As the Big Ten heads to its second week of conference play, four teams remain unbeaten. That success has led to five teams from the Big Ten earning spots in the AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ polls.
The 15th ranked Purdue Boilermakers are one of the only teams that have demonstrated consistency in all facets of the game, although their offense has been particularly efficient. Led by senior quarterback Kyle Orton, the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, Purdue was able to come away with a win in Champaign last Saturday 38-30. Orton completed 32 of 50 passes for 366 yards and avoided throwing an interception for a third straight game. Orton continues to move up the Big Ten’s all-time list in numerous statistical categories including completions (624), attempts (1,053) and yards (7,229).
“He’s everything I thought he was maybe and more,” Illinois head coach Ron Turner said. “We tried to get him a lot of looks; we tried to come after him and tried to disguise our coverage. And he was able to see it and make the checks and know where to go with the football every time. He’s a very good player and I haven’t seen him make a mistake yet.”
The Big Ten features both the best offense in the country as well as the best defense as Purdue is tops in the nation with 49.3 points per outing, while Wisconsin’s defense gives up an NCAA best 4.8 points per game.
Minnesota on the rise: The Gophers are off to a 4-0 start for the third straight season, including last season’s surprising 6-0 start. Minnesota blew out Northwestern last weekend in Minneapolis 43-17 and is second in the nation behind Purdue in offensive production. While Minnesota’s offense has been stellar all year, they have struggled at times on defense. Last weekend’s game against Northwestern might have been a turning point for that group.
“I thought that our defense improved quite a bit,” Mason said. ” I’ve been disappointed in previous weeks on how we performed. Once again on offense we were able to blend some consistency with some big plays. I was though, very disappointed with our kicking game. We gave up a 97 yard kickoff return up for a touchdown.”
Kicking woes: The kicking game for almost every college team has been in question so far this season, as several missed field goals and extra points have even cost some teams the game.
The defensive awareness and effort of opposing teams have made those points hard to come by and well-earned.
“Teams put pressure on you,” Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel said. “An extra point is not a playoff. It’s not a play where people say ‘well, they scored a touchdown; it’s really 7-0.’ It’s not, it’s 6-0, and I think people realize every point is critical and people are doing a good job putting pressure on.”
So far this season this has remained an ongoing problem, not just in the Big Ten.
“I think there is a feeling out there that it’s pretty automatic,” Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr said. “Well certainly if you look across the country this year, it certainly has not been automatic. Teams are contesting every down, every point and I think that has had a difference.”
