2009 CFN Big 10 Expert Picks, Schedules, More

Big Ten 2009 Game of the Week, Player of the Week, Roundup & Standings

2009 Big Ten ... Week 10

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	CFN EXPERT PICKS	Fiu	Rich	Matt	Michael	Clucko	PICK
12:00	Nwestern at Iowa -17.5	IA*	IA*	IA	IA*	NU	IA*
12:00	Wisc. -11 at Indiana	WI	WI*	WI	WI	IU	WI
12:00	WMU at MSU -18	MS	MS*	MS*	MS*	WM	MS*
12:00	Purdue at Mich. -4	PU	MI	MI	MI	MI	PU
12:00	Illinois at Minn. -6	MN	MN	MN	MN*	IL	MN
3:30	Ohio St at Penn St -4	PS	PS	OS	PS	OS	PS
	Straight Up	53-15	51-17	51-17	51-17	38-30	54-16
	ATS	27-30-3	27-30-3	31-26-3	27-30-3	32-25-3	29-28-3

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Big Ten Standings
	Conf.		Overall
Iowa	5	0	9	0
Penn St	4	1	8	1
Ohio St	4	1	7	2
Wisconsin	3	2	6	2
Minnesota	3	3	5	4
Mich St	3	3	4	5
NWestern	2	3	5	4
Purdue	2	3	3	6
Michigan	1	4	5	4
Indiana	1	4	4	5
Illinois	1	5	2	6
Players of the Week 10/31 Adam Weber, QB Min 10/24 Daryll Clark, QB PSU 10/17 Ryan Kerrigan, DE PU 10/10 Kurt Coleman, S OSU 10/3 John Clay, RB Wis 9/26 Pat Angerer, LB Iowa 9/19 Adam Robinson, RB Iowa 9/13 Tate Forcier, QB Mich 9/5 Tate Forcier, QB Mich. Games of the Week 10/31 Iowa 42, Ind 24 10/24 Iowa 15, MSU 13 10/17 Purdue 26, OSU 18 10/10 Iowa 30, Mich 28 10/3 MSU 26, Mich 20 OT 9/26 Mich 36, IU 33 9/19 ND 33, MSU 30 9/13 USC 18, USC 16 9/5 Minn. 23, Syr. 20 OT
Scoreboard at Illinois 38 Michigan 13 - Illinois finally gets O going in win over UM - Michigan suffers disastrous loss to Illini  CFN Prediction: Michigan 30-17 ... Line: Michigan -7.5 at Iowa 42 Indiana 24 - Iowa needs epic 4th quarter to get by Indiana  - Indiana collapses again in tough loss to Iowa  CFN Prediction: Iowa 27-14... Line: Iowa -18 at Wisconsin 37  Purdue 0 - Wisconsin & Clay rumble over Purdue  - Purdue drops pass after pass in loss to UW  CFN Prediction: Wisconsin 34-27 ... Line: Wisconsin -6.5 at Minnesota 42 Michigan State 34 - Michigan State D struggles in loss to Gophers  - Minnesota beats MSU in wild shootout  CFN Prediction: Michigan State 24-14 ... Line: Michigan State -4.5 Penn State 34 at Northwestern 13 - Penn State wakes up late to beat the Wildcats  - Northwestern loses Kafka in loss to Penn St  CFN Prediction: Penn State 27-10 ... Line: Penn State -14 at Ohio State 45 New Mexico State 0 Ohio State rolls at will on NMSU CFN Prediction: Ohio State 48-10 ... Line: Ohio State -40

GAME OF THE WEEK

at Iowa 42 … Indiana 24
Indiana was in complete control of the game, outplaying Iowa in every way with Ben Chappell throwing two first half touchdown passes on the way to a 21-7 lead. After recovering a fumbled punt, Indiana was going in for a dagger of a score midway through the third, but a Chappell pass bounced off of several players and into the hands of Tyler Sash, who took it 86 yards for a touchdown. IU rebounded with a field goal, and saw a touchdown catch get overturned by replay, and then it was all Iowa. Ricky Stanzi threw five interceptions in a miserable day, and then he went ballistic in the fourth with a 92-yard pass play to Marvin McNutt igniting a 28-point fourth quarter with Brandon Wegher running for two scores and Derrell Johnson–Koulianos scoring on a 66-yard touchdown catch. The two teams combined for nine turnovers, with the wind playing a big role in the passing game.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Minnesota QB Adam Weber completed 19-of-31 passes for 416 yards and five touchdowns with an interception in the win over Michigan State.

CONFERENCE ROUNDUP

Illinois … at Illinois 38 ... Michigan 13 ... So what does this really mean? Does the blowout of Michigan show that the Illini were good all along and weren’t playing up to their capabilities, or was this just an aberration? There’s still time to get to a bowl game, and the season could go from disastrous to amazing with a win at Cincinnati in a few weeks, while games against Minnesota, Northwestern, and Fresno State are winnable. The running game finally showed up a Mikel LeShoure was fantastic and Juice Williams came up with his best game of the season. Now the pressure is back on again to play up to this level. Can the team handle it?

Indiana … at Iowa 42 ... Indiana 24 ... How do you possibly recover if you’re Indiana? Blowing a big lead last week against Northwestern is one thing, but melting down against Iowa in a game that might have changed around the program is another. It was a combination of bad luck (the bouncing interception for a score and the bad replay call on a touchdown catch) and being demoralized, but there’s still time to turn things around. If the Hoosiers can come up with a win against Wisconsin next week, the home game vs. Purdue will be for a bowl bid (assuming a loss at Penn State in two weeks).

