Week 8 showed some of the class of the Big Ten and others who are most certainly off the pace on the scoreboard. But digging into this weekend’s notable results, we here at Sports Illustrated are determined to find the answer to the question: Which team does the final score say more about?
Ohio State 20, Penn State 12 says more about Penn State
This was an if not now, then when? game for Penn State. I guess the answer is never, apparently. Penn State has an absolutely championship-level defense that is being dragged down by the three-ton anchor commonly referred to as the Penn State offense. The Nittany Lions were never a threat to score a touchdown in this game; their rampant lack of a vertical threat means a defense doesn’t even have to attempt to respect their receivers and therefore can load the box and make it hell for their running backs to do much, if anything. This was supposed to be the year for Penn State. It was supposed to get out of the purgatory that exists between Ohio State and Michigan above them, and the rest of the conference below them. It’s not happening this year. It’s safe to wonder if it ever will, especially as their station of the league gets more crowded with the Pac-12 entrants on their way July 1.
Adam Cairns/USA TODAY NETWORK
Michigan 49, Michigan State 0 says more about Michigan State
There is disarray, and then there is where Michigan State is at the current moment. The fact that it’s 2–5 overall, and 0–4 in the league, with Penn State and Ohio State still on the schedule is the least of their worries. MSU fired its coach after a sexual misconduct scandal went public earlier this month, and yet still fell to new and creative lows during the loss to Michigan on Saturday. Before the game, a pregame trivia video played on the jumbotron, presumably to keep the earliest-arriving fans engaged. One of the questions was what country was Adolf Hitler born in, and it left Michigan State needing to put out a statement explaining why Hitler was on their video board as the Spartans lost 49–0 to their biggest rival. All of this has happened by the halfway point of the season. There is rock bottom for an athletic program, and then there is this.
Oklahoma State 49, West Virginia 34 says more about Oklahoma State
If you left ’em for dead after losing to South Alabama earlier this season I get it, but Oklahoma State has been quietly stacking wins the last three weeks, and it’s in large part because they’ve found something in running back Ollie Gordon II. He toted the rock 29 times, to the tune of 282 yards and four touchdowns. If the days of the bellcow back are over, nobody told the Pokes. As their offensive identity congeals around him, look out for OSU down the stretch.
Utah 34, USC 32 says more about Utah
It’s anytime, anyplace territory for Utah at this point in time. Their house, your house or even on vacation in the Pac-12 title game in Vegas … Utah has the Trojans’ number. It doesn’t matter that its backup QB is now its starter. It doesn’t matter that its best skill player is currently a safety. As far as beating USC is concerned (at this point in Lincoln Riley’s tenure), Utah is on a time train, and it doesn’t matter that the Trojans feature the presumptive No. 1 NFL draft pick.
Mississippi State 7, Arkansas 3 says more about Arkansas
The Hogs have got to find some offense because they’re wasting what may be one of the best defenses in the SEC—and that includes a league with Georgia and Alabama. The Hogs needed something, anything from their offense. Yet again, they didn’t get it. That’s gutting for a unit that is doing everything you want to win games.
Missouri 34, South Carolina 12 says more about Missouri
How about the Tigers finding a new way to win? You’d think if they scored 30-plus points, they would have passed the ball all over the yard. Not so fast with these Tigers. The run game was in great shape for them Saturday, and Cody Schrader’s 159-yard performance hints at a potentially more balanced Missouri offense that could take the pressure off Brady Cook and the passing corps. The Tigers will need it with Georgia up next in two weeks.
Minnesota 12, Iowa 10 / Wake Forest 21, Pitt 17 says more about the eye of the beholder
Big-time players make big-time plays in big time games. I’m not talking about anyone in a jersey on the field in either of these two games—I’m talking about the refs.
Yes, there is the legitimate point that if you leave the game up to the refs, you deserve what you get (looking at you, Iowa and Pitt), but for all our technology and tracking, sometimes it boils down to pure discretion. With a chance to ice the game, Pitt QB Christian Veilleux slid to close the game out … or so he thought. The refs judged him as having slid short of the sticks. You know Wake took the ball and pulled off a minor miracle with its own backup QB.
And in the most Iowa way possible, it looked like Cooper DeJean had run a punt back to give his Hawkeyes the lead. Nope! DeJean was waving an arm as he tried to get his coverage team to avoid inadvertently contacting the ball. But the refs, upon review, said he was calling for a fair catch (which I didn’t even know you could do after the fact). It’a a penalty to fake a fair catch signal, and the refs retroactively said that’s what DeJean did. Both were ticky-tack calls at best. At worst, they directly contributed to why each team lost, among many other factors, but when you play fine margin games you win fine margin prizes. That prize was a big ’ol L for two teams this week.
