The Whistlestop Tour: Week 2 of Big Ten Football

There was a wealth of blowouts around the Big Ten this week. The biggest surprise is easily Maryland, who is averaging 71 points per game. Wisconsin has yet to surrender a point through two games. Ohio State won in a blowout and Michigan failed to respect the troops.

Here is the week that was in the league:

Iowa 30, Rutgers 0

The Hawkeyes are officially out in front in the early race with a shutout home win over the Scarlet Knights:

Talk about a game, boys and girls.

The Iowa offense put up points while the defense played good ol’ fashioned Hawkeye break-the-rock ball as our Black and Gold Boys routed Rutgers 30-0 in the first game of Big Ten play to start the year 2-0 heading into Iowa State.

For Rutgers, a week after a big offensive performance resulted in nothing:

Iowa grinded out one first down and on the 5th play of the drive hit an explosive play with a 58 yard touchdown to former Rutgers commit Ihmir Smith-Marsette. On second and four, a pass down the seam where Avery Young tried to audible the coverage when Smith-Marsette went in motion then came back was not picked up by Malik Dixon on the deep route. Rutgers has four safeties who have seen time this year that never saw meaningful action prior to this season.

Purdue 42, Vanderbilt 24

Vanderbilt fans are frustrated as Purdue rolled with its passing game:

The first story of the Vanderbilt Commodores’ 42-24 loss to the Purdue Boilermakers was penalties. Specifically: offensive penalties that mostly resulted from sloppiness and that killed drives (see, for instance, Vanderbilt’s rather awful 3.43 points per trip inside the 40) and defensive penalties that mostly came on third down and extended Purdue drives.

The second story of the game: big plays. Purdue hit them. The Boilermakers had 11 plays that went for 20 yards or more, and for better or worse, those made a huge difference in the game. On those 11 plays, Purdue netted 342 yards of offense (and also note that all of those came through the air.) On the other 59 plays that Purdue ran, the Boilermakers generated 198 yards of total offense — a 3.4 yards per play average. They also generated a 35.6 percent success rate.

Penn State 45, Buffalo 13

Buffalo led 10-7 at halftime, but in the second half it was all Penn State:

Whatever was said at half, Penn State got the message. The Nittany Lions drove down the field quickly on the first possession of the second half before a Ricky Slade fumble gave the ball back to Buffalo. Just moments later, however, John Reid picked off a Matt Myers pass and returned it for a touchdown to give the Nittany Lions a 14-10 lead.

They made it 21-10 not long after one a 23-yard seed from Clifford to Pat Freiermuth down the seam. Noah Cain added a 2-yard plunge and Freiermuth had a tremendous individual effort on a 28-yard score to give PSU a 35-13 lead after three.

Michigan State 51, Western Michigan 17

It was a B1G over MAC from the days of old as Sparty had no trouble knocking off the Broncos:

The Spartans played host to the Western Michigan Broncos under the Spartan Stadium lights. However, Michigan State was anything but hospitable to their in-state opponent, winning 51-17.

The Spartans shook off the offensive cobwebs from the previous week, and wasted no time in doing so. Set up by a 29-yard run by Elijah Collins, Brian Lewerke threw a touchdown pass to Matt Dotson on the fifth play of the game to take a lead they would never give back.

Ohio State 42, Cincinnati 0

I thought this game would be close. I was very, very wrong:

While Justin Fields was pretty impressive against FAU (18-25, 234 yards, 4 TDs), he was even more so against a better defense on Saturday in Ohio State’s 42-0 win over the Cincinnati Bearcats. In his second start, Fields went 20-for-25 for 224 yards and two touchdowns through the air; adding 42 yards and two more scores on the ground.

Michigan 24, Army 21 2OT

The Black Knights should have won this game, but an interception inside the five led to a Michigan touchdown and a 14-point swing:

The best, most positive way I can describe how Shea Patterson has performed through two games this season is that he’s been alright with room for improvement. At worst, the turnover bug is biting in a big way and his decision making a lot to be desired.

Wisconsin 61, Central Michigan 0

The Badgers have now outscored their opponents 110-0 this season:

The No. 17 Wisconsin Badgers (2-0) rolled to a 61-0 victory over Central Michigan (1-1), behind an unfamiliar phase of their offense - the passing game.

Quarterback Jack Coan, who was making his first career start at Camp Randall, messed around and posted the fifth-best passing game in school history.

Maryland 63, Syracuse 20

The Terps are easily the most surprisingly team in the league as they have scored 142 points in two games:

The Terps have defeated a ranked opponent at Maryland Stadium for the first time 2010, when it defeated a Russell Wilson-led No. 21 NC State.

Nine years and nine College Park losses to ranked opponents later, Maryland defeated No. 21 Syracuse, 63-20 — the most points the program has ever scored on a ranked team. The Mike Locksley era is off to as good a start as one could hope for, with the team winning its second consecutive game this season with at least 63 points scored in each — the first time in program history Maryland has scored at least 56 points in back-to-back games.

Colorado 34, Nebraska 31

After leading 17-0 at halftime Nebraska could not stop the Buffaloes, as Colorado scored a tying TD late, kicked a field goal in overtime, then won on a missed Cornhusker field goal:

Here’s what happens:

Gobs of stuff.

Then it went to Overtime.31, Connec

Colorado went first. They didn’t get a touchdown. They got a field goal. Even on the field goal, there was a penalty on Nebraska.

Colorado made their field goal.

Nebraska did not.

Illinois 31, Connecticut 23

The Fighting Illini were down 10-0 after one, but used a 24 point second quarter to pull away:

Sept. 15, 2007 at Syracuse. The Orange and Blue defeated the Orange, 41-20.

Then, Illinois didn’t win another non-conference road game until Saturday.

Following a disappointingly slow start, Illinois roared back and beat UConn, 31-23, at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, in the Illini’s only non-conference road game of 2019.

Indiana 52, Eastern Illinois 0

Eastern Illinois is not good:

Listen, there’s only so much you can take away from. But Indiana is going into one of its biggest games of the year at home against Ohio State. It’s worth something to have a performance like they did this week before hosting a top-five opponent.

Minnesota 38, Fresno State 35 2 OT

For the second straight year Minnesota survives Fresno State on a late interception, this time in double overtime:

That was a really dumb game. I mean, I’m super happy because thanks to Antoine Winfield Jr. we’re talking about a 38-35 Minnesota win over Fresno State. But still, that was a very, very silly game and after this week we do not need to speak of it again unless we’re watching the Winfield walk off INT or that Chris Autman-Bell TD catch.

Non-Conference Opponents:

Oregon 77, Nevada 6 – This was a 7-6 game in the second quarter, then the Ducks exploded.

TCU – On Bye