Wash.- 3:30 p.m. ESPN) Michigan over Notre Dame (ND @ Mich.- 3:30 p.m. ABC) Northwestern over Duke (Duke @ NW- 8:00 p.m. BTN)
BIG TEN SWEEP!
Gopher Nation is keeping track of all the Big Ten Bloggers picks this season.
Every week this season a fellow Big Ten blogging site will host the Big Ten Bloggers roundtable of questions.
This week Michigan Sports Center is hosting the third regular season Big Ten roundtable of the season. Buckeye Lane will play host the week of the Wisconsin at Ohio State game (September 29th through the November 3rd).
So far we have had a roundtable for the first two weeks of the season and a preseason roundtable. You can see my responses at Buckeye Lane.
1. Now that two weeks of play are behind us, what is one encouraging surprise and one downing disappointment from your team? (Easy answer to the latter part of the question for Michigan bloggers)
Honestly, the Buckeyes haven’t really surprised me this year. As expected, they easily beat Youngstown State and their defense shut down the Akron offense. As far as I see it, the Buckeyes start their season this weekend after two preseason games.
So, I’m going to think outside the box and answer the Big Ten Roundtable of Blogger (Week Three) as if I were a Michigan blogger.
One Encouraging Surprise: Even though Michigan keeps losing, the team continues to break records. Last weekend, it was Michigan’s worst loss since 1968. The week before Michigan was involved in the greatest upset in the history of college football, with the loss against Appalachian State. This weekend Michigan plays Notre Dame in a game that has been dubbed as ‘The Sceptic Tank Bowl’ while I have heard it referred as ‘The Shit Bowl’. What’s certain is that these teams shouldn’t play in any bowl. The biggest encouraging thing has to be Mike Hart guaranteed a win - finally!
One Downing Disappointment Surprise:Chad Henne went into the season as a preseason candidate for the Heisman Trophy and now he will be standing on sidelines with a clipboard. Henne has amazing receivers to throw to, but still seems to throw it to the wrong team. What happened? How do you begin to suck so fast? It reminds of Troy Smith in the National Championship game or the comedic career of Chevy Chase (Sorry, Chevy - I’m still a fan). Now that he has led Michigan to their worst start since 1959, he will conveniently be sidelined with a knee injury for 2-3 weeks.
2. A look at the current Big Ten standings shows things dead-locked record-wise for the most part. Once conference play actually begins, which two or three teams pull away from the rest of the pack?
True freshman Ryan Mallett is going to turn this thing around. Just you wait and see - when Michigan plays their fourth-straight home game against No. 12 Penn State; The Wolverines will run the table!
In all truth Michigan is twirling down a gigantic shit spiral - I don’t see anyone running away with the Big Ten, but I do think Penn State has shown that they are the best team so far. Don’t count out Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa or Ohio State - I think all five teams will battle for the Big Ten title.
3. Has your team ever played in a game that was just downright boring and impossible to watch? I ask this because going into the Michigan-Notre Dame game, looking at it on paper, it is shaping up to be one of the ugliest we may see all year.
Are you kidding? The Michigan/Notre Dame game could be the most exciting game of the week. I know, currently, I’m trying my best to write this as a Michigan blogger, but my Ohio State side is telling me the same thing. I bet a lot of people watch this game - there will be two true freshmen quarterbacks - bouncing fumbles - multiple interceptions - crazy touchdown passes - great touchdown runs - I think it will be the most entertaining game of the early season, excluding the Michigan/App.State game.
Back to my multi-personality - OHIO STATE - The Buckeyes play boring games every week - last weekend OSU trailed 2-0 for most of the first half, until a 37-yard field goal by Ryan Pretorius gave the Buckeyes a 3-2 lead. OSU won 20-2 - Most of Ohio State’s games throughout history are extremely boring - occasionally you will get a high-scoring Drew Brees’ game or a last-second Cincinnati/Wisconsin game, but those games are boring until the last two minutes.
