Big Ten Power Rankings Week 8: Purdue and Maryland Rise, Northwestern Falls
Saturday Blitz Big Ten Power Rankings Week 8
Go ahead. Call us crazy. Call us bias. Say whatever you want. But this is clearly a Purdue team that is much better than the one that lost to Central Michigan, and we have decided to take notice of that. After that loss, the losses for Darrell Hazell’s team have come to Notre Dame, Iowa, Michigan State, and Minnesota. None of those three Big Ten teams are below them on this list, so we think we got it right putting them here.
The Boilermakers are starting to play Hazell’s ball-control, conservative style very well. The only problem is that they don’t have the greatest defense to do that, so while it’s keeping them in games, it’s not allowing them to come away with wins. Still, they are keeping it close against very good teams with that style, and coming up are a few games they could steal.
Wisconsin and Northwestern are both home games, and Indiana is a road game that they could easily win. They may not win all three of those games, they may not win any of those games, but this is a much improved team that now has a crazy, outside chance at a bowl.
We believe they are good enough for a couple of wins, which is why we bumped them up.