[NU Sports] What have we learned? Part II

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

>From the afternoon games, we can add to the earlier list ...

- ILLINOIS is still Illinois. There's talent there, but they just don't play together, they are not well coached and they fall apart mentally. All recruiting hype and no results on the field -- call them the Notre Dame of the West. Either that or Mizzou is much, much better than the team that barely beat Northwestern with Maclin, Chase Daniels and company. Sure, maybe that's it.

- MICHIGAN is not still Michigam ... at least the Michigan of last year. They're not back to the traditional maize and blue yet, but they have the energy back and are playing better overall football (not having your heads hanging in shame/bewilderment all game helps). They're going to get a big upset win this year - could be the Irish next week, but something tells me it might be time for the Michigan/OSU rivalry to return to a contest.

So assuming the Badgers take care of business tonight and keep the smug smile on Bielema's face (or is that just an effect from that hot seat?), we have a 10-1 week for the league, but the loss was against the only team who really played a respectable BCS conference foe.

THE GOOD: Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State and Northwestern 
- All four looked sharp against subpar opponents. Still, they didn't let up off the gas and with a lot of new starters for all four teams, played relatively smart and sound football with few mistakes.

THE BAD: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State
- Two escaped with a win but little dignity and the third couldn't even manage to scrounge up the W in what, given the Illini tendency to fall apart and point fingers, could be a season-defining loss.

THE LUCKY: Iowa and Minnesota
- Sloppy, ugly and lucky to win, but they'll take the W. Iowa's was worse because it was at home and many saw them as a league darkhorse (not me ... I went with the Illini ... yeah, that was smart too :) ). Both need to do some major work before they hit league play.

THE UGLY: The glowing red zone graphic from the Big Ten Network that looked like something out of the early era of technicolor television. This is what the hi-def age brings us? I feel irradiated ... and suddenly see what all the communist conspiracy nuts were shouting about all summer!:) The reds weren't taking over the earth, they were taking over the turf! It's all happening!!! :)

THE ???: Purdue
- They showed a bit more explosiveness than last year, but it was a sloppy victory still and the defense seems to have taken a step back. Still, compared to how the debut went for the new coach of their next opponent (Oregon) went on Thursday, Danny Hope will take it.

Good to see football back! The UGa-Cowpoke game isn't a masterpiece, but it is a hard-fought contest living up to billing. Given the other blowouts on the tube now, I'll take it.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!