A quick breakdown of all the Big Ten games from week two. Not included is the Ohio State game, which will be have its own wrap- coming soon Oregon (39) at Michigan (7)
Michigan remains the biggest surprise in the Big Ten.
Running back Mike Hart has now guaranteed a win over Notre Dame next week.
Check out what our fellow Big Ten Bloggers have to say about it:
Junior quarterback C.J. Bacher led Northwestern down the field on an 80-yard drive that was capped off by a 13-yard touchdown to Ross Lane. Lane made the diving catch, which gave Northwestern a 34-31 lead with 21 seconds left.
Junior running back Tyrell Sutton, who is by far the Wildcats’ best player, was sidelined after an ankle injury in the second quarter. Senior Brandon Roberson replaced Sutton and played well. Roberson rushed for 128 yards on 13 carries and scored a touchdown.
We have one Northwestern blogger in our group of Big Ten Bloggers- see what he has to say:
While Michigan has been the biggest dissapoinment in the Big Ten, Penn State has played the best football.
The Nittany Lions’ defense was great and shut down Notre Dame’s freshman quarterback Jimmy Clausen.
Junior Derrick Williams returned a punt 78 yards for a touchdown and senior running back Austin Scott rushed for 116 yards on 28 carries and scored two touchdowns.
We have three Penn State bloggers in our group of Big Ten Bloggers- see what they are saying:
After losing a heartbreaker to Bowling Green, Minnesota beat the Redhawks in overtime. The Gophers blew a 28-12 lead with 8:35 left, but allowed Miami back in the game.
Senior Minnesota running back Amir Pinnix preformed well, rushing for 126 yards on 28 carries and scored a touchdown.
We have two Gopher blogs in our group- see what they are saying:
Seven years ago, Jim Tressel coached his first game for the Ohio State Buckeyes on September 8th, 2001.
The oppenent was the Akron Zips. OSU won the game 28-14 and it was the last time these two teams squared off.
The Zips, coming off a win against Army, haven’t won consecutive games to start a season since 1993. Akron also won their first opener since ‘01.
Akron’s defense played well against Army. As a team, they had two interceptions and four sacks. Akron held Army to only one offensive touchdown in their 22-14 victory. The Zips also scored a defensive touchdown when defensive back Reggie Corner returned an interception for 74 yards.
Quarterback Todd Boeckman should have a tougher challenge than he had against Youngstown State.
Also, the running game has to get better even though they will be going up against a tougher defense.
Chris ‘Beanie’ Wells needs to make some big plays so Buckeye fans can relax. Going into this season, ‘Beanie’ was the closest thing Ohio State had in a Heisman candidate. That didn’t seem true when ‘Beanie’ rushed for only 46 yards on 16 carries against a tiny Youngstown State defense.
The Buckeyes will replace defensive end Lawrence Wilson (below), who broke his leg, with Glenville alum Robert Rose. Luckily, the Buckeyes have great depth at DE and Rose is a playmaker.
Rose and the rest of the defense will have to stop running back Dennis Kennedy, who transferred from Ohio State. Kennedy rushed for 914 yards and nine touchdowns last season while missing some time with a shoulder injury. Last week, he rushed for 72 yards on 13 carries.
Akron senior wide receiver Jabari Arthur looked impressive last week. The 25-year-old from Montreal caught 11 passes for 125 yards and had a touchdown. Last season, Arthur caught 45 passes for 730 yards with four touchdowns, making him the sixth-overall pick (by Calgary) in the CFL draft.
The Buckeyes should be able to stop the Zips offense and score enough to win.
Akron at #12 Ohio State
-Akron, like Ohio State, has to replace a great quarterback. Luke Getsy was no Troy Smith, but he was signed by the San Francisco 49ers.
-Look for Ohio State transfer running back junior Dennis Kennedy to want to have a big game. Kennedy rushed for 914 yards and nine touchdowns last season while missing some time with a shoulder injury.
-Akron senior wide receiver Jabari Arthur looked impressive last week in Akron’s 22-14 win over Army. The 25-year-old from Montreal caught 11 passes for 125 yards and had a touchdown.
