Whose the favorite to win the West?

Who will win the West?

  • Illinois

    Votes: 36 70.6%

  • Purdue

    Votes: 7 13.7%

  • Gophers

    Votes: 2 3.9%

  • Field

    Votes: 6 11.8%
  • Total voters
    51
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Otis

Otis

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It’s gotta be Purdue and Illinois off the top, so let’s look at their schedules.

Illinois
@ Nebraska
Michigan State
Purdue
@Michigan
@ Northwestern

I see them being favored in all the games except Michigan if healthy. Only real hard games other than Michigan would be Purdue and maybe Nebby. Odds are they go 4-1 maybe 3-2.

Pudue
@ Wisconsin
Iowa
@ Illinois
Northwestern
@ Indiana

They will be favored in all but the Illinois game but I could easily see them losing to Whisky, Iowa, Indiana or Illinois. They have harder overall schedule but have no sure fire assumed loss like a Michigan or OSU. They could win out or go 2-3 easily. Hard to predict for these guys.

Minnesota
@ Penn State
Rutgers
@Nebraska
Northwestern
Iowa
@ Wisconsin

If we can win this weekend, we could easily win out if our O and D regain their MSU form. Would need two losses from these other guys to win the West. On the good side, we have already been humbled and PJ teams usually get better at the end. Here’s hoping!
 

Illinois is the better team. They can lose to Michigan, beat Purdue, and win the division on tiebreakers.

Purdue is not beating both Wisconsin and Iowa, so that even gives Illinois room to slip up somewhere else.

Illinois is on the front foot.

Let's assume Illinois beats Purdue (because they will). Illinois needs to slip up to MSU or Nebraska for us to enter the picture. But that all hinges on us beating Penn State and then winning the final 5 too which would mean finding the 2019 magic again with dollar store receivers and an o-line that can't pass block.
 
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Otis said:
Purdue


They will be favored in all but the Illinois game but I could easily see them losing to Whisky, Iowa, Indiana or Illinois. They have harder overall schedule but have no sure fire assumed loss like a Michigan or OSU. They could win out or go 2-3 easily. Hard to predict for these guys.
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Purdue is currently a dog at Wisconsin.
 

Illinois is maybe the favorite.
I would pick Purdue.

If Minnesota beats penn state this weekend I think they end up winning the west. Don’t trust anyone including the gophers
 

Purdue at Illinois will decide the West.

Advantage home team.
 



Live in the now said:
I was a little surprised by that also.
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Same here. From what I've seen, other than Northwestern (which is more like a Big 10 JV team), WI has looked bad.

From what I've seen of Illinois and the other teams, in my opinion Illinois is the team to beat in the west and will get taken to the woodshed by Ohio State.
 

scools12 said:
Purdue at Illinois will decide the West.

Advantage home team.
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Not that I would ever hope for a WI win, but if Purdue and Illinois both lose this week, and Minnesota wins, the next 5 weeks will be really interesting again.
 

JayBobDobbins said:
Same here. From what I've seen, other than Northwestern (which is more like a Big 10 JV team), WI has looked bad.

From what I've seen of Illinois and the other teams, in my opinion Illinois is the team to beat in the west and will get taken to the woodshed by Ohio State.
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Totally Agree
 



Live in the now said:
I was a little surprised by that also.
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WI is down seven starters and I agree that I would take the points and Purdue.
If WI cannot generate a pass rush Purdue will pick apart WI's inexperienced secondary.
If WI does not open up their offense with B Allen as their only effective RB Purdue will win going away.
 

Some guy said:
Illinois is maybe the favorite.
I would pick Purdue.

If Minnesota beats penn state this weekend I think they end up winning the west. Don’t trust anyone including the gophers
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Based on playing both teams head-to-head, I can't see how you pick Purdue over Illinois.

They had that one weird loss to IU early, they could've still easily pulled that out, but it was a fluke. I think ILL will roll them in their rivalry game. We'll see!

Watch, they beat Purdue and then overlook and lose to NW. :LOL:
 

I think what Illinois is ... is this year's Michigan State from last year.

Everything: transfers, developed players, coaches, scheme, injuries, etc., is just a perfect storm of good and coming together. Win 10 regular season games in year 2.

Don't think they'll beat Michigan, but should beat everyone else. Flukey loss to IU early. Lose in Indy to Mich or OSU. Major bowl game vs SEC, maybe someone like Ole Miss, hopefully they win.

Then major regression next year.
 




Gophers_4life said:
Based on playing both teams head-to-head, I can't see how you pick Purdue over Illinois.

They had that one weird loss to IU early, they could've still easily pulled that out, but it was a fluke. I think ILL will roll them in their rivalry game. We'll see!

Watch, they beat Purdue and then overlook and lose to NW. :LOL:
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They both can lose to anyone. I think Purdue has fewer teams on the schedule capable of making winning plays.

I think Nebraska more likely to beat Illinois than Iowa is to beat Purdue for instance


I also think that Illinois has a great defense but that the best offense they played this year was Indiana. They gave up 300 yards passing and lost the game.
Purdue will be able to throw the ball on Illinois.

Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota are good teams but not good passing offenses
 

Interesting point on passing offense. We were able to hold Purdue to no passing TD’s, which hadn’t happened since 2018?

We’ll see!
 

as a general rule of thumb, I think defense is easier to sustain than offense.

with that in mind, I like Illinois' chance of winning the West. Their defense will keep them in games. They have the running attack with Brown to play time of possession, and enough of a passing game with DeVito and Williams to complement the running attack.

there are no perfect teams in the West, but I think Illinois has the fewest obvious flaws.

as always, injuries can change everything.
 


Illinois would be IMO after the wringer they just put us through. Their QB looked good and if he continues that with their defense and Chase Brown, they are a solid team tough for anyone in the West to beat. I even think they will give Michigan a tough time.
 

Some guy said:
I still think Minnesota defense is really good.
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What about Illinois defense?

I disagree that IU is a valid data point to consider on its own for predicting game outcomes at this point going forward.

But we’ll see
 



Gophers_4life said:
What about Illinois defense?

I disagree that IU is a valid data point to consider on its own for predicting game outcomes at this point going forward.

But we’ll see
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Illinois defense is really good right now.
They aren’t as good against the pass as they are against the run.
The gophers shows good run teams can run on them.
Indiana shows medium teams can pass on them.

“If you wanna crown em, crown their ass”
-Dennis green
 

OK. I will! :cool:

The thread asks who we think will win the West, based on results through last weekend.

I say ILL is stronger than Purdue, and I don't think ILL will lose another game this regular season other than Michigan.
 

Purdue and Illinois will be favored in their respective rivalry games, but those games on the last weekend especially on the road will not be easy. I could see Indiana or Northwestern (although less likely) potentially pulling off an upset.
 

Looks like several teams may have three losses, but we lost the head-to-head with two of the most likely, IL and Purdue, so our chances are meager, given we face at least four teams that could or might beat us: Penn St, Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin. Nebraska is improving under Mickey Joseph and gets us at home with strong motivation against us; likewise, Wisconsin will be saying goodbye, maybe, to a coaching staff and will be up to win the finale at home. We are 94th in passing nationally, which doesn't bode well.
 


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