College Football PASS/FAIL Report: Big 10 Week 3

BIG 10

PASS: Michigan State, Northwestern, Michigan, Maryland, Iowa, Penn State

Michigan State never had to try very hard at home against Air Force, and this game was over before it began. Sparty has to get ready for a very tough Central Michigan team next week.

Northwestern is playing defense with the best of them this season, and the Wildcats contained Duke in every way in a solid 19-10 win that was dominated by pounding the ball on the ground. The Wildcats are shockingly 3-0.

Michigan was another team that went to the ground, and ran straight through an outmanned UNLV team at home. If the Wolverines can get the run game going, they may have no trouble bowling in Harbaugh’s first season.

Maryland bounced back from a terrible loss to Bowling Green last week, and cruised by USF. Maryland absolutely needed this win to stay on track to finish somewhere in the middle of the Big 10.

Kirk Ferentz finally looks safe for now, as Iowa keeps on grabbing quality wins, this time against Pitt, 27-24. The Hawkeyes could be positioning themselves as a dark horse contender heading into Big 10 play.

Penn State finally put something together worth being proud of in a 28-3 win over Rutgers to open Big 10 play. After largely struggling in non-con play, the Lions finally found a way to assert themselves without killing themselves in the process. This was a nice progressive win.

FAIL: Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio State, Nebraska, Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers

Illinois had a lot of public faith heading out to North Carolina, and failed on every one of those folks that had that faith in them this week. Illinois imploded in a 48-14 loss, their first of the season.

Minnesota may have beaten Kent State 10-7, but the Gophers have been slow in all three games played, and barely escaped Kent State at home. Gophers are in trouble moving forward.

Yes, the Buckeyes fail this week after a 20-13 win over Northern Illinois. The Buckeyes couldn’t put the Huskies away until the 4^th was about over, and now the rotation at QB is looking like a major distraction. The offense never got going today until late.

Nebraska is now an embarrassing 1-2 to start the season, and both losses came on final plays. The Mike Riley is hardly off to a rousing start heading into Big 10 play.

Purdue got hammered at Virginia Tech, and now it’s impossible not to see Darrell Hazell as being in jeopardy. The Boilers were barely behind, and the fan base had already given up. This program is going nowhere. 

Indiana beat Western Kentucky, but the Hoosiers have struggled against CUSA and FCS teams in non-con play, and they look like they are going to get their hats handed to them in Big 10 play. Certainly the worst team at 3-0.

To call Rutgers embattled at this point just doesn’t do this situation justice. Kyle Flood has now been suspended, and as I tweeted earlier in the week, I don’t see any way he returns after this season at all. Suspensions are being given out like candy on Halloween. Everything is going wrong, and they lose their Big 10 opener to Penn State 28-3 to boot. Nothing is going right for the Knights.