-The Buckeyes should be able to shut down the Zips’ (Zippy - right) offensive attack easily.
-Ohio State has to pick up where they left off last week. Quarterback Todd Boeckman was impressive. However, the running game needs to get better.
I will breakdown this game more tomorrow
WEEK TWO
SEPTEMBER 8th
1) #9 Virginia Tech at #2 LSU (9:15 p.m. ESPN) one of the bigger games of the year 2) Oregon at Michigan (3:30 p.m. ABC) all eyes will be on Michigan after last week 3) South Carolina at #11 Georgia (ESPN2 ESPN2) first big SEC game 4) Miami (FL) at #5 Oklahoma (noon ABC) we will find out if OU is really a top-5 team 5) Notre Dame at #14 Penn State (6:00 p.m. ESPN) Jimmy Clausen will get the start for ND. 6) #16 Nebraska at Wake Forest (noon ESPN) not exactly a warm-up game for Nebraska, who plays USC next week 7) #19 TCU at #7 Texas (7:00 p.m.) one of the more under-rated rivalries in college football 8) #3 West Virginia at Marshall (11:10 a.m. ESPN) Marshall finally got WVU to come to Huntington 9) South Florida at #17 Auburn (9:00 p.m. ESPN2) Auburn just got by Kansas State- USF isn’t any easier 10) Oregon State at Cincinnati (7:30 p.m. ESPN- Thur.) two darkhorses in their conferences
BIG TEN PICKS
BUCKEYE LANE’S 2007 RECORD IS: 9-2
Ohio State over Akron (Akron @ OSU- BTN- noon) Northwestern over Nevada (Nev. @ North.- BTN- noon) Michigan State over Bowling Green (BGSU @ MSU- BTN- noon) Miami (OH) over Minnesota (Miami @ Minn.- BTN- noon) Purdue over Eastern Illinois (EI @ Purdue- BTN- noon) Oregon over Michigan (Oregon @ Michigan- ABC- 3:30) Penn State over Notre Dame (ND @ PSU- ESPN- 6:00) Illinois over Western Illinois (W.Ill. @ Ill.- BTN- 7:00) Western Michigan over Indiana (Ind. @ WM- ESPNU- 8:00) Iowa over Syracuse (SU @ Iowa- BTN- 8:05) Wisconsin over UNLV (Wis. @ UNLV- 10:00pm)
Quarterback Anthony Morelli (right) completed 20 of 27 passes for 202 yards and had four touchdowns without an interception.
The first half of the Ohio State @ Washington game didn’t ease any tensions that a Buckeye fan might have, as Ohio State went into the locker room trailing the Huskies 7-3 after senior wide receiver Anthony Russo caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jake Locker (redshirt freshman or sophomore, depending on the source).
Chris ‘Beanie’ Wells (right) had a great game. You could finally see that Wells was becoming a more patient runner and still has the power to run over defenders. He finished the game with 24 carries for 135 yards and scored a touchdown.
Sorry, I know this a basketball blog right before the Buckeyes’ biggest football game of the early season, but it is a big one.
For the first time this season, Ohio State has cracked my top-ten list of games.
Illinois over Syracuse (Ill. @ SU- noon- ESPNU)
Chad Henne went into the season as a preseason candidate for the Heisman Trophy and now he will be standing on sidelines with a clipboard. Henne has amazing receivers to throw to, but still seems to throw it to the wrong team. What happened? How do you begin to suck so fast? It reminds of Troy Smith in the National Championship game or the comedic career of Chevy Chase (Sorry, Chevy - I’m still a fan). Now that he has led Michigan to their worst start since 1959, he will conveniently be sidelined with a knee injury for 2-3 weeks.
Rose and the rest of the defense will have to stop running back Dennis Kennedy, who transferred from Ohio State. Kennedy rushed for 914 yards and nine touchdowns last season while missing some time with a shoulder injury. Last week, he rushed for 72 yards on 13 carries.