Week 3: Midwest Monday

By Kyle Magin

Many teams go into reputation-establishing battle Saturday.

Only a few can come out. In the land of meat and potatoes, Michigan State welcomes Notre Dame into Spartan Stadium, while Cal takes its wildly inconsistent defense into Ohio State. Then, Wisconsin, the poor, hapless Badgers, welcome in Utah State in what's sure to be a total pillow fight throwdown. Wisconsin is looking to find out if last week's loss to Oregon State was just a fluke or if this is going to be a long season at Camp Randall, while Ohio State takes a shot at a high-powered out-of-conference foe and ND goes to MSU to try to extend its winning streak to two games. Let's take a look at the matchups.

Notre Dame @ Michigan State -4
The Irish had problems at home against Purdue last week, barely scraping by as the offense struggled to gain ground with the rushing attack and had to lean on a suspect pass game to get by. That'll be a problem against the Spartans, who are holding opposing passing games to less than a 48 percent completion percentage and 200 yards per game. Opposing rushing attacks aren't doing any better against the Spartan D. The Irish have been strong against opposing pass offenses, which bodes poorly for MSU's attack, led by the still-inexperienced QB Andrew Maxwell. Still, as stated earlier, this is a special Spartan Defense.

Cal @ Ohio State -18
In Cal's one game against a competitive team this season—a 31-24 loss to Nevada—it gave up 9.2 yards per completion, something you can bet tOSU coach Urban Meyer is taking note of. If Braxton Miller can force Cal into man to man pass coverage with his legs—a tall order given Cal's fairly strong defense against the run—he'll open up room for a few bombs and it'll be a long day for the boys from Berkeley. Cal QB Zach Maynard has run hot and cold but got very hot last week against Southern Utah, and is averaging north of 13 yards per completion. OSU is strong in the 'Shoe, though.

Utah State @ Wisconsin -14
Utah State appears to actually have a really good defense—holding opponents to 11.5 points per game. Quarterback Chuckie Keeton is completing passes at a 77 percent rate—throwing for nearly 12 yards with every completion while his rushing attack averages a little better than 5 yards per carry. Wisconsin cannot get its offense going, struggling mightily in the rushing game with Montee Ball having a difficult time getting his season going. If Ball and Co. can't buy QB Danny O'Brien more time in the passing game, it'll be a tall order for the Badgers to keep up with Keeton and the Aggies.