FanHouse Daniel Murray

We finally figured out what sort of misfortune Iowa's Cardiac Kids couldn't survive. They couldn't survive losing Ricky Stanzi. As a result, No. 8 Iowa fell to unranked Northwestern on Saturday, 17-10.

The junior quarterback left just before halftime after Northwestern's Corey Wootton tackled him in the end zone. Stanzi sprained his right ankle and fumbled the ball. As Northwestern's Marshall Thomas recovered the fumble for a touchdown, Stanzi remained on the Kinnick Stadium turf. He would walk off the field on his own power, but Stanzi would not return to the game. Neither would Iowa's offense.

Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten previews the weekend's action, settling the scores before the scores are settled.

Penn State has declared that Saturday night's game with Iowa will be a "whiteout" game. That distinction is usually reserved for games of the utmost importance, and if you don't know why this game is so important to the Nittany Lions, you must not remember what happened last year in Iowa City. A Daniel Murray field goal put the Hawkeyes on top and ended any hopes Penn State had of getting blown out by Florida playing in the BCS National Championship Game. It's time for revenge.

Penn State, however, is not the only Big Ten team with a little revenge on its mind this weekend.

It didn't even take him a half. In the third quarter, Iowa's Shonn Greene has 134 yards on 18 carries, meaning no one has held him under 100 yards this season. Turnovers, penalties, and special teams woes have kept Purdue in the game, however. The Hawkeyes have missed two PATs, fumbled once, and have committed two drive-sustaining defensive penalties.

Purdue's Curtis Painter lived up to some of his preseason hype right before halftime, leading the Boilermakers on a quick hurry-up drive which ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Desmond Tardy. Iowa's Daniel Murray, hero of last week's game, added a 45-yard field goal early in the third quarter.

Greene isn't close to the all-time record of consecutive 100-yard games. That belongs to Ohio State's Archie Griffin, who had 31 in a row from September 1973 to November 1975. Greene only has one year of elegibility remaining, so he can't catch Griffin if he decides to return for his senior season. He can tie the NCAA record of 12 100-yard games in one season, currently held by Oklahoma's Quentin Griffin and Chadron State's Danny Woodhead.

Greene won't get any Heisman love, because as we all know, college football's most outstanding player is always on a team in the national title hunt.

UPDATE: Greene finished with 30 carries for 209 yards and 2 touchdowns in Iowa's 22-17 victory.

His name is Daniel Murray, and he didn't just kick the field goal that put Iowa over Penn State, 24-23. He also kicked a hole in the national title picture. Thus, the young man is not merely the toast of Iowa City tonight; they're raising a glass to him in Gainesville, Los Angeles, Austin, Norman, and Stillwater.

Or at least they'd better be.

While some fans out there think the conference's official name is The Big Ten Is Overrated, face the facts: An undefeated Penn State team was going to the national title ahead of any one-loss team from the SEC or Big 12. You don't have to think such a thing would be fair. You just need to accept that it was the truth. The voters weren't going to deny Joe Paterno another shot at the national title after he'd been shut out so many times before with teams just as undefeated as this team is. WAS. Sorry.

I tried to warn you. I told you on Thursday not to assume that Iowa would lose. I made my case for why Iowa, and not Michigan State, was the team on Penn State's schedule with the best chance to beat them.