Big Ten Football – What we learned week 1

One week is in the books for the 2013 Big Ten football season and we learned some things about a few of the teams in the league. The conference saw every team open this week and collectively put up a 10-2 record. Anyone can look at a scoreboard and see the conference record, but we want to look at these games and see what information we can gather from a handicapping perspective.

1.  Purdue’s offense is terrible

The Boilermakers put up just 226 yards (under 4 yards per play) and fumbled 5 times (losing 2). It is not as though the defense was much better, but they spent a ton of time on the field and were put in bad spots the entire game. Purdue has a group of players that were recruited to run a more wide open offense, but now they are trying to play in a more run oriented attack. They look like they are trying to stick a square peg into a round hole. I don’t think the defense will be bad all season so I am going to start considering Purdue as an under team going forward. The offense will look better next week against Indiana State, a team that gave up 73 to Indiana on Thursday, but don’t be fooled. Hopefully, 50 points next week will get us a few extra points on the total in week 3 against Notre Dame.

2. Nebraska’s still can’t play defense

First things first…Wyoming has a pretty good offense. That said, the Huskers showed their youth and looked awful on defense. The Cowboys rolled up 602 yards including 219 rushing. Nebraska had plans to play a lot of different kids and I am not sure they figured anything out in this one. On the other hand, Taylor Martinez and company on offense rolled up 530 yards of their own. The Huskers look like an over team against anyone that can move the ball. It is not as though you can just blindly bet Nebraska overs, but the total is the first thing you should look at with the Huskers. The “Blackshirts” no longer reside in Lincoln.

3. The Jury is still out on….

Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio State all had fairly easy times with inferior opposition. All four also rolled up a ton of yardage: 632 (Indiana) 460 (Ohio State) 598 (Wisconsin) 463 (Michigan).  It is hard to say how consistent these teams are going to be going forward as we didn’t gather much from these blowouts, but it does show there are some coaches in the league that won’t hesitate to keep scoring.

Week 2: Games worth watching

Week 2 is not one to get real excited about in the Big Ten, but there will be value in some of the lines. There are a few real stinkers, but a couple of games will be worth your time. Cincinnati and Illinois should be decent as the Fighting Illini will be at home and will give a much better fight than Purdue did on Saturday. Notre Dame will visit the Big House Saturday night and we will learn a lot more about Michigan in that one.

I will be back on Tuesday with my first look at the 12 games on next week slate.