The Iowa football team had a bye week in week five as did three other B1G West teams, but how did Nebraska, Purdue, and Northwestern fare on Saturday?
Saturday’s in the fall are never as fun when the Iowa football program is on a bye week, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t important games being played that could impact the Hawkeyes down the line. Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois all had the weekend off, but Nebraska faced off against Purdue and Northwestern took on Michigan. Unfortunately for the B1G West, only one team won Saturday.
Purdue was able to capitalize on Nebraska’s downward spiral and pull out victory number two to bring their record to 2-3. As we have mentioned in past week’s, Purdue’s season has been an interesting one so far considering they started out 0-3 and low all three of those games by a combined eight points.
Purdue started off strong Saturday afternoon against Scott Frost and the Huskers building a 20-7 lead before the two teams swapped touchdowns three times in the second half. The final score was 42-28. Purdue now sits at 1-1 in conference play and Nebraska is 0-2.
Northwestern, meanwhile, went into yesterday’s game against #14 Michigan looking to rebound from a two-game losing streak. For a moment, it looked like they were going to be able to do just that by upsetting the Wolverines in Evanston. Northwestern stormed out to a 17-0 lead before Jim Harbaugh’s team finally pulled it together and put together 20 unanswered points to leave victorious.
Yesterday’s win leaves Michigan at 4-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play while Northwestern now sits at 1-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
These two Big Ten West games don’t have much of a direct impact on the Iowa football program as of right now, but could long-term. As we noted the last week in our week four status report of the Big Ten, Nebraska has no chance of competing for a division title this year, but Purdue could be a big conference spoiler considering they could very easily be 5-0 right now.
Northwestern has the same conference record as Purdue and has historically played the spoiler role in the Big Ten, but until they string together a few wins, they will continue to sit on our bottom of the barrel list.
This upcoming week will be a much more important week for the Iowa football program in terms of season outlook. The Hawks travel to Minnesota to take on the 3-1 Gophers while Nebraska and Wisconsin face off in a West division matchup. Additionally, Illinois takes on Rutgers in a toilet bowl matchup and Northwestern takes on #20 Michigan State. With a few more conference games under the Big Ten’s belt it will be easier to gain clarity on how the conference is shaping up.
Next week we will provide an updated status of the B1G West and where the Iowa football program sits in it.