Mike: So…. what are you NOT doing Saturday afternoon to accommodate a nap for Fox’s Up All Night extravaganza?
Jarek: I will be trying to take a longer nap instead of a shorter one…sleeping through some SEC games sounds like fun.
Andy: Not napping? Probably finding a parking place and a Eugene sports bar to take in some games before heading over.
Ohio State (-3) at Indiana
Mike: Two things can both be true: I think Ohio State is a better team than Indiana, but never bet against Curt Cignetti. Hoosiers 37, Buckeyes 35
Jarek: Usually, a good team like Indiana won’t play two games in a row where they look terrible. Indiana is a good team, and it won’t look terrible this week. Having said that, Ohio State I think is just a step above, even if it’s just a half step. Just “Sayin”… Ohio State 34 Indiana 30
Andy: Huskers fans are watching this one close, because if Ohio State runs the Hoosiers out of the stadium in Bloomington, then “Nebraska can play with top teams!” talk goes away quickly. However, Indiana isn’t going away. They may not win, but this will be close. Ohio St. 20 Indiana 17 (Hey, it’s a popular score these days)
Jon: I think the Buckeyes are probably one of the best three top teams in the nation. And the only thing to keep this game close is Ryan Day’s need to screw around on the field and not put teams away like Texas. If he does that against Indiana, they’ll come back to bite him. If he doesn’t, the Buckeyes should destroy Indiana. Ohio State 35, Indiana 17
Northwestern (-7) at Michigan State
Mike: Grudge match! I don’t care that Northwestern hasn’t looked that bad this season. Not when Pat Fitzgerald is going to have a point to make in this game. Sparty 24, Fitz’s Alma Mater 21
Jarek: Northwestern is ranked! It shouldn’t be, because we have one more win than they do and our loss to Indiana was closer than there’s was…but I digress. Fitz might have a bone to pick against the team that fired him, but this also isn’t the team he had when he was fired. It’s better than when he left it. Sparty keeps it within the margin, but not enough to win. Northwestern 24 Michigan State 20
Andy: The mere presence of Pat Fitzgerald doesn’t appear to be changing much for the Spartans. For all the people that gush his praises, this is still the guy that went 1-11 in his final season at Northwestern, after which the perverted shenanigans under his watch were exposed. The current Wildcat squad is miles better than the one he left David Braun. Northwestern 33 Sparty 17
Jon: Chip Kelly is one of the Funnest things to happen in football this year. It’s a game to watch just because of the Northwestern offense. Northwestern 31, Sparty 21
Penn State (+5.5) at Michigan
Mike: THIS is the matchup that bumped the Huskers and Ducks to Saturday Night Live? C’mon man. Two struggling name brands shouldn’t get the premiere time slot. Penn State is poised to bounce back this week. Nitts 28, Weasels 23
Jarek: Ah yes, the Iowa State Nittany Lions against the 2-3 (yeah I said it) cheating bastards. I wonder if Michigan is severely questioning why it gave Bryce Underwood so much NIL money to UNDER perform on a weekly basis. Offense wins games, defense wins championships. Penn State’s defense isn’t good, but Michigan’s offense is worse. Penn State 30 Michigan 17
Andy: A blue-blood false-flag match-up and proof-positive that the Big 10 protects its favorite children no matter how horrid they are or how bad they misbehave. We have 1) the creeps of Penn State who had their own Epstein files years ahead of today’s vs. 2) the cheaters of Michigan whose offenses struggle to break 20 ever since the banishment of their Connor-weasel playing in the CBS prime-time 2:30 match-up Saturday. They must both be Top 10, right??? Try a combined 0-5 in Big 10 play thus far. Scintillating stuff. Final score? Who cares?
Jon: This game is shit and nobody should be watching it. Who the fuck cares? Penn State 10, Michigan 10
Wisconsin (+2.5) at UCLA
Mike: Gotta believe that Nico’s injury took ten points off of this point spread. I’m sticking with UCLA winning handily. Bruins 34, Badgers 20
Jarek: Nico being done for the year destroyed UCLA’s chances at making the playoffs this year. I know the Bruins’ schedule is softer than triple ply Charmin, but UCLA’s offensive was straight up ineffective after Nico left that game. If the Ducks didn’t turn the ball over one less time than we did against Iowa State in ‘09, Ducks probably win. I’m taking the upset here. Wisconsin 20 UCLA 17
Andy: This would be a far better watch for CBS 2:30 as well. Unlike the Nittaninnies and the Weasels, both already eliminated from playoff consideration, the winner of this match-up will be fully on CFP watch, a season before games like this become fairly meaningless with a 24-team CFP field that college football fans are very much against as a group. UCLA takes another close one. Bruins 23 Wisco 20
Jon: Does Wisconsin have any players on their team that stand out? I can’t think of one. This is the kind of crapshoot game that happens every week in the Big Ten, Wisconsin 17, UCLA 13
B1G After Dark
Nebraska (+7) at Oregon
Mike: The Huskers let a signature win slip out of their grasp last weekend, and are paying the price for it with a #B1GafterDark game. The Huskers should be pissed off…and are facing a team that’s not quite sure what they are doing. And if Oregon gives Dylan Raiola another start… bar the door. Huskers 31, Duckies 23
Jarek: I don’t think Raiola starts for two reasons. One, he absolutely sucked something awful last week. Two, we have massive amounts of scouting reports and film on him. We don’t have any of that with their 3rd string QB. This is still a Ducks team that has a tremendous amount of talent, but since we can see with our eyes that this Nebraska team is better than previous iterations, I don’t think there is a “big game hangover” from us. Ain’t no party like a West Coast party cause a West Coast party don’t stop. Nebraska 31 Oregon 24
Andy: Raiola is being benched for a walk-on 3rd stringer after a performance against UCLA which was far worse than anything he did in Lincoln, despite having so much more talent around him in Oregon. Things are so bad at QB right now that Dan lanning was trying to tease 4th-string Duck QB legacy Akili Smith (insert some Roman numerals here) as a possibility to see time Saturday.
The game? Everything seems to point toward the Huskers having a great chance to pull an upset, but, while I love our roster and the fact they went toe-to-toe with Indiana and actually won the line battles, last week’s 4th quarter breakdowns are keeping me in show-cause mode as i was in last week’s picks. The Huskers have covered every game this season and they will do so again on the road in tough Autzen Stadium…but will come up just short again. (Please prove me wrong.) Oregon 20 HUSKERS 17
Jon: Watching Oregon football this year it seems that they have a “maybe I will, probably I won’t” problem. Watching them against Oklahoma State, they walked around the field like they didn’t care, and by the time they thought they were going to lose, they still didn’t care. Nebraska gets on top of them early and I believe they’ll fold. The key is whether Matt Rule, having channeled his stupid-ass NFL career, will try to walk around the field with a two-score lead, letting any other team that’s decent catch up with him. Nebraska 35, Oregon 24