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I'm kinda' bummed about football.  Just like Michigan, Iowa beat the Terps worse than the score indicated.  It was no contest.  I guess we're not ready for B1G football yet after all...


1. Michigan  
2. Ohio State
3. Iowa
4. Michigan State
5. Penn State
6. Wisconsin
7. Indiana
8. Purdue  
9. Maryland
10. Northwestern
11. Illinois
12. Minnesota
13. Nebraska
14. Rutgers

A fluke play gave them 6 points. 
The offense is horrible. We've never had such poor offensive production so much in a season.
The defense has been phenomenal. 

A fluke play gave them 6 points.
The offense is horrible. We've never had such poor offensive production so much in a season.
The defense has been phenomenal.

I went to the game. Iowa City had wind gusts up to 59 mph. Temps were mid-40s. It was not a good day for passing, but if it were, it may have made things worse for Maryland.
Iowa has a good run game defense especially against teams that have no serious passing threat, and on Saturday no team could have a serious passing threat in Iowa City.
We were late to the game as we went to a college X-Country meet earlier in the morning in Cedar Rapids, and arrived just in time to see Iowa score its first touchdown. As we were walking outside, we experienced sustained winds probably above 50 mph maybe above 60 mph owing to the stadium and winds diverting around it. You could walk 30 feet west and the sustained winds were closer to 35 mph. The wind was crazy. It could affect long snaps, as well as passing.
I don't understand punting so much. In my era, punters tried to spiral punts. If it were windy lower the trajectory. Maryland punter would put back spin on every punt, end-over-end, and punt high. It would go 25 yards and in the north wind, drop straight down. The Iowa punter punted one on a line drive less than 10 feet off the ground, just enough to get it past the linemen, and it went into the wind probably 40 yards 30 of which were bouncing forward off the turf. It looked horrible but was effective.
And by 10 p.m. my wife and I went for our nightly walk, and it was completely calm.

I went to the game. Iowa City had wind gusts up to 59 mph. Temps were mid-40s. It was not a good day for passing, but if it were, it may have made things worse for Maryland.
Iowa has a good run game defense especially against teams that have no serious passing threat, and on Saturday no team could have a serious passing threat in Iowa City.
We were late to the game as we went to a college X-Country meet earlier in the morning in Cedar Rapids, and arrived just in time to see Iowa score its first touchdown. As we were walking outside, we experienced sustained winds probably above 50 mph maybe above 60 mph owing to the stadium and winds diverting around it. You could walk 30 feet west and the sustained winds were closer to 35 mph. The wind was crazy. It could affect long snaps, as well as passing.
I don't understand punting so much. In my era, punters tried to spiral punts. If it were windy lower the trajectory. Maryland punter would put back spin on every punt, end-over-end, and punt high. It would go 25 yards and in the north wind, drop straight down. The Iowa punter punted one on a line drive less than 10 feet off the ground, just enough to get it past the linemen, and it went into the wind probably 40 yards 30 of which were bouncing forward off the turf. It looked horrible but was effective.
And by 10 p.m. my wife and I went for our nightly walk, and it was completely calm.

Ferentz was extremely smart using timeouts to use the wind in his favor.
Very good coaching. 
Lees is a weapon, but even the snap in the wind can throw off their timing.

Kasim Hill just about to cough it up, to an offensive lineman. I couldn't get my shutter to operate even one more split second.

We noticed the well-timed time-out with 1-second left in the quarter. Ferentz is not known for time-management, but he clearly is starting to catch onto it.

Don't be so hard on him. It's only his 20th season or something. 

First, thoughts on Ohio State:
The last two weeks have been catastrophic for the Buckeye's in terms of power rankings.  The lethargic win over Minnesota and getting blown out at Purdue are obviously part of it, but only part.  At the same time, their two best wins (TCU and PSU) completely fell apart.  The past two weeks TCU is 0-2 with a home loss to TTech and a blowout home loss to Oklahoma.  Penn State has been only marginally better with a home loss to MSU and a close win over Indiana.  Penn State is probably still Ohio State's best win but it isn't what it once was.  

Second, WTF to do with Northwestern:
The Wildcats are either one of the best teams  in the league, or one of the worst teams in the league, or somewhere in between.  

• First the good:  They led nearly the whole game and only lost by a FG to the Michigan team that nearly everyone will now have ranked #1 and they went to East Lansing and beat the Spartans by two scores.  The Wildcats also performed 33 points better than the Buckeyes in West Lafayette.  Based on those three results they should be easily top-4 in the league.  
• Now the bad:  They needed OT to beat Nebraska, only beat lowly Rutgers by a FG, and had a horrible OOC.  Based on those things they should easily be bottom-4 in the league.  

Third, WTF to do with Minnesota:
I realize that the Gophers are 0-4 but here is the thing.  Nearly everyone here has voted tOSU and Iowa well ahead of Maryland and Nebraska.  I think we all think that Iowa/tOSU are a lot better than UMD/UNL but note that Iowa/tOSU beat MN by 17/16 while UMD/UNL beat them by 29/25.  

So with all that said:

• Michigan
• Iowa
• Ohio State*
• Wisconsin
• Purdue
• Michigan State
• Penn State
• Nebraska
• Indiana 
• Northwestern 
• Maryland 
• Minnesota 
• Illinois 
• Rutgers

*The biggest issue with Ohio State is how they respond.  When the Buckeyes lost to Iowa last year they looked horrible but then the next week they came out angry and beat the daylights out of a solid MSU squad.  We'll have to wait two weeks to find out how Ohio State responds this year but I see their #3 ranking as being very much up-in-the-air.  If they do what they did last year and come out and just destroy Nebraska then I'll treat the Purdue game as just one of those things that happens and move Ohio State up.  If they come out and look questionable against the Cornhuskers then I'll have to treat the Purdue result as what the Buckeyes are and move them down.  

Groups emerging in this week's rankings:

• Michigan
• Iowa, tOSU, UW
• PSU, PU, MSU
• NU, UMD, IU, UNL
• MN, IL
• RU

It is interesting looking at the votes for Ohio State.  So far there are 13 voters and nearly half (6) have them #2.  I see that as basically the "$h!t happens" vote.  Then another nearly half (also 6) have them 4th, 5th, or 6th which is basically the "this is what tOSU is" vote.  I am the only voter to have Ohio State at #3.  I do not want to overreact but I also do not want to pretend Saturday night didn't happen.  

That's about how I see it, except I think there's some lingering helmet bias keeping UNL higher than they should be.  I'd put them in group 5 at best.