Iowa … at Iowa 42 ... Indiana 24 ... The mark of a good team is being able to overcome adversity to get a big win. The other mark is not falling behind to a bad team like Indiana in the first place. Give Ricky Stanzi credit for bouncing back after a miserable first three quarters, and credit RB Brandon Wegher for stepping in for an injured Adam Robinson to run for 119 yards and three scores, but this was ugly. 9-0 is9-0, and but the Hawkeyes can’t play like this against Northwestern next week or it’ll get tagged.

Michigan … at Illinois 38 ... Michigan 13 ... A complete and utter disaster. The season was taking a rough turn four losses in five games, with the lone victory coming against Delaware State, but to get blown out by a miserable Illinois team is an ugly low. This makes next week’s game against Purdue a must-win for a bowl game with a trip to Wisconsin and Ohio State to follow. While this wasn’t pretty, on the plus side, Michael Williams had a huge game making 16 tackles.

Michigan State … at Minnesota 42 ... Michigan State 34 ... Just when it seemed like Michigan State couldn’t have any more problems, here comes a strange loss to Minnesota. The Spartans were a few seconds away from beating Iowa and needed to bounce back strong, but this wasn’t the performance the coaching staff was hoping for with no defense, not enough consistency with the running game, and a rough loss that means there’s work to do to get to a bowl. Now MSU has to beat Western Michigan and Purdue to get to six wins before facing Penn State.

Minnesota … at Minnesota 42 ... Michigan State 34 ... It’s almost like Minnesota said enough is enough after two lousy performances and chose to let it rip. With star WR Eric Decker out with a foot injury, Adam Weber bombed away by using the running backs more in the passing game, particularly Duane Bennett, and everyone seemed to sharpen up to pick of the slack. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of the win to stop the slide after losing Penn State and Ohio State by a combined score of 58 to 7, and now the Gophers are a win away from going to a bowl.

Northwestern … Penn State 34 ... at Northwestern 13 ... Northwestern’s offense might not be anything special, but it was able to keep the game alive for a half against a strong Penn State defense. But now the season might take an ugly turn as QB Mike Kafka suffered a leg injury just before a big date at Iowa. Dan Persa completed 14-of-23 passes for 115 yards, but he’s not Kafka and he only came up with one big run. Kafka is expected to be back, but a bowl game is hardly certain with the way Illinois beat Michigan and with Wisconsin to close out the regular season.

Ohio State … at Ohio State 45 ... New Mexico State 0 ... Everyone likes to talk about the Ohio State offense and its woes, and while Terrelle Pryor was only 11-of-23, he had things happen with his legs and he avoided the big mistake that could’ve let the Aggies get back in the game. The defense did what it was supposed to do and was dominant allowing just two first downs and 62 yards. Every team needs a tune-up like this once in a while, and now comes the finishing kick against Penn State, Iowa, and Michigan. Now we get to see if the Buckeyes are for real.

Penn State … Penn State 34 ... at Northwestern 13 ... It wasn’t the sharpest of performances early on, but Penn State flexed its muscles in the second half and the improving offensive line took over. Daryll Clark isn’t making mistakes and he’s coming up with the plays needed to put games away, but the offense only converted 3-of-10 third down chances and it took too long to get the running game going. Even so, if the Nittany Lions can beat Ohio State, they’ll be almost assured of an 11-1 season with an at-large BCS bid all but certain.

Purdue …at Wisconsin 37 ... Purdue 0 ... Dropped passes, dropped passes, dropped passes. Purdue wasn’t going to be a Wisconsin team that was running well, but the offense didn’t have a chance with the way the receivers kept blowing every chance to make a play. The running game didn’t help out the cause, and it couldn’t after Wisconsin got up big. A bowl game is still a possibility with winnable games against Michigan, Michigan State, and Indiana to close out, but there can’t be so many missed plays and the turnovers, giving away three against UW, have to stop.

Wisconsin … at Wisconsin 37 ... Purdue 0 ... This is what Wisconsin has wanted to do from the start. Scott Tolzien wasn’t at his most accurate, but he didn’t need to be as the running game destroyed the Purdue defensive front and John Clay had little problems getting the big runs needed to keep the chains moving. The defense was helped by Purdue’s dropped passes, but it came up with a nice effort coming off the two tough losses to Ohio State and Iowa. Indiana is playing better and can’t be taken lightly next week in a road game, but the rest of the schedule isn’t that bad.

Saturday, November 7
Illinois at Minnesota
Wisconsin at Indiana
Northwestern at Iowa
Purdue at Michigan
Western Michigan at Michigan State
Ohio State at Penn State

Saturday, November 14
Northwestern at Illinois
Indiana at Penn State
Iowa at Ohio State
Michigan at Wisconsin
Michigan State at Purdue
South Dakota State at Minnesota

Saturday, November 21
Purdue at Indiana
Minnesota at Iowa
Ohio State at Michigan
Penn State at Michigan State
Wisconsin at Northwestern

Saturday, November 28
Illinois at Cincinnati

Saturday, December 5
Fresno State at Illinois
Wisconsin at Hawaii