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Big Ten Roundup - Week 12 Standings & More

CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Nov 18, 2008

Big Ten conference roundup, standings, player and game of the week

Click on each team for game recaps, thoughts, schedules and more and scroll down for the games, results, players of the week and the conference roundup.

Conference Roundups
- ACC | Big East | Big 12 | Big Ten | C-USA | Ind.
- MAC | M-West | Pac 10 | SEC | Sun Belt | WAC


Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Michigan | Michigan State | Minnesota
Northwestern | Ohio State | Penn State | Purdue | Wisconsin
- Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6

- Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10

Big Ten Game of the Week

Wisconsin 35 … Minnesota 32
In a tale of two halves, Wisconsin overcame a 21-7 deficit with two one-yard touchdown runs from P.J. Hill and two safeties within a three minutes span with a special teams error on a punt and a sack of Adam Weber in the end zone. A five-yard John Clay touchdown run gave the Badgers some breathing room, but the Gophers wouldn’t go away. Shade Salamon caught 13-yard touchdown pass with 4:15 to play to pull Minnesota within three, but the Badger defense was able to hang on late. Adam Weber threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score in the second quarter for the Gophers.

Big Ten Player of the Week
Iowa RB Shonn Greene ran 30 times for 211 yards and two touchdowns in the win over Purdue

 

Conference

Overall

 

W-L

PF

PA

W-L

PF

PA

STK

Penn St

6-1

222

91

10-1

433

131

W1

Ohio St

6-1

196

91

9-2

296

150

W2

Mich St

6-1

183

159

9-2

296

214

W3

NW

4-3

164

177

8-3

267

222

W1

Iowa

4-3

183

130

7-4

308

159

W2

Minn.

3-4

136

155

7-4

281

225

L3

Illinois

3-4

208

179

5-6

334

292

L2

Wisc

3-5

206

227

6-5

308

268

W2

Mic

2-5

170

226

3-8

236

305

L1

Indiana

1-6

106

266

3-8

236

361

L3

Purdue

1-6

113

186

3-8

234

291

L2

Saturday, November 15
at Penn State 34 ... Indiana 7
CFN Prediction:
Penn State 45-3  PSU -34
-
IU with 5 passing yards | PSU D dominates
Northwestern 21 ... at Michigan 14
CFN Prediction:
Michigan 27-20  Mich. -3.5
-
 UM passing game stinks | NU wins 8th game
Ohio State 30 ... at Illinois 20
CFN Prediction:
OSU 37-20  OSU -10
-
Illinois gains yards, not points | OSU runs wild
at Iowa 22 ... Purdue 17
CFN Prediction: Iowa 23-7 Iowa -14.5

-
Greene goes for 211 | Painter plays well
at Wisconsin 35 ... Minnesota 32
CFN Prediction:
UW 31-16  UW -13.5
-
UW gets 2 safeties | UM blows big lead
Games of the Week
Aug. 30 - Cal 38 - MSU 31
Sep. 6 - NW 24 ... Duke 20
Sep 13 - Oregon 32 - Purdue 26 2OT
Sep 20 - Pur 32 - CMU 25
sep 27 - Mich 27 - UW 25
Oct 4 - OSU 20 - UW 17
0ct 11 - Minn 27 - Ill 20
Oct 18 - PSU 46 - Mich 17
Oct 25 - PSU 13 - OSU 6
Nov. 1 - NU 24 - Minn. 17
Nov. 8 - Iowa 24 - PSU 23
Nov. 15 - Wis 35 - Minn 32
Players of the Week
Aug. 30 - PJ Hill, Wisconsin
Sep. 6 - Javon Ringer, MSU
Sep 13 - Javon Ringer, MSU
Sep 20 - Javon Ringer, MSU
Sep 27 - Michigan D line & Derrick Williams, PSU
Oct 4 - Juice Williams, Ill
0ct 11 - Simoni Lawrence, Minn
Oct 18 - Shonn Greene, Iowa
Oct 25 - Novorro Bowman, PS
Nov. 1 - Mike Kafka, NW
Nov. 8 - Shonn Greene, Iowa
Nov. 15 - Shonn Greene, Ia

