Around the Big Ten: Week 6

With only half of the conference playing football last week, the Week 6 Big Ten slate was a bit more action-packed. Five conference games took place this past weekend, including big wins for Michigan State and Ohio State on the road and Nebraska and Indiana at home. Michigan's 42-13 win doesn't qualify as "big" so much as it was one small step toward a righted ship. In any case, on to the games:

Michigan 42, Minnesota 13. There's not much use saying too much here (see the previously linked Maize n Brew recap). The game was close for a little while due to the molasses-esque pace, and then it very quickly became not so close. Fin.

Penn State 24, Indiana 44. Penn State is not exactly the Penn State of old, but that doesn't make this score any less strange to look at. The Nittany Lions entered the fourth quarter down just 21-17. Penn State missed an opportunity to get on the board early when its first drive stalled at the Indiana 26 on 4th & 5. Christian Hackenberg later hit Allen Robinson for a 46-yard touchdown to tie it at 7-all in the second quarter. Indiana added two more field goals before the half to take a 13-7 lead into the break. All in all, holding Indiana to just 13 points is a solid accomplishment, and Penn State would need a few more big strikes to Robinson to come away with a victory.

Of course, that last sentence was all theory, as it did not play out that way. Hackenberg did hit Robinson again, this time for a 26-yard score, but the Hoosiers answered back via a Tevin Coleman 44-yard run. Penn State added a field goal in the third, but, once again, the Nittany Lion defense gave again, this time on an 11-play, 75-yard IU touchdown drive.

Thus, on PSU's next offensive drive, Bill O'Brien elected to go for it on 4th & 2 from PSU's own 33. The Hackenberg attempt fell incomplete, and the Hoosiers summarily scored on its second play from there. To make matters worse, Penn State's Eugene Lewis fumbled the ensuing kickoff, allowing the Hoosiers to start from PSU's 9-yard line. Another touchdown score made it 42-17 (the Hoosiers later added a safety).

The Nittany Lions got decent production from tailback Zach Zwinak (17 carries, 72 yards), but getting into a passing contest with a freshman quarterback against Indiana is not ideal. Hackenberg threw a whopping 55 times under the circumstances, completing 30 for 340 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions. Had the defense (and later the special teams) not thoroughly failed Penn State, people might be talking about Hackenberg's excellent performance on the road and Allen Robinson's monster day (12 receptions, 173 yards, two touchdowns).

Indiana is not a good football team overall, but they can score against most Big Ten defenses. I'm not sure Michigan can duplicate that sort of offensive production against the Nittany Lions, who will almost certainly put up a better defensive performance this Saturday at home. On the other hand, Michigan will have to be ready to check Allen Robinson and prevent Zwinak and company from chipping away at the now Pipkins-less front seven.

Once again, it's a sign of the times that I'm worried about a game against a team that just lost to Indiana by 20.

Jump for the rest of the Big Ten slate.