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Dave Revsine's Bio: Our lead studio host crunches the numbers during football and basketball season. Got a question for Dave? Maybe a stat that caught your eye? Submit a comment below or e-mail Dave on the right. |
| Sep 23 2009, 4:02 PM | Topic: College football |
| Time for conference play, and it starts out with some intrigue, as four of the five remaining undefeated teams in the Big Ten go head to head this weekend. While several of the unbeatens were expected to be perfect at this point (Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin), I'd consider both Indiana and Michigan to be fairly significant surprises. I know the Hoosiers haven't really beaten anyone, but I still thought they'd likely stumble against either Western Michigan or Akron. As for the Wolverines, their win over Notre Dame was clearly the biggest surprise of the season so far in the conference. So, it sets up a battle of the unblemished in Ann Arbor Saturday, and history is decidedly against the Hoosiers as they look to start 4-0 for the first time since 1990. September 11, 2004: Indiana last beat a ranked team on the road on September 11, 2004, when they knocked off Oregon 30-24 in Eugene. As is the case with many great historical debates, there is no real consensus here, but many students of the "DiNardo Era" in Indiana football believe this to be the most significant win of that period. This number doesn't necessarily have the "wow factor" of numbers I typically bring up in this space, but I'm really mentioning it as more of an olive branch after I delivered an on-air low-blow to the coach during Saturday's pre-game show. I feel really bad about it. But, seriously, who in their right mind would argue that the fourth quarter "isn't the most important quarter" of a football game? The man never ceases to baffle me. Speaking of the fourth quarter, it's one of several stats that points out just how much better the Hoosiers have played this year than they did last year. 17: IU has scored 17 fourth-quarter points in its first three games, equaling last seasons' 12-game total. The Hoosiers have outscored their opponents 17-16 in the final period after getting outscored by a staggering 95-17 in the fourth last year. 4: The Hoosiers had four interceptions in last week's win over Akron. They had just six as a team all of last season. While there are some positive signs for IU, long-term history still favors the Wolverines in a big way: 15: Indiana has lost 15 games in a row in Ann Arbor. They last won there in 1967, which was also the last time they made it to the Rose Bowl. Of course, it's not just Indiana that historically has a hard time beating the Wolverines. We are talking about the winningest program in college football history, after all. It's a program that has an amazing tendency to get things off on the right foot. 39 of 41: Michigan has won 39 of its last 41 conference openers. Their only losses in that span came against Wisconsin in 1981 and 2005. And, after taking a year "off," the Wolverines of '09 are looking more and more like the Wolverines of old. 380: Michigan's 380 rushing yards last week were the most they've accumulated in a game since picking up 392 in a 50-3 rout of Houston. While the Wolverines have flourished in the run game, their in-state rivals have stumbled a bit. Michigan State has put up just 207 combined rushing yards over the last two weeks in losses to Central Michigan and Notre Dame. Part of that is due to the fact that they have yet to find a true "lead" back. 145, 126: Michigan State's leading rusher, Caulton Ray, has totaled 145 yards on the ground in the Spartans' first three games. In contrast, Javon Ringer averaged 126 yards per game last season. While the team numbers have been far better, Michigan State's opponent this week is also struggling to find a clear-cut number one running back: 3 in 12: In his first career start last week, Wisconsin's John Clay fumbled three times in 12 carries. In contrast, Clay coughed it up just four times in 155 carries last season. Wisconsin was fortunate enough to survive those mistakes last week (playing Wofford helps in that regard), but the same cannot be said of Purdue and its miscues, which are a big part of the reason the Boilers are (1-2). 9: The Boilers have turned the ball over nine times in three games, with a perfectly symmetrical three in every game. Those nine turnovers are the most in the Big Ten. In addition to the turnovers, Purdue continues to have the same issue it has for several years now – stopping the run. 280: The Boilers allowed 280 rushing yards against Northern Illinois. The Huskies held the ball for a staggering 41 minutes and 40 seconds. If they couldn't stop the Huskies, one wonders how the Boilers will slow down Notre Dame this week: 1: Notre Dame is the one and only team in the nation that has a rusher, receiver and quarterback in the Top 20 nationally in yards per game. They actually have two receivers in the Top 20, although Michael Floyd won't play in the game due to the broken collarbone he suffered last week in the win over Michigan State. Minnesota's Eric Decker is third on that list of receiving yards per game, but, by at least one measure, no receiver in America is more valuable to his team. 59.3 %: Decker has accounted for 59.3 percent of his team's receiving yards, the highest percentage for any receiver in the nation who doesn't play on an option team (the two guys ahead of him are on Georgia Tech and Army). Decker figures to cause some major headaches for a Northwestern team that was dreadful defensively last week against Syracuse. 471, 457: NU got shredded for 471 total yards by a Syracuse team that had gained a total of 457 yards in its first two games and came in 111th in the nation in total offense. While the 'Cats are struggling defensively, their rivals from Champaign are having troubles on offense. 16.6: The Illini are averaging just 16.6 points per game in their last six games against I-A opponents. This does not bode well against a Buckeyes team that continues to play very well defensively. 624-210: The Buckeyes held a Toledo team that went for 624 yards against Colorado the week before to just 210 yards last week. No great revelation here, but the issue for the Buckeyes continues to be the offense. It looked good against Toledo last week, but, keep in mind, this is a Toledo team that had given up an average of 45 points per game coming in. Still, Terrelle Pryor's performance was encouraging. 372: Pryor threw for 262 yards, and, more importantly, ran for 110 against Toledo. That 372 total yards is a career high. Especially without a clear-cut every down back, Pryor will have to run it effectively for the Buckeyes to have success going forward. Pryor and the Buckeyes did not respond well to their first major challenge – the loss to USC - causing many to downgrade them in the conference championship race. The truth of the matter is, though, we don't know how good the other major challenger for the conference crown is either, as they have yet to face a true challenge themselves. 90-20: Penn State has outscored its first three opponents 90-20. The Nittany Lions will get their challenge this week against Iowa and a particularly stingy Hawkeyes defense. 25: Iowa has gone 25 straight quarters without allowing a rushing touchdown – that's more than six games dating back to last season. The issues with Iowa are on offense, but they have been far better the last couple of weeks after a very shaky season opener: 3-12, 18-32: After going just 3 of 12 on third down in their narrow season-opening win over Northern Iowa, the Hawks converted 18 of their 32 third down chances in the more convincing wins over Iowa State and Arizona. That Iowa game is among the six games we'll be focusing on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET on the Auto Owners Insurance Pre-Game show. Glen Mason joins the fun in studio – we hope you'll be there as well. |
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