Big Ten Blogger’s Pick’em: Week 11

Week 10 is in the books and Linebacker-U nailed all the right picks except Michigan, but really, if you predicted that game you need to quit your job and move to Vegas pronto. That game could have easily gone in either direction and was really quite enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately, because I didn't pick Michigan I've now dropped into last place at LB-U. MIIICCHHHHIIIGAANNNNNNNN!!! Week 11 picks after the jump.

Last Week
Galen: 4-1
Tim: 4-1
Mike: 5-0 (ed. Note-two perfect weeks in a row!?? Somebody's eating their Wheaties)

Overall
Tim: 56-13
Mike: 56-13
Galen: 55-14

LB-U: 57 – 12: 7th place

Date	Visitor @ Host	Time, TV	Galen	Tim	Mike	LB-U
11/13/2010	Indiana @ Wisconsin	12 PM, ESPN2
11/13/2010	Iowa @ Northwestern	12 PM, ESPN
11/13/2010	Michigan @ Purdue	12 PM, BTN
11/13/2010	Minnesota @ Illinois	12 PM, BTN

Random Commentation

Mike

Indiana can usually pull off a top-25 upset once a year, but Wisconsin is too good. The Badgers roll on the ground for more than 350 rushing yards against the Hoosiers. Northwestern is a tempting pick to upset Iowa, but with the Hawkeyes coming off a close call at Indiana, another disappointment shouldn't be in store. Purdue has little shot to stop Michigan, but I wonder how the Wolverines' defense (or lack thereof) will handle a bad Purdue offense. Illinois is pissed about last week's loss to Michigan, and should dominate Minnesota. Check out the Penn State-Ohio State picks later in the LBU Staff Predictions.

Tim

Minnesota has clearly thrown in the towel on its season to the point where interim coach Jeff Horton is talking to the press about how he's 99.9999 percent unlikely to return to the staff next year in any capacity and MarQueis Gray is taking over as the starting QB. It only took the Gophers about 9 shitty games to finally figure out how ineffective Adam Weber was. Their reward for persevering through such a long, difficult, death march of a season is a pissed-off Illinois team looking to take out their frustrations on somebody from last week's embarassing defensive performance at Michigan. Speaking of which, the Wolverines will finally exorciiiiise the demons against a decimated Purdue team, thus ending a 2-game losing skid against them. Wisconsin over IU is also a no-brainer: The Hoosiers are demoralized after Damarlo Belcher dropped an upset-clinching TD pass that he would normally make in a coma but more importantly, their weak defense combined with a one-dimensional offensive attack led by Ben Chappell's throwing arm will be no match for a solid Badger defense and the Badger's ground game anchored by John Clay. Iowa over Northwestern might be a bold move considering how shit-tastic the Hawkeyes looked in the red zone at Indiana last week (very reminiscent of early 2010's PSU, if I may add) and also the fact that Northwestern has won 4 of the last 5 meetings somehow. The better team has to prevail sometime now, don't they? I'm taking the Stanzis in this one.

Galen

On the surface this looks like an easy week but I just feel like there's an upset in there… somewhere. Minnesota is out because that team is a wounded dog just trying to drag itself home on the few good legs it has left. Oh, and speaking of wounded, you can just cut and past that last comment for Purdue. So maybe Indiana will repeat last week's performance except with a catch instead of a drop at the very end and shock Wisconsin. Naaaa… I'm gonna go with the traditional season crushing loss that Iowa seems to undertake every year against Northwestern.