UCLA at No. 2 Indiana
With UCLA’s Sophomore QB Nico Iamaleava getting sacked on the first play of the game and then throwing a pick 6 on the second I was hoping that it wouldn’t get any uglier than that the rest of the way. And maybe it didn’t get uglier but it definitely stayed ugly the whole game unfortunately in a 56-6 beatdown by a team that looks destined to meet Ohio State in the Big Ten Conference Championship in Lucas Oil Stadium on December 6th. There was a brief period of hope after UCLA’s Scooter Jackson intercepted Indiana’s Junior QB Fernando Mendoza on their first drive after the Pick 6. Starting at their own 44 yard line six plays later they had only made it down to the Illinois 41 yard line and lined up to punt sitting 4th and 7. They faked the punt and ran a reverse with Junior WR Mikey Matthews attempting a pass to his Senior TE Hudson Habermehl that fell short. Indiana, starting from their own 41 yard line was back in the end zone eight plays later including a 20 yard run and a 30 yard pass with Senior RB Roman Hemby running it in sitting 4th and goal at the Bruin 1 yard line. UCLA was held to a three-and-out to finish the quarter down 14-0.
The second quarter got worse with the Hoosiers scoring back-to-back TD’s to make it 28-0 on either side of a Bruin fumble at their own 29 yard line that only took Indiana three plays to cash in. Both teams would punt on their next possession before UCLA finally got some points on the board with a 44 yard field goal from just outside the Indiana red zone. There was less than two minutes left in the half but that turned out to be plenty of time for the Hoosiers Junior QB Fernando Mendoza to connect in the end zone with his Senior WR E.J. Williams Jr. to make it 35-3 at the break.
Indiana would start the third quarter just like the second with back-to-back TD’s on either side of a Bruin 4 play drive that never made it past mid-field. UCLA would finally get a few more points on the board at the end of their second possession of the 3rd Qtr on another field goal from their Junior Place Kicker Mateen Bhaghani—this one from just 30 yards out to make it 49-6 at the end of three. Other than another Hoosier TD to start the 4th Qtr to make it 56-6 that would be the last of the scoring with both teams getting picked off on their next possessions and then UCLA turning the ball back on downs after an eight play drive that left them 4th and 6th just 10 yards past midfield. With less than 30 seconds left in the game the Hoosiers would take a knee and are now 8-0 with four games left to play against all unranked opponents.
For UCLA, Sophomore QB Nico Iamaleava was 13-of-27 for 113 yards, no TD’s and 2 interceptions. On the ground the Bruins rushed 25 times for 88 yards without ever finding the end zone. Their defense did little or nothing to stop Indiana and recorded no sacks and just one tackle for loss. On the other side Indians’s Junior QB Fernando Mendoza connected on 15-of-22 for 168 yards, 3 TD’s—a couple to Senior WR E.J. Williams Jr. and the other to WR Elijah Serratt—and 1 interception while also rushing 5 times for another 45 yards and a TD,. Collectively the Hoosiers rushed 47 times for 262 yards and three more TD’s besides Mendoza’s. Two by Senior RB Roman Hemby and the other by Freshman QB Alberto Mendoza who also completed 4-of-7 passes for 45 yards, no TD’s and 1 interception. As you can imagine from the score Indiana got more than twice as many first downs, 27-12; more than twice as many yards of total offense, 475-201; successfully converted their third down attempts 75% of the time and were perfect on the two 4th down attempts they tried compared with UCLA’s less than 10% success rate on their third down attempts and just 1-of-3 on 4th down; Indiana had the ball 11 minutes longer, had fewer penalties, and one less turnover. Now sitting 3-5, the Bruins need three out of their final four regular season games to become bowl eligible and with those games being against Nebraska, No. 1 Ohio State, Washington, and USC it doesn’t look good.
No. 23 Illinois at Washington
Both teams came into this one needing one more game to become bowl eligible and in spite of Illinois’ No. 23 ranking coming in Washington hasn’t been ranked at any time so far during the year even though their quarterback Demond Williams Jr. has completed 72+% of his throws for over 2,100 yards and 14 TD’s with only 4 picks and Washington’s two losses have been to No. 1 Ohio State and Michigan. Winning their next three games won’t get them in the Top-25 either since they are against Wisconsin, Purdue, and UCLA. But they’ll be hosting No. 6 Oregon in their last regular season game of the year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. If Oregon still only has one loss and they get beat by the Huskies I think that will make the difference. They would have a 10-2 overall record and be 7-2 in the Big Ten Conference which should get them a very decent bowl game in the post season.
In this game, Washington got the ball to start and found the end zone 10 plays and 75 yards later on a 13 yard pass from Williams to Freshman WR Dezmen Roebuck to go up 7-0. After a 33 yard field goal by Illinois the Huskies would pick up seven more on a carbon copy 13 yard TD pass from Williams to the same guy to go up 14-3 at the end of the 1st Qtr. If anyone thought the rest of the game was going to be that easy for Washington, Illinois squashed those thoughts with back-to-back TD’s on either side of a three-and-out to start the 2nd Qtr to go up 17-14. Washington would come back downfield with less than two minutes left and find the end zone again on a backwards pass from Williams to Junior WR Denzel Boston who would hit Senior RB Jonah Coleman for a TD to go up 21-17 at the break.
