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Big Ten Football: The Sunday Morning Recap

Posted By: DJ Hoyt

A stunner in Iowa City opens up the West Division race, and MSU does their part concerning the 30th

The Lead

How do you beat Iowa? Make sure you have Jeff Brohm as your coach.

Having a guy like David Bell at receiver helps too.

On Staurday, Jeff Brohm took his Purdue team into Iowa City and upset the #2 Iowa Hawkeyes, 24-7. The win improved Brohm’s career win/loss record against the Hawkeyes to 4-1. After Iowa won in 2019, Purdue has won the last two meetings, and yesterday it felt like it wasn’t even close.

If Purdue had one weapon that could hurt you on offense, it was receiver David Bell. Even if Iowa wasn’t battling some injuries in the secondary, conventional thinking would have been to double or roll coverage to Bell’s side in order to limit his impact in the game. If Iowa tried to do that, it was hard to tell.

Bell would rack up 11 receptions for 240 yards and a touchdown. It was a career day for Bell and quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who would finish 30 of 40, for 375 yards and 2 touchdowns. O’Connell would also have a rushing touchdown to his name that opened the scoring.

It was an uncharacteristic day for the Hawkeyes defense, which has made its living this season off turnovers. On Saturday, those turnovers did not come in the bunches they had prior, as Iowa only recorded one takeaway on a fumble. It would be Purdue’s defense that would do their best Hawkeye impression, recording four interceptions on the day.

Iowa deserved all the praise and recognition for what they had achieved so far this year. However, it was pointed out by pundits for a few weeks that the Hawkeye offense needed to step up their game. The thought that an offense that was 120th in total offensive yards entering week seven could carry this team to the playoff, let alone win the Big Ten, was unlikely. Saturday, that opinion became fact.

Iowa can still win the Big Ten and make the CFP. However, just like Penn State and Ohio State, they now have no more wiggle room if they want to be one of the four teams.

The Wild Wild West

With Purdue’s defeat of Iowa, the one dominant team that appeared ready to run away with the division is gone. Now, we have two remaining weeks in October and all of November to sort out who will make it to Indy for the title game. We tend to focus on conference and overall records of teams, but it’s time to look at divisional records at this early junction of the season.

After week seven, only two schools have an undefeated divisional record in the Big Ten West: Minnesota at 2-0 and Wisconsin at 1-0. The Gophers took care of Nebraska on Saturday in a mild surprise, and now hold victories over Purdue and the Cornhuskers. The Badgers just have a victory over Illinois, and while the season may not have gone the way they hoped so far, they can for now technically say they are undefeated in the division.

In my opinion, the two teams that feel out of this race are Illinois and Nebraska with two divisional losses each. While technically they aren’t out yet, the only time a school made it to the Big Ten Championship with multiple division losses was back in the Legends and Leaders divisional days. It was then, in 2012, that Wisconsin made it to the title game, but also because OSU and PSU (who were in their division at the time) were ineligible for post-season play.

Purdue will remain a dark horse to win the West for now, as they are the only other team to have two divisional wins at this point. Their next test will be Wisconsin, and if they can pull off that win, Purdue will become the number one fan for any school playing Minnesota moving forward.

Meanwhile, Minnesota is currently in the driver’s seat in the West. However, their November 13th date against Iowa and November 27th date against Wisconsin will greatly determine their path to a title.

October 30th, Moving Day in the East

Yesterday, Michigan State did what it needed to do to set up what could be one of the biggest match ups with Michigan in years. They survived Indiana, and are 7-0 heading into their bye before playing Michigan.

Michigan was on their bye yesterday, and will host Northwestern next weekend. (Quick tangent, the match up between Michigan and Northwestern will be the first contest of the newest trophy game in the conference, the George Jewett Trophy.) If Michigan wins against Northwestern, they too will enter into the October 30th match up with Michigan State at 7-0.

Needless to say, whichever school wins that day will continue their run towards a divisional title and hold significant consideration for the CFP. A loss will not knock that team out of any race for good, but will now have no more room for errors. With both schools having to still play PSU and OSU afterwards, that could be a very tall task to accomplish.

Speaking of PSU and OSU, they too play each other on the 30th. Should Penn State beat Illinois next week, and Ohio State beat Indiana, we could have ourselves a survivors game in Columbus.

A loss for either school would not knock them out of the divisional race, however a chance at the CFP would all but be gone. Ohio State views a CFP appearance as the standard by which it should achieve every year, whereas Penn State is trying to make the CFP for the first time.

The Big Ten East has turned into a gauntlet this year thanks to the rise of MSU, and October 30th will be the first week these four schools have a chance to separate themselves from the pack.

Tweets of the Week

Players of the Week

Offense

David Bell – WR – Purdue

As mentioned above, Bell would be key to Purdue pulling off the upset of #2 Iowa. Once more, he would finish with 11 receptions, 240 yards, and a touchdown. Take a bow David Bell.

Defense

Adetomiwa Adebawore – DL – Northwestern

Adebawore played an outstanding game for the Wildcats, causing havoc in the Rutgers backfield all day. He would finish with 7 tackles, 4 for a loss, 2 quarterback pressures, and 1 sack.