Michigan St., Ohio St., Nebraska Still Top Big Ten Power Rankings Week 7
Saturday Blitz Big Ten Power Rankings Week 7
Perhaps we should have dropped Penn State below Michigan after losing to them, but it was on the road, and 4-2 is still better than 3-4. So for right now, we are going to say the Nittany Lions are a bit better and managed to blow the game. But they’re still looking like a fraud from that 4-0 start. The luck for Penn State after those four games is now crashing down on them, and this is the result: bad football.
Christian Hackenberg had been plagued all year by racking up yards throwing the football and not finishing drives. But now, he’s not even racking up yards. He only had 160 against Michigan, and if Penn State can’t throw the football, they can’t win games. That’s this team’s bread and butter because it has absolutely no running game. The defense is clearly great, giving up only 15 points per game, but if the offense can’t throw the ball, then it won’t be even good enough to take advantage of what the defense spots it.
In short, things have to be corrected by Franklin this bye week on offense, because after that Ohio State and Maryland are up. And Michigan State is the last game of the year. Going 8-4 is the likely outcome for this team, but it could easily fall to 7-5 or 6-6 with the way it has played recently.
And playing that way puts them at No. 10 in our Big Ten Power Rankings.