Recapping a strange weekend in the Big Ten

I didn't have high hopes for the slate of games on the Big Ten schedule this weekend. The only game I thought might be interesting was the Iowa-Northwestern game, and at least that didn't disappoint. Let's take a look at the games, shall we?

Indiana at Wisconsin-The Badgers put up 83 points against Indiana. 83. Quick sidenote-Wisconsin is the third Big Ten school this season whose football team may score more points than their basketball team. The list:

1. Wisconsin- They make the list twice with outbursts of 83 and 70 points. The Badgers are always a good basketball team, but are not known for their offense.In fact, they ony scored 83 or more 3 times last season, and lost their starting guards from last year.
2. Michigan-It could be a long year at Crisler this year, and may need triple overtime to reach 67 points just like their gridiron counterparts. Without Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims, they are going to rely heavily on Tim Hardaway Jr.
3. Iowa-On September 25, Iowa scored 45 points against Ball State. It may be a calendar year until a scoreboard in Iowa City has to reach that high again. If there is a team that is searching for offense harder than Michigan, it will be Iowa. I am only half joking on this one.

 Anyway, most points since 1915, running up the score, yada yada yada. The defense has the responsibility to stop the other team, and cheers, Indiana,

Minnesota at Illinois-The Gophers won. Told you it was a strange weekend.

Michigan at Purdue- The only thing that happened more frequently than turnovers in this game were Ro-Tel/Buffalo Wild Wings commercials on the Big Ten Network, and the announcers fellating Cam Newton in the Auburn/Georgia game. Ten turnovers. How many?

Ten costly turnovers, ah ah ah

Stranger yet, the Michigan defense didn't allow a TD. Granted Purdue:Offense::Ke$ha:Talented, but still, they only gave up 3 FGs and a Pick 6. I take nothing away from that, but it is nice to type.

Penn State at Ohio State- It was a tale of two halves in Columbus as The Nittany Lions took a 14-3 lead into halftime. The second half, not so much. 35 unanswered points sealed the deal, and will remain in the top ten. After the game, I caught up with Joe Paterno and asked about his teams performance. His response was 

"I really like banana pudding, but they only had tapioca. I can't digest tapioca, so I changed sweaters. When the cat meows, I go for a walk to clear my garage. I only wish Bruce Willis would make another Die Hard movie. I really liked My Two Sons, but the Cadillac Eldorado had a large backseat. We are going to the zoo, but are bringing our own garbage bags."

Iowa at Northwestern-The biggest "upset" of the weekend as Iowa was ranked 13th, and 64% of the country realized that Northwestern had a football team. This game had it all,including  Ricky Stanzi, American, but the story was NW QB Dan Persa. He led a comeback drive, and ruptures his Achilles Tendon on the game winning TD pass. Tough break for arguably the best QB in the Big Ten this season. Just when Northwestern was, Oh, Wisconsin just scored again, looking like a threat to play spoiler at Wisconsin, their season essentially ends.

Michigan State had a bye week, and will host Purdue next Saturday. Expect the Boilermakers to score -13 points against the Spartans. As far as I know, no MSU players were arrested either, a situation Mark Dantonio calls "Encouraging."

So that's it. Michigan got some good news Friday as  Dallas Crawford, a CB from Florida, committed to the Wolverines. This is great news on its own since I am currently third on the Michigan depth chart at the SS position, but he is also teammates and friends with WR Sammy Watkins who is pretty much down to Clemson and Michigan.

The early question heading into next weekend is how many points will Wisconsin and Michigan score? I tried downloading a Math program to calculate the final score and got this...