Big Ten football power rankings, Week 11: A new top team?

Northwestern came into their game with Ohio State and led by a touchdown for a large chunk of the first half. The Wildcats controlled the clock for over 36 minutes but could only manage one touchdown and they ultimately fell to Ohio State 21-7. A valiant effort against a top team but not good enough.

Will Northwestern be able to avoid losing 11 straight games? Time will tell and they travel to Minnesota this Saturday in attempting again to break the losing streak.

Indiana was pummeled by Penn State and fell to the Nittany Lions 45-14, taking their sixth straight loss. The Hoosiers looked like they could hang for a while, as quarterback Jack Tuttle got his first start and successfully drove the offense 75 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. But he was knocked out of the game due to injury and Indiana never recovered.

What looked like a promising season in September has turned into a disaster by November. A bowl game is the longest of shots now and the Hoosiers travel to Columbus next, likely putting the final nail in their coffin.

If only games were 30 minutes long, Rutgers would have pulled off the biggest upset of the weekend if not the season so far. The Scarlet Knights led Michigan 17-14 at the halftime break. But that’s where the good times ended for Rutgers and the Wolverines scored 38 unanswered points in the second half to run away with it.

It got away from the Scarlet Knights quickly in the second half with three drives ending in interceptions, one of them returned for a touchdown. Rutgers is in the midst of a really tough back end of their schedule. They need two wins in their last three to make a bowl game with a road trip to East Lansing up next.