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After the 1st Quarter of the 2018 Season...

DaCat

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May 29, 2001
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...Cats are 1-2, with 9 more regular season games left. Fitz likes to talk about the season in quarters, so with one quarter finished, things are looking a little gloomy. Luckily we are still 1-0 in the B1G.

Q1: 1 win, 2 losses
Q2: Mich, @ MSU, Neb
Q3: @ Rutgers, Wiskey, N*D*
Q4: @ Io_a, @ Minny, LOLinois

First quarter report card:

QB: D / To be brutally honest, Thorson mistakes led to 3 Akron TDs.
RB: B
WR: C / Nagel - great game vs. Duke otherwise invisible
SB: A
OL: D

DL: B
LB: C
CB: C
S: C

Special Teams: B

HC: C
OC: D
DC: B

Fans: B / Decent turnouts vs. Duke & Akron, still demand MOAR!

Prediction:
Q2: 2-1
Q3: 2-1
Q4: 3-0
 
I sincerely hope you are correct, but after the past two games I regret to say that I think your predictions are overly optimistic.
 
Unless I'm mistaken, the starting QB led a first series TD drive two of those games and had NU in the lead in all three.....

I don't disagree, but Thorson needs to play better, and I think he will. I also think TJ has done well as a backup given how difficult it is to play a few snaps at a time.
 
Seriously, you need to drastically cut back on your repetitive posts about Green. You have said it many many times and it has already become extremely annoying. You have been allowed to make your point. Enough is enough , Seriously
Insert "Alviti" and we will have Wrassler posts from yesteryear. ;)
 
but Thorson needs to play better, and I think he will..
I agree. The issue hasn't been who starts, NU has been good early. The issue is once things settle in NU has gone cold. And Green has done as well as you could expect for a back-up.
 
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I agree. The issue hasn't been who starts, NU has been good early. The issue is once things settle in NU has gone cold.

I think this is on the play-calling. Of course the execution needs to be better, too, but it seems our plays are fairly predictable. We aren't like Wiskey, where many times the defense knows what is coming but can't stop it anyway.
 
I sincerely hope you are correct, but after the past two games I regret to say that I think your predictions are overly optimistic.

And here I was getting down on myself for predicting a loss to one of the Michigans and Wiskey. I'm still holding out for a miraculous turnaround and a B1G West championship. Would I trade a Wiskey win for a N*D* loss if it means winning the B1G? Tough question. I'd rather win both.
 
And here I was getting down on myself for predicting a loss to one of the Michigans and Wiskey. I'm still holding out for a miraculous turnaround and a B1G West championship. Would I trade a Wiskey win for a N*D* loss if it means winning the B1G? Tough question. I'd rather win both.
Of course I very very much want to beat ND, but I would trade an ND loss for a B1G West championship (presumably with a win over Wisconsin) in a heartbeat, it's not even close.

Though at that point with an 0-3 OOC record we would be viewed as the weakest division champion in who-knows-how-long I'm sure.
 
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I think this is on the play-calling. Of course the execution needs to be better, too, but it seems our plays are fairly predictable. We aren't like Wiskey, where many times the defense knows what is coming but can't stop it anyway.

I remember back in the days of Basanez and that offense, one opposing coach said that the thing that made those teams so tough to defend was that they ran all of their best plays out of the same formation. I think that was Kevin Wilson as the OC at that time, but it's a shame that isn't the case anymore.
 
I remember back in the days of Basanez and that offense, one opposing coach said that the thing that made those teams so tough to defend was that they ran all of their best plays out of the same formation. I think that was Kevin Wilson as the OC at that time, but it's a shame that isn't the case anymore.
Basanez’s only OC as a player was Dunbar (I think Wilson was the OC his redshirt year).

According to my old playbook (discovered in my parent’s basement last winter), we had a number of formations: but just about every play could be run out of each one.

I remember like yesterday Dunbar’s speech about how of course we needed 5 OL and one QB, but any other position could expand to fill out the 5 remaining spots. 5 WRs was an easy choice out of the spread. He also claimed we could have 1 to 5 running backs on the field at the same time, or 1 to 5 super backs depending on “who stepped up”. But he counted off the positions just to make his point... “We could have 1 super back. We could have two super backs. We could have 3, 4, or 5 super backs!”

All theoretical of course, but a pretty funny & fun concept which later informed some of my wackier Madden offenses. He had a subtle sense of humor.
 
Basanez’s only OC as a player was Dunbar (I think Wilson was the OC his redshirt year).

According to my old playbook (discovered in my parent’s basement last winter), we had a number of formations: but just about every play could be run out of each one.

I remember like yesterday Dunbar’s speech about how of course we needed 5 OL and one QB, but any other position could expand to fill out the 5 remaining spots. 5 WRs was an easy choice out of the spread. He also claimed we could have 1 to 5 running backs on the field at the same time, or 1 to 5 super backs depending on “who stepped up”. But he counted off the positions just to make his point... “We could have 1 super back. We could have two super backs. We could have 3, 4, or 5 super backs!”

All theoretical of course, but a pretty funny & fun concept which later informed some of my wackier Madden offenses. He had a subtle sense of humor.
We almost seemed to have a game where we caught a D off guard even when NU’s teams weren’t great.
 
...Cats are 1-2, with 9 more regular season games left. Fitz likes to talk about the season in quarters, so with one quarter finished, things are looking a little gloomy. Luckily we are still 1-0 in the B1G.

Q1: 1 win, 2 losses
Q2: Mich, @ MSU, Neb
Q3: @ Rutgers, Wiskey, N*D*
Q4: @ Io_a, @ Minny, LOLinois

First quarter report card:

QB: D / To be brutally honest, Thorson mistakes led to 3 Akron TDs.
RB: B
WR: C / Nagel - great game vs. Duke otherwise invisible
SB: A
OL: D

DL: B
LB: C
CB: C
S: C

Special Teams: B

HC: C
OC: D
DC: B

Fans: B / Decent turnouts vs. Duke & Akron, still demand MOAR!

Prediction:
Q2: 2-1
Q3: 2-1
Q4: 3-0
I only disagree with you on your Special Teams grade. Otherwise, ….

I think your prediction on the 'quarters' is spot on. The biggest risk of losing more than 2 more games will be quarter 4 (Iowa). I also suspect that will be for the Division crown. While I think Wisconsin is the better team, they play us and Iowa away, and have a tougher East schedule. The Iowa schedule is a complete joke. Their first 4 games (Good for them) are at home, 3 of which are no more than 150 miles away from their campus. And they don't play MSU, OSU, Michigan. We know that Kirk runs a great program over there and the players always play hard, so it isn't hard to imagine them splitting PSU, Wisconsin, then lining up against us for the western crown at Kinnick stadium.

As always, we have to give space for being purple biased but I think having our two 5th year Honorable mention OL (Doles and Hance) injured since Purdue, and Slater banged up as well, had a devastating impact against Duke and Akron. Doles and Hance are among the strongest guys on the team and can really drive off the ball. Urban and the other fill in will be fine but they simply have not had time to get as strong.
 
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I wasn’t completely sure of the timeline on the former offensive coordinators, and was too lazy to look it up. I think you got the point I was trying to make, though.
 
Update:
Q1: 1-2
Q2: 2-1 v. Mich, @ MSU, Neb
Q3: 1-0 so far v. @ Rutgers, Wiskey, N*D*
Q4: @ Io_a, @ Minny, LOLinois

Coming up is a tough stretch vs. Wiskey, N* D*, and Io_a.

We've kind of limped to 4-1 so far but are in the thick of things for the B1G title.

Let's beat Wiskey this week!
 
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