Further and continued bemoaning of this past Saturday

As alluded to in my previous post re: tOSU and, briefly, Notre Dame's demolition of Penn State, Saturday was not a good day for the Big Ten.

Let's have a rundown shall we?

Minnesota @ California

I watched this game for about the first half before tuning into the OSU-UT tilt. What I saw of it, was the California Golden Bears awakening from their hibernation -get it? bears? they hibernate- and waking up to find a bottom of the middle of the pack Big Ten team in front of their den/cave/domicile-keeping with the awakening bear metaphor here people- and the Bears were ever so pissed off. Coach Mason would be better served to continue piling on the cupcakes in the pre-conference schedule after this botched experiment. Highlight of the Game Marshawn Lynch "Zidane-ing" a hapless Gopher defender. Very well done and completely worth the penalty.

Metaphorically speaking the Golden Gophers stumbled upon a very angry grizzly bear right after awakening from hibernation. But instead of having the knife they had a broken spork.

New Hampshire @ Northwestern Congrats to New Hampshire, I despise Northwestern and could not be more thrilled that NW lost at home to a D 1AA. Presumably, Walker would've cajoled a victory outta this gang, but according to ESPN.com's scoreboard New Hampshire was playing offense for both teams, no wonder they won! Please, nobody, tell Dan Shanoff about this.

And then there was the victory that almost wasn't for Iowa. My chosen team, the predicted Big Ten Champion and National Title contender struggling in overtime against a vastly underwhelming Syracuse team. Yep, no Drew Tate was a big problem - please, God, let Drew heal rapidly. - Manson, Iowa's "backup" QB was a disaster throwing 4 interceptions and allowing that Syracuse squad to stick around. I want very badly to give Iowa the benefit of the doubt: untried backup QB + hostile, noisy, domed arena / a very green linebacking corp. and secondary = strife and struggle, but my faith in Iowa has been shaken to the core.
Iowa and Cap'n Kirk realized the meaningless of their lives upon sruggling with Syracuse.

Sunday Afternoon Update

Dude, I was protecting our rep!

Columbus, Ohio which has always in victory or defeat been the epitome of class and dignity is on fire following Ohio State's win in Austin, Texas against the University of Texas. Shocking news, just shocking!

In Columbus? We've got trouble with a capital 'T,' that stands for C, which stands for Couch, Burning.

Tressel: Man, I got my swag!

Well, last night was pretty awesome around these parts for Captain Rustbelt. After a difficult week of saying good-bye to one of the biggest tOSU fans he's ever known, THE Ohio State University took care of their business in a most professional fashion. The Buckeyes, for one week at least, answered all questions about their pre-season ranking as a consensus numero uno and the much doubted tOSU defense played incredibly well against an increasingly dangerous Texas offense. I don't want to gush too much about how good tOSU looked. BUT the defense after being hoodwinked by a crafty UT, option dominated running attack for the first quarter, settled down and clamped the fuck down on the 'Horns. McMcoy looked alright but couldn't seem to grasp the fundamental football concept of throwing the ball to your best receiver (Sweed, Limas) who, incidentally, was making tOSU's best cover man, Jenkins, Malcom, look pedestrian all night long. Time will tell the tale, but, UT's offense looked pretty jacked up for having an extra from 'Malcom in the Middle' under center. From what I can tell, the Longhorns O could be considered Tropical Storm Whup Ass and should be upgraded to Hurricane Whup Ass any week now.

The rest of the Big 12 would do well to steer clear of Hurricane Whup Ass.

Regarding the Bucks offense there really is not a whole lot to be said. Ninja receiver Anthony Gonzalez, who, heretofore, had been viewed as a "possession receiver" showed everyone why doubling up on Ginn is a Bad Idea. Ted showed why it's always a Bad Idea to let him anywhere near the ball, if you're the defense and you plan on winning the game. Pittman, was his usual hard running self, putting in the yeoman's load of carries against a savage Texas D Line. And then there was Troy Smith:

Troy: "Coach, that's the man, right over there." Tressel: "And what did he say to you, Troy?" Troy: "He said, I was a menace, and that I'm the reason why Teks don't come with holsters." Tressel: "Bastard."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mack Brown's psyche has gotta be all kinds of fucked up after losing his first game in a little under two years and without his Vince Young security blanket. Will Mack revert back to his pre 2005, "I'm gonna choke on every big game I stumble into" or will he lead the Burnt Orange Nation to the BCS (though doubtful Championship game) promised land?

Even with the OSU victory down in Austin all was not well in Big Ten country. No, thanks to losses by Northwestern, Illinois, Penn State and Minnesota the Big Ten's street cred is a little bit weaker than it was after last week; when The Conference went undefeated. Now, with Illinois I can understand the shutout @ Rutgers- I mean, if I'm the Zookster, I'm thrilled that everybody got on and off the bus and had their helmets on. But, seriously, Penn State, Northwestern and Minnesota I want to see all three of you after class.

Penn State @ Notre Dame: I was pretty surprised by the outcome of this one for two things. 1) I'm dumbfounded by the PSU's coaching staff inability to stop the bleeding. I mean, they shit the bed on a routine basis all game long-especially in the first half, when they had the chance to take ND's crowd out of it. 2) Quinnbot 5000 seems to have evolved out of his beta-version and is now a grown man Quinnbot 10000 with Mad Scientist Weiss pushing all the right buttons yesterday. I thought Quinn was gonna be a little rusty for the PSU game and I didn't even consider that PSU's D would be that suspect.

Brady Quinn: After Notre Dame's title run this season, he's planning on forgoing the NFL Draft and finding Sara Connor.