B1G Week 5 Recap

Konichiwa! Greeting from Japan.  My training slowed down a bit, and I finally have some free time tonight.  I was not able to watch any of the games this past weekend, but I was able to follow most of gamecast.

Good surprise:
The Illinois offense continues to put up some impressive numbers. The Illini could actually push for a bowl game, a year after the trainwreck of Coach Beckman's first season. Nathan Scheelhasse has to be front runner for B1G Comeback POY.

Iowa's defense. I really thought Minnesota was going to be able to run the ball effectively against the Hawkeyes. Instead, the Gophers were only able to muster a measley 30 yards on 27 attempts. Iowa looks like a team that is hitting its stride right now, and I put them as favorites against Michigan State this weekend.

Bad surprise:
My how quickly the expectations for the Boilermakers continue to drop. Only 2 weeks removed from pushing Notre Dame, Purdue has surrended 96 points to Wisconsin and the feard Northern Illinois Huskies. Yes NIU is one of the best MAC teams, but there is no way they should be hanging 55 points on any B1G team.  It is going to be a long year in West Lafayette.

Minnesota offense. I know the Gophers played a terrible non-conference schedule to get to 4-0, but they at least looked impressive while playing inferior talent (something that cannot be said of Michigan). I guess when a team is as one dimensional as Minnesota, most B1G teams should be able to hold the Gophers under 14 points. However, Iowa just manhandled Coach Kill's team in Minneapolis.

Week 3 conference rankings:
1. Ohio State (no change)
2. Northwestern (no change)
3. Wisconsin (no change)
4. Michigan (no change)
5. Michigan State (no change)
6. Nebraska (no change)
7. Penn State (no change)
8. Illinois (up 1)
9. Iowa (up 2)
10. Indiana (no change)
11. Minnesota (down 2)
12. Purdue (no change)