Game Thread: Northwestern vs. No. 23 Indiana

[mesacat]

Lausch short on last drive.

 

[zeek55]

Let us put this into perspective. This is indiana. Last year they barely won three games. Now they're a top 20 team. It's all about transfers and the portal. Going to be very hard for us to keep up.

At the same time, anybody can turn around very fast, so teams are going to rise and fall based on how they do with transfers and the like.

And those same teams that have booms can go bust as well after transfers graduate/leave if the next group isn't as cohesive.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Positives: this team and coaching staff are clearly able to improve over the course of the year. Lausch and offense look much improved despite the offensive line struggling in the run game with so many guys hurt.

Negative: Everybody in this conference is so good already or improving rapidly and you have to run at fast as you can just to stay in the same place

 

[corbi296]

And our defense is not as good as we thought it was

LOL, captain clueless.

 

[corbi296]

Where the face mask personal foul call on that 4th down play.

 

[TheC]

We have some good players, but just not enough of them and no truly elite players

 

[PAHiCat77]

What about the face mask?

 

[phatcat]

Positives: this team and coaching staff are clearly able to improve over the course of the year. Lausch and offense look much improved despite the offensive line struggling in the run game with so many guys hurt.

Negative: Everybody in this conference is so good already or improving rapidly and you have to run at fast as you can just to stay in the same place

Well said, even if NU gets better every week, might not be enough

 

[jensberg]

LOL, captain clueless.

Okay and you think we have a good defense? I'm sure it's capable but can we beat anybody who's a good offensive team? It looks very very questionable.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Well said, even if NU gets better every week, might not be enough

We have a few very winnable games coming up that look like must wins to have a decent season. Long term the trend is challenging, the bottom half of the Big Ten is starting to look like the top half of the other P4 conferences, cupcakes are going away in the P2, giving way to mostly better and best.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Okay and you think we have a good defense? I'm sure it's capable but can we beat anybody who's a good offensive team? It looks very very questionable.

I think we can probably deal with the likes of Maryland, Iowa, and Purdue, albeit those aren’t very good offensive teams. Illinois too probably. Even still I agree with you that performance was discouraging, I didn’t expect the defense to be the side that really failed.

 

[zeek55]

Okay and you think we have a good defense? I'm sure it's capable but can we beat anybody who's a good offensive team? It looks very very questionable.

Indiana probably has one of the top 3-4 offenses in the Big Ten; I'd put them right there with USC and Penn State behind Ohio State.

The only offense we'll see better than what we saw today is Ohio State.

 

[MC_Cat]

I think we can probably deal with the likes of Maryland, Iowa, and Purdue, albeit those aren’t very good offensive teams. Illinois too probably. Even still I agree with you that performance was discouraging, I didn’t expect the defense to be the side that really failed.

Missed tackles, poor run defense, and lack of effective pass rush really made the difference today. That said, we had a good opportunity til giving up that 3rd and 8.

But Lausch was so much better and that is super encouraging.