There was a lot of bad and hard-to-watch football over the weekend. USC played a bad game against Utah, but the Big Ten served up a number of noticeably clunky and clumsy games as well.
Iowa managed just two yards in the second half of a 12-10 loss to Minnesota.
Nebraska beat Northwestern 17-9 in a game with very little offense.
Even the big game of the day in the Big Ten, Penn State-Ohio State, was a 60-minute struggle for both teams. Ohio State beat Penn State but scored only 20 points and was bailed out by a Penn State penalty which denied the Nittany Lions a scoop-and-score defensive touchdown. As is, Penn State didn’t score a single touchdown.
The football was so bad in the Big Ten that it underscored one point: Any team with an elite offensive line and quality skill position players is in a position to thrive in the conference.
USC could be that team, but the Trojans aren’t getting anything close to the level of line play they need to win in the Big Ten.
Let’s look at the past weekend in the Big Ten and how much the fans suffered through these hard-to-watch games in the conference: