A full rundown of league action from week 5, Big Ten Tiers for the season so far and a look ahead including spreads for week 6 including Rutgers at Nebraska.
Linebacker play has been sub par. Maybe due to injuries but starters are not hitting their catching. They been in wrong gaps but sometimes you find wrong gaps to avoid contact. Same applies to a lesser extent the safeties. Saw it second half of Va tech game and then almost entire Washington game. Maybe young linebackers are not big enough yet and injuries. Djabome has been ok. Washington got 500 yards on runs and yac. That's tackling / linebackers set tone, Nebraska / Wisconsin and Illinois are big teams. They like to run through you. I have feeling if they drop Nebraska game , they drop Wisconsin. Passing game is starting to show signs #9 may become that red zone target. Need to start getting 200 in air every week to go where we want too. Starting to be less concerned about O and more concerned about D. Feel we are going to need 35 to beat Nebraska.
PSU fan here. I always pull for Rutgers, except when playing PSU. I'm starting to feel like they are putting together a good team and are fun to watch. I think Illinois, Rutgers, and Indiana will be the big spoilers this year and upset some teams who are not used to being challenge by these programs. Big Ten is changing for the better.
Need to concentrate more on stopping the run and less on getting sacks. Blitz if we have to to get pressure when needed. More important to plug the running holes and stop the big chunk running plays.