The Big 10, Ouch!

So Iowa was the lone bright spot of the Big Ten's foray into bowl games. There were a few bright spots and many not so bright spots (Wisconsin, I'm looking at you.). 

The Iowa game: We looked great. Not that having the Gamecocks gives us the ball on their first three possessions hurts but hey, our guys made the plays when they were there and that is what good teams do. We took advantage of those turnovers and basically had the game in hand after the first couple of possessions. 

Greene looked good, as he has all year. He looked especially good as he choo-choo'd through the endzone on that second touchdown. Good luck on Sundays big guy. 

B-Meyers had some big plays. I'm sure he was just as surprised as I was that he could be left open on the same play on big third downs early so many times. But hey, I'll take it. 

Basically South Carolina was just out matched. The Ole' Ball Coach spent more time looking confused with his hands on his head than he did coaching. 

Northwestern looked better than I thought they would. Even though what they did was give a Mizzou team that though they deserved better and were not into the game a good run. 

Wisconsin, look buddy, I know Florida State is good, all the Florida teams seem good now a days,  but really? Really? 42-13? Wait to represent. But hey, you only gave up 14 points in 3 out of 4 of the quarters, not bad!

Minnesota i can understand. Nobody suffers the kind of defeat that Iowa laid on a team and recovers within the next three years. Look for the Golden Goofers to win a game sometime in 2011.

The Michigan State game I did not see. 12 points to Georgia, I'm not impressed by either team.

Penn State, I guess this means Iowa is as good as USC huh. So much for the hype around the Nitny Lions. They did play fast though, they managed to be down by 24 points in just one half of a football game, that's pretty fast. Sorry Joe-Pa, you do need a real quarterback to play spread football as it turns out. Anyone in the organization will tell you Clark is accurate, until they look at his numbers. Completing about 55% of your passes in college will not cut it, that, I can tell you, IS accurate. 

Then there is Ohio State. The best line I heard about this game was "Expecting the Buckeyes to show up in a big non-conference game is like expecting a bridge made out of meringue to hold up underneath a couple SUVs. It's just not something a sensible person would ever do." They were able to run the ball and stay in the game, but Texas was the better team.

Some of the numbers show that Ohio State was never in control of this game. First downs -Texas has 33, Ohio State 21. Pryor, who according to Buckeye fans is the best things since stupid mascots, had 5, count them 5 completions for 66 yards. Yes they were in it, and yes he did not throw any picks, and he got them to a good bowl but he can't win the big one (hey, is that a black Kyle Orton out there??). 

All in all we are in for another year of Big Ten bashing, but at least we can say that Iowa did its part. Better luck next year Big Ten.