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This is the good stuff.
Week 6 brings us a historic meeting, with Saturday’s matchup between No. 3 Iowa and No. 4 Penn State marking the first Big Ten game between Top 5 opponents not involving Ohio State since 1997. And if you want to go even deeper into the rabbit hole, it’s the first Top 5 Big Ten game without Ohio State or Michigan since No. 3 Wisconsin hosted No. 5 Minnesota on Nov. 24, 1962.
Naturally, College GameDay is denoting this rare occasion by sending its crew to Dallas for the Oklahoma-Texas game. “Thing that hasn’t happened since Lee Corso was 5 years out of college” apparently didn’t move the needle enough for ESPN.
But that’s neither here nor there.
You are here. And that means you want to know about the one thing we are wondering about or looking to see from Big Ten teams in Week 6.
Open Week: Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern, Minnesota.
Maryland — Can the offense get its groove back?
You’ve possibly seen the stat by now.
Heading into Friday night’s game against Iowa, 105 FBS quarterbacks had thrown more interceptions than Taulia Tagovailoa. By the time it was over, no one in the country had thrown more.
Traditionally, Ohio State is not a good solution for what ails you, though this year’s Buckeyes defense may be an exception. Among Big Ten teams, only Illinois has allowed more pass plays longer than 10 yards.
Maryland’s biggest challenge will be finding a suitable replacement for injured receiver Dontay Demus Jr., perhaps the most obvious NFL talent on the roster.
Ohio State — Can the defense continue to improve?
The beleaguered Buckeyes defense seemed to get its act together against Rutgers, picking off 3 passes and limiting the Scarlet Knights to 13 points. Now it’s time to see if the Bucks can replicate it against an offense with a bit more firepower.
If they can, any writing off of Ohio State in the Big Ten title race will prove to be quite premature.
Michigan State — Will the defense get better on third down?
At 5-0, there’s not much wrong with Michigan State right now.
However, the Spartans could stand to get better on defense. They currently rate 12th in the league in third-down defense, allowing opponents to convert at a 39.3% clip.
If that continues to be an issue against Rutgers, it’s safe to say the Spartans have an issue. The Scarlet Knights are only converting 30.4% of their third downs against Power 5 opponents.
Rutgers — Is the offense good enough to win?
If you remove blowout wins against Temple and Delaware from the equation, the Rutgers offense starts to look pretty suspect.
In games against Power 5 teams, Rutgers is one of 3 B1G teams averaging less than 300 yards a game, joining Wisconsin and Indiana. In terms of scoring, those are the only teams the Scarlet Knights are topping (14.3 ppg) against Power 5 foes. And they haven’t exactly faced Iowa, Cincinnati and Penn State like the Hoosiers have.
Wisconsin — Can this team pass the ball?
This seems like a pretty obvious “no,” but the Badgers showed a flash of potential in an impressive 2-minute drill to close the first half against Michigan. We just never got to see them build on that after Graham Mertz was knocked out of the game on the first drive of the second half.
If there were ever a game to get the pass game healthy, it’s this one. Illinois is at the bottom of the Big Ten in just about every category of pass defense.
Illinois — Sweet revenge for Bret Bielema?
This is Bret Bielema’s first time coaching against the Wisconsin program he led from 2006-12, and you can bet he’s had this one circled on his calendar.
Maybe the closest comp to this is when he faced Iowa, his alma mater, while at Wisconsin. Bielema went 3-2 against the Hawkeyes.
Michigan — Champions of the West?
The Wolverines will look for their second straight win in a red-clad Big Ten West stadium with a Saturday night showdown at Nebraska.
This is a sneaky-tough matchup for the 9th-ranked Wolverines, who can ill afford any slipups in a stacked Big Ten East.
Nebraska — Can Scott Frost get his signature win?
Scott Frost continues to grasp for that one big win that will get his keister off the hot seat, and this could be the one. The Cornhuskers have dropped 15 straight against ranked opponents going back to 2016.
A win over the Wolverines would be Nebraska’s first over a Top 10 team since beating No. 6 Michigan State in 2015. The Huskers knocked on the door against Oklahoma and Michigan State this year, and at worst should have split those games. Frost badly needs this one to go his way.
Iowa — Will the turnover luck continue?
To be clear, skill and scheme have a lot to do with forcing turnovers. But Iowa’s fortune in where it takes the ball away this season is extraordinary.
In 4 of 5 games, Iowa’s defense or special teams have created a takeaway that either resulted in a touchdown or the Hawkeyes offense starting the ensuing possession inside the 15-yard line. And the one time that didn’t happen, the Hawkeyes forced a goal-line fumble that prevented a Kent State touchdown.
If it happens again, I like Iowa’s chances of winning the biggest game at Kinnick Stadium since 1985.
Penn State — Can Clifford conquer the Hawkeyes?
Quarterback Sean Clifford has been the picture of reliability for Penn State, completing 67.3% of his passes for 11 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.
But with all due respect to Wisconsin’s defense, Clifford hasn’t run into a secondary like Iowa’s yet. And he didn’t exactly tear it up against the Badgers or Indiana. In those 2 games, he completed just 53% of his passes for an average of 212 yards and 6.4 yards per attempt.
Clifford will need to step it up if the Nittany Lions are to win.
Alex Hickey is an award-winning writer who has watched Big Ten sports since it was a numerically accurate description of league membership. Alex has covered college football and basketball since 2008, with stops on the McNeese State, LSU and West Virginia beats before being hired as Saturday Tradition's Big Ten columnist in 2021. He is an Illinois native and 2004 Indiana University graduate.