Big Ten Blogger's Pick'em: Week 7

It's hard to believe but it's week 7 of the football schedule (I know, I know for some Penn State fans the end can't come soon enough). This is probably the most competitive week to date for the Big Ten and there are some interesting match-ups. Linebacker-U moved up a notch to 9th place as all of your LB-U "experts" *snicker* missed two games last week and Purdue blogger Boiled Sports was perfect (don't ask me how). As always stats and comments to follow.


Last Week
Galen: 3-2
Tim: 3-2
Mike: 3-2

Overall
Galen: 41-8
Tim: 40-9
Mike: 40-9

Date	Visitor @ Host	Time, TV	Galen	Tim	Mike	LB-U
10/16/2010	Arkansas State @ Indiana	12 PM, ESPNU
10/16/2010	Illinois @ Michigan State	12 PM, BTN
10/16/2010	Minnesota @ Purdue	12 PM, ESPN or ESPN2
10/16/2010	Iowa @ Michigan	3:30 PM, ABC
10/16/2010	Ohio State @ Wisconsin	7 PM, ESPN

Mike

Indiana will beat Arkansas State, with about 500 pass yards from Ben Chappell. The rest of the picks are very tricky this week; not difficult, but tricky. Michigan State is favored by something like a touchdown. The Spartans beat Michigan last week, but we all knew the Wolverines were given way too much credit for beating their first five opponents. Michigan State brings a good defense, and a punishing offense with a good offensive line. Illinois is riding high off the Penn State win, which makes the Illini's toe-to-toe battle with Ohio State that much more impressive. Michigan State SHOULD win this game, but I'll go with the upset-minded Illini. Purdue knocked off Northwestern last week in a big upset, but did anyone seriously think the Wildcats were going to stay undefeated forever? Minnesota has been gawd-awful this season, but was nearly the first team to beat the same Northwestern team two weeks earlier than Purdue. Sooner or later, the Gophers will win another game. They're not 1-11 bad, just 2-10 or 3-9 bad. Minnesota's defense will be able to hold Purdue's depleted offense in check, while Adam Weber does just enough to score more points than the Boilers. For the marquee matchups, I like Iowa and Ohio State. Michigan is a very tempting pick here, but Michigan State rolled up more than 500 yards of offense, while the Wolverines' offense stalled against the first living, breathing defense it's faced all season. Iowa could win by double-digits. Wisconsin has a very good chance to win this game, but the Buckeyes may have had their "whew" game already against Illinois. Terrelle Pryor puts on a performance that re-launches his Heis--(LOL!)--man campaign.

Galen

Indiana has enough firepower to beat Arkansas State solidly and Purdue had it's game of lucky special teams blunders, they won't get help against Minnesota they'll need to do more than run the ball for a win and I don't see it happening. I think Illinois isn't as good as people are thinking, I think Penn State is just that bad. Iowa will have it's way against the Michigan secondary and a part of me wants to pick Wisconsin in an upset but... I'm not gonna.

Tim

Indiana should thrash Arkansas State, much like they've been doing to all the other non-Big Ten opponents they've faced. Illinois should put up a better fight against MSU than Big Brother (i.e. Michigan). Unfortunately for the Fighting Zookers, they already blew their 'element of surprise' during last week's beatdown in Happy Valley. Don't expect Sparty to be fooled into taking the Illini lightly.
As great of a Denard Robinson impression as Purdue's backup QB Rob Henry did last week carrying the ball against justNorthwestern (16 carries, 132 yards, and a TD), he did an equally piss-poor job throwing it (6-for-18 for 47 yards and an INT). This should be the easiest offense for Minny's coaching staff to game plan against: Contain Henry's running game and force him to sling the ball around. Look for Purdue to look like a team that's missing virtually its entire offensive playmaking crew this week and for Tim Brewster to live to coach another week before getting shit-canned after a fresh PSU team becomes the latest visitor to smack the Gophers around in their awesome new stadium*.

If Michigan State's defense was able to contain Denard Robinson, I don't see how Iowa's defense can't do the same or better. Not to mention, the Hawkeye offense should have little trouble moving the ball against the non-existent Michigan secondary. As for OSU, look for a Buckeye team that's clicking on all cylinders to deliver a prime-time smackdown under the lights of Camp Randall Stadium. It will be interesting to see just how many Badger fans are 'jumping around' at the end of the 3rd quarter if OSU is comfortably ahead by then.

* Please Buddha, make it happen.

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