Iowa Football: Bottom of the B1G struggles in week 3
By Cole Gross
The Big Ten had an up and down Saturday. Here’s a breakdown of what happened, how it impacts the Iowa football team and what lies ahead for the conference.
This week in the Big Ten conference was crazy and unexpected. There were multiple rivalry games that came down to the last minute, and there were teams that needed to bounce back an did. There were also a couple of tough losses that surprised the nation, and most importantly, the Iowa football team knocked off their in-state rival Iowa State Cyclones.
With week three officially over, here’s a look at the Big Ten conference and what lies ahead next week.
East Standings
Ohio State: 3-0 (1-0) vs. Miami Ohio
Penn State: 3-0 (0-0) Bye
Maryland: 2-1 (0-0) Bye
Michigan: 2-0 (0-0) @ Wisconsin
Michigan State: 2-1 (0-0) @ Northwestern
Rutgers: 1-1 (0-1) vs. Boston College
Indiana: 2-1 (0-1) vs. UConn
There was one conference game in the B1G and it was in the East division. Ohio State went on the road to Bloomington, Indiana to take the Hoosiers and they were off and running once they got off the bus. Justin Fields and the Buckeyes put 51 up and held the Hoosiers to just 10 points.
Penn-State welcomed their longtime rivals, the Pitt Panthers, to town and it was a battle, but they held on to beat the Panthers 17-10 in their 100th meeting between the two football teams.
After two terrific games on their home soil putting up crazy numbers, the Maryland Terrapins went on the road to face the Temple Owls and received a rude awakening. The Owls held the Terps to just 17 points and went on to win by 3.
The Big Ten East saga didn’t end there though as the Michigan State Spartans lost a heartbreaker to the Arizona State Sun Devils 10-7 at home in East Lansing.
West Standings
Iowa: 3-0 (1-0) Bye
Minnesota: 3-0 (0-0) Bye
Illinois: 2-1 (0-0) vs. Nebraska
Wisconsin: 2-1 (0-0) vs. Michigan
Nebraska: 2-1 (0-0) @ Illinois
Northwestern: 1-1 (0-0) vs. Michigan State
Purdue: 1-2 (0-0)
The Iowa football team continued it’s winning ways as it headed to its rival in Ames, Iowa and got a difficult victory beating the Cyclones 18-17.
The Iowa football team’s border rival, Minnesota, survived a scared versus Georgia Southern winning 38-35. At this point, the Gophers are very lucky they aren’t looking at 0-3 with the Big Ten schedule ahead of them.
After a gut wrenching loss last week at Colorado, Scott Frost had his Huskers ready to go on Saturday. Nebraska held the Huskies of Northern Illinois to 8 points while putting up 44 to get the victory.
The Northwestern Wildcats started off slow but had a great end to the first half and carried that into the second half shutting out UNLV in the 3rd and 4th quarter prevailing to victory 30-14.
Now to a couple of teams that weren’t impressive at home. The Purdue Boilermakers welcomed, what I think is a underrated team in the Big 12, the TCU Horned Frogs, and they put it on the Boilermakers in a Saturday night showdown winning 34-13.
Illinois was playing decent football before MAC opponent Eastern Michigan came to town. In a high scoring affair, Eastern Michigan got the last laugh with a late field goal beating Ilinois 34-31.
It was an okay week in the conference, not great but wasn’t terrible. As of right now, the Iowa football team is one of three teams that is 3-0, and I am glad the Iowa football team has a bye week.
It will be nice to tune in, watch football, and not worry about the Hawkeyes this coming Saturday.