Conference
Roundup

Illinois … Illinois did a good job of spreading the ball around to several different players against Ohio State, both in the passing game and on the ground, and it put up 455 yards of total offense, but mistakes by the special teams and a few turnovers proved to be a problem. That and the lack of run defense against Terrelle Pryor and Beanie Wells. Brit Miller did his best to get in on every tackle, he made 14, but the D couldn’t come up with any game-changing plays or takeaways. Now the Illini has to beat Northwestern to be bowl eligible.
Indiana … Indiana managed just 180 yards of total offense against Penn State with six first downs, and 57 of the yards came on a Marcus Thigpen touchdown run. With Ben Chappell out and Kellen Lewis way too hurt to be Kellen Lewis, the offense wasn’t able to do anything against the stingy Nittany Lion defense. The D did what it could in the first half, but with no help from the O, it wore down as the game went on and buckled in the second half. The dismal season comes to a close with Purdue next week, but to win that game, in Joe Tiller’s final game, the defense will have to come up with a heroic effort.
Iowa … Outside of Texas QB Colt McCoy, there isn’t a more valuable player in college football this year than Iowa’s Shonn Greene. He has done it all as the steadying force for the offense to work around. Even when he was bottled up by Purdue, he made something happen showing off a tremendous blend of toughness and quickness. The passing game didn’t even try to get on track as Ricky Stanzi didn’t get anything going, but he’ll have to at least push the ball down the field a little bit to get by Minnesota next week. Purdue doesn’t have a great running game, but Iowa was able to keep it from doing much of anything. However, the secondary got picked apart by a hot Curtis Painter. Minnesota will almost certainly go to the short to midrange passing game next week.
Michigan … Much has been made about the woes of the Michigan offense, but the running game worked against Northwestern with 181 yards, but the passing game is abysmal. It doesn’t have to be Texas Tech, but it has to keep the chains moving and it can’t be an utter disaster. Steven Threet completed 4-of-7 passes for 22 yards with an interception, but Nick Sheridan was worse completing 8-of-29 passes for 61 yards. With eight losses, this is by far the worst season in the program’s history. Michigan had never lost this many games in a season, but if it can beat Ohio State, all would be quickly forgotten and the off-season would change around in a big hurry.
Michigan State … Didn’t Play This Week
Minnesota … The loss to Wisconsin was a breakdown of almost everything the Minnesota coaching staff has been working towards. Three turnovers, 10 penalties and a big special teams error, and two safeties, were part of the mistakes that allowed the Badgers to pull off the win. Adam Weber was in total control of the offense at times, but he needed Eric Decker back to keep the chains moving. Without their star receiver, the Gophers converted just 3-of-12 third down chances. The defense struggled at times, but it held up well against the run and everyone was popping.
 
Northwestern … Northwestern needed a big win in the Big House. Michigan might be struggling, to put it mildly, but it was coming off a dominant win over Minnesota and was shut down by the Northwestern defense, especially though the air. The Wildcat offense didn’t exactly show up with the running game. Stephen Simmons isn’t the type of back to work around, and to beat Illinois next week, the offense will either need a huge game from C.J. Bacher or the coaching staff will have to get extremely creative.
Ohio State … Forget about the passing game, Ohio State has abandoned it completely for a punishing ground attack. Against Illinois, Beanie Wells ran with speed, power, and agility as he tore off tough run after tough run, while Terrelle Pryor did his part with his legs, and didn’t make mistakes with his arm. The run defense struggled a bit with the Illinois running game, against both the quarterbacks and RB Daniel Dufrene, but there weren’t many problems as the weather got worse. Now the Buckeyes are in a position to go to the Rose Bowl needing to beat Michigan and hope for Michigan State to beat Penn State.
Penn State
… Talk about coming out sluggish, Penn State didn’t wake up out of the Iowa malaise until the second half, but it still beat Indiana with ease. The defense held the punchless Hoosiers in check, allowing just 180 yards of total offense and 57 yards passing. It took a while, but Daryll Clark played well in the second half to shake off the issues against the Hawkeyes. He’ll have to be sharper throughout for the Nittany Lions to get by Michigan State in what amounts to the Big Ten championship next week. Win, and go to the Rose Bowl.
Purdue … So there’s the Curtis Painter everyone was waiting for. In the loss to Iowa, he was brilliant in place of Justin Siller as he almost led the team back to an improbable win. Outside of allowing the one big 75-yard run to Shonn Greene, the Boilermaker defense played one of its better games of the year and did enough against the Iowa passing game to keep things close, but it wasn’t enough. If the team plays like this against Indiana, Joe Tiller will go out with a win.  
Wisconsin … The win over Minnesota was subdued a wee bit due to concern over WR Kyle Jefferson, who took a huge shot and had to be carted off the field. As it turns out, he’s fine but has a severe concussion. Dustin Sherer struggled in the first half, but unlike past weeks for the Badgers, he, along with the team, geared it up and blasted away in the second half for the win. The defense continues to struggle a bit, it’s not going to be an elite D by any means this season, but it came up with the big stops when needed. Now that UW is bowl eligible, it can solidify a decent spot by beating Cal Poly and getting to 7-5.


 
 



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