Iowa football: What we learned from a wild Saturday in the Big Ten

After the Iowa football team’s loss and a generally crazy weekend of Big Ten football, here’s what we learned about the Hawks and their conference foes.

Well, it was quite possibly the worst Saturday of college football this season in terms of what I wanted to happen, starting with the Iowa football team’s loss to Wisconsin. With five Big Ten games in action, here’s what we learned about the Hawks and their conference foes yesterday.

Let’s start with the Iowa football team.

Basically, I can sum up everything I want to say with this article explaining that it’s just another wasted opportunity to do something truly special this season.

From Wisconsin’s perspective, they are firmly in the mix for the Big Ten West title, but they need some help from the Iowa football team to take down Minnesota next weekend before they get their chance at their Gopher rivals. But honestly, I wasn’t that impressed by the Badgers yesterday. When the Hawks went uptempo, they were able to expose this defense, and Minnesota does a great job of running an uptempo offense.

Speaking of Minnesota, holy crap, I did not expect that. Good for you Minnesota. I definitely didn’t think you were that good, but you took down a Penn State team that has dominated so far this season. You’ve got my respect now.

Penn State’s loss also makes the Big Ten’s quest for a College Football Playoff spot quite interesting now. They’ve got Ohio State in two weeks, and if they pull off a win, it could be a Nittany Lions’ squad in the Big Ten Championship game against Minnesota, again. For the sake of the Big Ten, I want Ohio State to win out and represent well, but a Penn State win would create quite an interesting bit of chaos.

And as far as the chaos goes, can we give a round of applause to Lovie Smith and the Illinois Fighting Illini are doing? After beating Wisconsin, they have rattled off three more wins, including yesterday’s win over Michigan State to become bowl eligible. At first glance of the Iowa football team’s 2019 schedule, I assumed an easy win over Illinois. Now? Not so much.

Another round of applause should be given to Purdue, who is battling through an incredible amount of injuries to barely hang on to bowl-birth hopes. They knocked off Northwestern yesterday and now sit at 4-6 with games against 7-2 Wisconsin and 7-2 Indiana left. If they want to make a bowl game, they’ll have to pull off some big upsets that would really mess with the pecking order of the Big Ten.

And finally, to wrap up, Ohio State showed us (again) that they deserve to be the top-ranked team in college football.

Thank heavens the Iowa football team doesn’t have to face them. It could be a blood bath.