Power Rankings are not like top 25 rankings. Power Rankings are based on the weeks games played and not the entire season as a whole. Although to some extent the entire season will influence the weekly rankings. Having said that I am struggling to decide who should be no. 1 this week in the B1G. So I am going to write this out and sleep on it so here goes nothing.
1.) Ohio State (2-0)- Beat San Diego State 42-7. Ohio State had a dominating performance in every aspect of the game and did exactly what one would expect from a top 5 team nationally. They did all that using their back-up QB no less. Ohio State has a tough road game challenge this week when they go to CAL to play a night game. Time for them to prove they are a top 5 team against a quality opponent.
2.) Michigan (2-0)- Beat Notre Dame 41-30. Honestly I was torn if I should rank them no. 1 this week. They played a great game against a pretty good Notre Dame team. Devin Gardner played great but still made a really dumb play in throwing an awful pick 6. Also an area of concern their defense didn’t play very well against an avg. to bad ND offense. Giving up over 400 yards and 30 points is not acceptable considering the defense is suppose to be the teams strongest part of the team. FWIW it was extremely close and I nearly put Michigan no. 1 this week.
3.) Wisconsin (2-0)- Beat Tennessee Tech 48-0. Wisconsin needs to play someone decent so we can see how good they really are or aren’t. Until they do they won’t be able to move higher on this list.
4.) Northwestern (2-0)- Beat Syracuse 48-27. Northwestern is good possibly really really good. They have 2 quality wins already and no one else in the B1G can say that. This team will be fun to watch all year and will win a lot of games.
5.) Nebraska (2-0)- Beat Southern Miss 56-13. Southern Miss has lost 14 straight games. So this game is no way to judge whether or not Nebraska has solved their defensive issues. But they won and won big so kudos to them.
6.) Michigan State (2-0)- Beat South Florida 21-6. MSU continues to be what they seemingly always are really good at defense and really bad at offense. Not really sure what this team will do this year. I can see it going either way.
7.) Illinois (2-0)- Beat Cincinnati 45-17. The Bearcats absolutely destroyed Purdue last week only to have the exact same thing happen to them this week against the Illini. Nathan Scheelhaase looks well really good so far. The team looks improved at every aspect of the game under 2nd year coach Tim Beckman. This is a bowl team for sure barring the usual Illini meltdown.
8.) Penn State (2-0)- Beat Eastern Michigan 45-7. It is unfortunate that Christian Hackenberg likely will never see a bowl game while at PSU. That kid is a baller and is carrying this team as a true freshman. Bill O’Brien is well on his way to stealing another COTY trophy from a coach with more wins.
9.) Minnesota (2-0)- Beat New Mexico State 44-21. Minnesota is 2-0 and sure their opponents are not very good. But they are 2-0 and that is good for Jerry Kill. They are running the ball well and playing decent defense. Will make a bowl this year IMO.
10.) Indiana (1-1)- Lost to Navy 41-35. Indiana is built for offense. Their defense isn’t as improved as they would have hoped I am sure. Will need to outscore everyone to make a bowl.
11.) Iowa (1-1)- Beat Missouri State 28-14. Iowa has good defense and running game. The passing game is blah at best so far. If they can fix that this team could make a bowl game.
12.) Purdue (1-1)- Beat Indiana State 20-14. Purdue is just awful on both sides of the ball this year as they try to adjust to a new system under 1st year head coach Darrell Hazell.
This is how I see it this week. Who knows how it will play out next week. What do you think?
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