What was up with the close games?!

I'm sure you all have noticed, but all the games in the Big Ten this weekend were unbelievably close games.  ALL of them.

Let's start with Iowa/Illinois.  You all know what happened and it's just depressing thinking about it.  We were lucky to tie it up with just less than three minutes left but the field goal with 24 seconds left was ridiculous.   Our defense fell apart and let Juice run all over us.  Illinois just downright shut us down the whole game until the fourth quarter.  But seriously how frustrating--why was it nearly impossible for our O-line to cover Stanzi??  I mean six sacks in one game is just embarrassing.  It's pathetic.  Repulsive.  UGH.  They have been impressives lately but that was thrown out the window on Saturday.  Anyway...we lost in the last 24 seconds.  

Earlier in the day, Wisconsin (yet again) let their should-be victory slip away in the fourth quarter.  Bret Bielema has no sense of time management.  Where was the timeout before the final field goal kick?  Where was his time management the whole game?  Where is his time management ever?  He's losing more and more fans every week.  Well, they too lost the game in the final minute--with 7 seconds remaining.  And again to a field goal.  Final score: 25-24 Michigan State.  

 

Now the Minnesota game, it was just poor and sloppy play by the Gophers at the end.  They missed a crucial 3rd quarter 20-yard field attempt that would have put them up 20-17 over Northwestern.  But the final play with the interception and 48-yard run to score with only 12 seconds left was sick.  Brendan Smith ran past seven different defenders, but you have to give a lot of the credit to his teammates.  They blocked every defender to clear the way through the endzone.  But again, a loss in the last minute...this time with 12 seconds to go.

Michigan/Purdue game was the same situation.  Michigan scored with 1:20 to go to tie it up at 42 all.  Then Purdue had a 28-yard pass with 26 seconds to go.  Michigan fell to 2-7 and it will be the first time in 33 years they will not make it to a bowl game.  This will also be their first losing season in 40 years.   The funny thing: Purdue's QB (Justin Siller) is their third-string and has been playing at running back most of the season.  On Saturday he threw for 266 years and three TD's.  

And then there's Central Michigan and Indiana.  I wasn't too entertained with this game but I'll still touch on it.  At the end of the 3rd quarter Indiana was up 34-28.  But then in the 4th, CMU had a field goal and then with a little under 9 minutes, CMU score again to go up 37-34.  Again, a Big Ten team loses it in the 4th quarter.  

Obviously the best game was the Texas Tech/Texas game.  AMAZING. I was freaking out.