Illinois got the ball to start the second half but five plays later and stuck at their own 32 yard line had to punt it back over to the Huskies. Starting at their own 10 yard line after the punt Washington took it the whole 90 yards in 11 plays and extended their lead to 28-17 on a seven yard Jonah Coleman TD run. I imagine if you had to pick the point in time where this game was lost it would be right here at the end of the third quarter when on the tenth play of their possession Illinois Senior QB Luke Altmyer has his pass picked off by Washington’s Senior CB Tacario Davis and returned 11 yards shy of the fighting Illini red zone. Seven plays later the Huskies would extend their lead to 35-17 on a six yard TD pass from Williams to Boston with just seconds gone in the 4th Qtr. But Illinois wasn’t ready to give up yet and aided by Washington’s roughing the passer and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties cut that back to 10 points less than four minutes later with a TD and a successful two-point conversion making it 35-25. Seven plays later including back-to-back-to-back pass completions with the last by Williams to Sophomore TE Decker Degraaf for a TD the Huskies would be back to a three possession lead at 42-25. Intercepting Illinois six plays later Washington would run the clock out and became bowl eligible with the Fighting Illini trying again next week to get their sixth win.
For Washington, Sophomore QB Demond Williams Jr. was 26-of-33 for 280 yards, 4 TD’s and no interceptions while WR Denzel Boston also threw a TD on a backwards pass from Williams to RB Jonah Coleman. Boston also led the receiving corp with 153 yards and a TD on 10 receptions, with Freshman WR Dezmen Roebuck collecting two and TE Decker DeGraaf that last one. Altogether the Huskies threw for 292 yards and 5 TD’s. The ground game was headed by Williams and Coleman who collectively ran for 141 of the team’s 157 yard total with Coleman producing the only rushing TD. For Illinois, Senior QB Luke Altmyer connected on 22-of-34 for 199 yards, 2 TD’s—1 to Sophomore WR Collin Dixon and the other to Senior TE Tanner Arkin—and 2 interceptions while also carrying the ball seven times for another 48 yards. On the ground they rushed 29 times for 138 yards and 1 TD by Junior TE Jordan Anderson. Both teams converted 75% of their third down attempts, had 8 penalties for over 80 yards and were less than a minute apart on time-of-possession. But Washington led in first downs, 27-22; total yards of offense, 449-337; and had no turnovers compared with two for Illinois. Washington will have a week off before heading out to Madison, WI to take on the Badgers while Illinois heads back home to host Rutgers this Saturday.
Wisconsin at No. 6 Oregon
From 2017 through 2019 Wisconsin was certainly a force to be reckoned with on the grid iron. Led by RB Jonathan Taylor who averaged over 2,000 yards rushing and found the end zone 50 times, the AP Top 25 had them ranked 7th in 2017 and 11th in 2019—Taylor’s last year. Since then they had a decent season in 2021 after the COVID year but dropped to 7-6 in 2022 and again in 2023 with new head coach Luke Fickell. Last year was even worse as they went 5-7 overall with a 3-6 conference record. This year, with the 21-7 loss at Oregon this past Saturday, the Badgers are 2-6 overall and 0-5 in Big Ten play. Even if they continue to lose, Fickell signed a seven-year deal in November of 2022 along with an extension in February of 2023 which will take him through 2032. With a salary of $7.8 million this year CBS Sports calculated a buyout at around $25 million. Of course I was sure Franklin would survive at Penn State for the same reason and before even a week went by he was gone, so time will tell.
This one started out slow for both teams and really kind of stayed slow for the Ducks and even slower for the Badgers. Oregon came into the game averaging 241 yards on the ground, 263 yards in the air, and 44 points per game. In this one they rushed for about 40 less yards, threw for 130 less yards and scored less than half the points. Since they shut Wisconsin out through three quarters, less than half of their normal average number of points turned out to be plenty enough with the Badgers TD on their first possession of the fourth quarter the only points they were able to get on the board in a 21-7 loss on the road in Eugene.
For Oregon, Sophomore QB Dante Moore connected on 9-of-15 for just 86 yards, no TD’s, and no picks. Backup QB Brock Thomas, who came in for Moore after he suffered a facial injury late in the third quarter, was a perfect 4-for-4 with 1 TD to Sophomore OL Gernorris Wilson, and no interceptions. Freshman RB Jordan Davison and Senior RB Noah Whittington led the way on the ground with a combined 199 of the team’s 203 yard total with both rushing TD’s cashed in by Davison. For Wisconsin, Senior QB Hunter Simmons was just 7-of-21 for 86 yards, 1 TD to Senior TE Lance Mason, and 1 interception. Freshman RB Gideon Ituka led the way rushing the ball picking up 85 of the team’s 110 yard total on 29 carries without the Badgers ever finding the end zone on the ground.
The Ducks led in first downs, 18-11; total yards of offense, 335-196; picked up their 3rd downs about half the time compared to less than 27% for Wisconsin; had the ball 10 more minutes and had no turnovers compared to one for the Badgers. Moving forward with four games left, in spite of a lackluster performance in this one the Ducks should easily win their next two games against Iowa and Minnesota but USC will be a tough out even in Eugene before they have to face the Huskies on the road in a stadium they seldom lose in. For Wisconsin, Pro Football Focus ranked their schedule as the toughest in the FBS. So far they have lost to No. 1 Ohio State, No. 6 Oregon, No. 19 Alabama, and No. 20 Michigan and they could easily lose three of the next four they play against Washington, No. 2 Indiana, Illinois who just fell out of the rankings, and Minnesota.