How Big Ten teams fared Saturday

Iowa looked as though it could do no wrong, and Syracuse looked like it couldn't do anything right.

Jake Christensen threw for 278 yards and four touchdowns Saturday night and Iowa held visiting Syracuse to five first downs, pounding the Orange 35-0.

The blowout at Iowa City was one highlight of a day that saw Big Ten teams run up a 10-1 record against non-conference opponents.

Penn State disposed of visiting Notre Dame 31-10; Indiana was a 37-27 winner at Western Michigan; Michigan State picked off Bowling Green 28-17 at East Lansing; Northwestern got past visiting Nevada 36-31; Ohio State smashed Akron 20-2 at Columbus; Purdue had a 52-6 home field triumph over Eastern Illinois; Wisconsin won 20-13 at Nevada-Las Vegas; Illinois shut out Western Illinois 21-0 at Champaign; and Minnesota eventually beat visiting Miami of Ohio 41-35 in three overtimes. The only Big Ten loser was Michigan, which fell 39-7 to invading Oregon.

Tony Moeaki had three TD catches and Kenny Iwebema blocked two field goals for Iowa (2-0), which handed Syracuse (0-2) its worst loss under third-year coach Greg Robinson. The Orange have lost their last three games by an average of 32 points, dating back to last year's 38-7 defeat against Rutgers.

The Hawkeyes led 28-0 by halftime, aided by the Orange's poor tackling and inability to move the football. Iowa, which held Syracuse to 103 yards total offense, has not allowed a touchdown through two games for the first time under coach Kirk Ferentz.

At State College, all the pregame talk was about Notre Dame freshman quarterback Jimmy Clausen, but Penn State's defense and Derrick Williams took the spotlight in the game itself.

The 14th-ranked Nittany Lions bottled up Clausen in his starting debut, Williams had a 78-yard punt return for a touchdown and Austin Scott ran for two second-half scores in Penn State's win,

Anthony Morelli threw for 131 yards and a touchdown, though Penn State's offense looked shaky much of the day.

The Irish were worse, in almost every way.

Notre Dame opened the season 0-2 for the first time since 2001, when the Irish lost their first three games.

At Kalamazoo, freshman Mitchell Evans intercepted the first two passes of his career and led an Indiana defense that forced five turnovers in Indiana's nighttime victory over Western Michigan.

The Hoosier defense also registered five sacks and recovered three fumbles.

Indiana defensive end Greg Middleton scored his first career touchdown on a 44-yard fumble return when Western Michigan quarterback Tim Hiller lost the ball while being sacked. The fumble was the second of five consecutive Western Michigan turnovers in the second and third quarters.

James Hardy caught two scoring passes for Indiana (2-0), and Austin Starr kicked a career-long 48-yard field goal.

Earlier, Brian Hoyer completed 17 of 29 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns as Michigan State held off Bowling Green.

The Spartans' Devin Thomas had four catches for 156 yards and a fourth-quarter TD.

Bowling Green (1-1), a Mid-American Conference team shooting for its second straight upset of a Big Ten opponent, faded in the second half against the more physical Spartans (2-0). Quarterback Tyler Sheehan completed 32 of 50 passes for 295 yards with a TD and ran for another score. Like Hoyer, he threw two interceptions.

At Evanston, C.J. Bacher threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to a diving Ross Lane with 21 seconds left to cap a frenzied six-play 80-yard drive as Northwestern rallied for its victory over Nevada.

Bacher set up the game-winning score with runs of 20 and 15 yards to the Nevada 13. He threw incomplete before firing the ball to Lane who went down for a scooping catch with Nevada's Devon Walker on top of him. The play was reviewed and the call on the field upheld.

It was a crushing loss for Nevada (0-2), which was coming off a 52-10 defeat at Nebraska a week earlier.

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel believes in the punt, but his 12th-ranked Buckeyes took it extremes when they forced befuddled Akron to punt 14 times, including after 12 consecutive three-and-out series.

Akron (1-1) managed just three first downs and 69 yards on offense -- gaining 3 net yards on 19 rushing attempts.

But the Buckeyes (2-0) turned the ball over five times and looked every bit as confused as the opposition did for much of the day.

Meanwhile, Purdue's Curtis Painter tied a school record with six touchdown passes as the Boilermakers overwhelmed Eastern Illinois 52-6.

Painter's output tied the record set by Drew Brees in 1998 and matched by Kyle Orton in 2004. Painter completed 38-of-49 passes for 348 yards.

Dorien Bryant caught 12 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown for the Boilermakers (2-0).

Later, Wisconsin needed some good fortune to get out of Sin City with a win.

Tyler Donovan scored on a 29-yard boot leg with 1:53 to play and the fifth-ranked Badgers held on for victory over UNLV Saturday night.

UNLV, a four touchdown underdog, took a 13-12 midway through the fourth on a 35 yard field goal from Sergio Aguayo.

But Donovan, the senior who won the starting job in summer practice, led the Badgers (2-0) on a 10-play, 61 yard drive to avoid the upset. He outraced a pair of tacklers and dove into the end zone at the pylon.

At Champaign, Rashard Mendenhall rushed for 139 yards and Illinois pulled away in the second half for its shutout of Western Illinois.

Western Illinois held the Illini (1-1) to a scoreless draw in the first quarter and trailed just 7-0 at the half.

The Leathernecks (1-1) came into the game ranked No. 23 in the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly I-AA.

In the matchup at Minneapolis, Amir Pinnix rushed for 126 yards and his 2-yard touchdown in the third overtime lifted Minnesota victory over Miami of Ohio.

Pinnix's effort gave coach Tim Brewster his first win and helped the Gophers (1-1) avoid what would have been an embarrassing collapse.

For Michigan, it was embarrassment again -- just in a different way.

A week after being upset by Appalachian State, the Wolverines were handed their most-lopsided loss in 39 years as Dennis Dixon and the Oregon Ducks tromped all over them. Dixon accounted for 368 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.

Michigan (0-2) has opened a season with two straight losses at home for the first time since 1959 and has dropped four straight, dating to last season, for the first time in four decades.

Unlike the stunning loss to the second-tier Mountaineers, the Wolverines didn't even keep it close against Oregon.

Here's how that post looked to me:

Woooo hoooo 3 and 3 so far. That's like freaking amazing.

Go Cats!