Impressive road performances dominate weekly B1G awards
If a player wins a weekly award in a losing effort, he must have done something right.
Jack Cichy did a lot of things right for Wisconsin. Without Vince Biegel, the Badger linebacker was everywhere on Saturday night. He racked up 15 tackles, 3.5 tackles for a loss and a forced fumble in the overtime defeat against No. 2 Ohio State.
Cichy might not have gotten what he and the Badgers set out to do, but he did pick up a nice consolation prize. The junior was named B1G Defensive Player of the Week, which is the first time all year that award went to a player on a losing team.
And ironically enough, the guy Cichy contained for most of the night, J.T. Barrett, picked up B1G co-Offensive Player of the Week honors for his heroics late in the overtime victory. Barrett ended his night with a go-ahead touchdown pass to Noah Brown, which gave him the all-time Ohio State touchdowns record (89).
He's our leader, captain & quarterback. He's also the @bigten Co-Offensive Player of the Week.
Congrats JT!
📝 | https://t.co/gASPwF0Ovv pic.twitter.com/MypoMmujgc
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) October 17, 2016
Barrett shared the award with Northwestern’s Justin Jackson, who was impressive in a victory against Michigan State. The junior tailback racked up a career-high 188 yards and two touchdowns in Northwestern’s 54-40 win against the Spartans. His dominance resulted in MSU allowing the most points at home in program history.
Part of that was a credit to Jackson’s teammate, Solomon Vault, who picked up the B1G Special Teams Player of the Week honor for his 95-yard kickoff return for touchdown. It deflated MSU after the Spartans made it a two-point game.
The B1G Freshman of the Week honor went to Illinois’ safety Patrick Nelson, who recorded a team-high 14 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and half a sack in a 24-7 victory at Rutgers. Nelson is now the B1G’s tackles per game leader (12) in 2016.