Big Ten Week 5

October 8th, 2009 by Mike Ware

Purdue QB Joey Elliot (thanks Icon SMI)

Week 5 featured six games for the Big Ten as most teams have begun conference play. This is why you took those MSU wide receivers in the late rounds. The Big Ten Conference players put up good numbers. Week 5 was just a sample of what is yet to come. Four of the six games were decided by 6 points or less. Michigan lost in OT to Michigan State, even though Michigan rallied with 2 TD’s in the final 4 minutes to force overtime. Northwestern seemed out of it trailing 21-3 to Purdue. Northwestern turned it on though and came charging back to take the victory 27-21. Purdue looked like they would drive it in to win but an incomplete pass with 3 seconds left gave the Wildcats the win. Wisconsin managed to hang on to its undefeated record by narrowly escaping Minnesota with a 31-28 win. If you stopped watching this one early you missed all the fun. The teams scored 29 points in the fourth quarter. Minnesota made it exciting to the end but a fumble with 30 seconds remaining turned the ball and game over to the Badgers. Iowa also held on to their undefeated record by beating Arkansas State 24-21. Hey even an ugly win is a win!

Top performers for Week 5

Wisconsin RB John Clay earned Player of the Week honors with his 184 yards rushing and 3 TD’s.

Purdue QB Joey Elliott had 313 yards passing and 3 TD’s.

Minnesota WR Eric Decker had 140 yards receiving and a TD. Oh, and he became the career leader in receiving yards in Minnesota with that performance. I don’t know if he can have a bad week. He seems to be one of the top players every week. His owners must love his performance so far.

Ohio State RB Brandon Saine had 113 yards rushing. I didn’t think anyone but Pryor ran the ball at OSU these days. Nice to see a Buckeye RB on the top performers list again. Hopefully we will see more 100 yard Saine games this year.

And Michigan QB Tate Forcier had 223 yards passing and 2 TD’s.

Let’s see what we have next week in the Big Ten… what? No trophy games this week? Is that allowed in the Big Ten? I’m not kidding- there are no trophy games this week. Bummer.

Well there are still some interesting matchups to look at going into this weekend. The Big Ten has 4 teams in the USA Today top 25 poll for this week. Plus we can start talking about bowl berths! Wisconsin and Iowa are both 1 win away from bowl eligibility. There are 7 games for Big Ten teams this week with 2 big games to watch. Wisconsin (5-0) will travel to Columbus to play the Buckeyes (4-1). Look for Wisconsin RB Clay to have a good game this week even though it is the Buckeyes D he has to run against. Also keep an eye on OSU RB Saine. Maybe the Buckeyes will use him more to take some pressure off Pryor. This should be a good game to start the RB’s.

The other big game this week will feature Iowa (5-0) hosting Michigan (4-1). I expect Tate Forcier to have a big game this week against the Hawkeye D. He seems to do well in the big games and this is a big game for Michigan. Look for Iowa QB Ricky Stanzi to have a decent game too.

Elsewhere we see Northwestern playing Miami, Purdue at Minnesota (hint: Decker has another big game), Michigan State at Illinois, Eastern Illinois at Penn State and Indiana at Virginia.

Video: Big Ten > Week 5 Highlights

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