How are we not happier here?

[NJcatsfan]

1-0.

Miami is a solid opponent.

D looks elite.

Offense needs work (sloppy penalties and turnovers), and will hopefully improve.

Stadium looked *stunning* on television. The lake looked gorgeous. What a setting. The overhead shots on BTN were spectacular.

Again: 1-0!

 

[NUCat320]

The game thread was pretty 👍 I thought.

But postgame seems very quiet for what was a pretty cool game.

 

[zeek55]

I feel like this was an Expect Victory kind of win.

Just a clean workman effort that really represents the best of what the program has been over the past 15-20 years. D was right as if Hank was in charge (or Braun last year). Was really nice to see us beat an opponent that was probably as good or better than a couple teams we play this year.

Sort of feels like a hard game to talk about because it felt like we had it under control the whole time just gave up some of our margin of victory due to some minor errors (beyond the setting which was incredible, seeing it full and on tv completely surpassed the imagination).

 

[freewillie07]

I feel like this was an Expect Victory kind of win.

Just a clean workman effort that really represents the best of what the program has been over the past 15-20 years. D was right as if Hank was in charge (or Braun last year). Was really nice to see us beat an opponent that was probably as good or better than a couple teams we play this year.

Sort of feels like a hard game to talk about because it felt like we had it under control the whole time just gave up some of our margin of victory due to some minor errors (beyond the setting which was incredible, seeing it full and on tv completely surpassed the imagination).

Agree. Hard to tell from one game but feels like NU “is who we thought they were,” at least for now.

I think there is a contingent that got hyped up about the hotshot OC and thought we could be instantly amazing on both sides of the ball for the first time in forever… and, well, suffice to say we have a ways to go.

If healthy I think we can still win six games this year.

Curbstomp Duke next week and they’ll have my attention.

 

[corbi296]

1-0.

Miami is a solid opponent.

D looks elite.

Offense needs work (sloppy penalties and turnovers), and will hopefully improve.

Stadium looked *stunning* on television. The lake looked gorgeous. What a setting. The overhead shots on BTN were spectacular.

Again: 1-0!

This was a good win and start to the a season. This team played well against a good opponent. There is room for improvement and I am confident the coaches will get it out of them. I am satisfied.

 

[FanatiCat]

This is probably what we should have expected from this opener. A close low scoring win with mostly very good defense and offense that had some sparks but a ton to work on. I wasn’t expecting Wright to turn into an outstanding passer in his last year of college, or for the brand new offense to instantly click for the first time in real game action.

We have lost to Miami OH more than we’ve beaten them in the last 30 years, so this has to be seen as a “good” win.

 

[No Chores]

This is probably what we should have expected from this opener. A close low scoring win with mostly very good defense and offense that had some sparks but a ton to work on. I wasn’t expecting Wright to turn into an outstanding passer in his last year of college, or for the brand new offense to instantly click for the first time in real game action.

We have lost to Miami OH more than we’ve beaten them in the last 30 years, so this has to be seen as a “good” win.

Of course it was a "good" win. We won the total yards and time of possession battle, and the turnovers were even. We should have won by more, but anyone who bet the game and gave the 3 points won some money!

 

[zeek55]

Of course it was a "good" win. We won the total yards and time of possession battle, and the turnovers were even. We should have won by more, but anyone who bet the game and gave the 3 points won some money!

I think that's the big positive from this. Our defense was so good throughout the game that I was not really nervous at any point. When we got up 10-3 and then 13-3, it felt like it'd be a huge lift for Miami to make it close. They got a chance towards the end, but the defense held them to a FG again and then the final pick.

Just shows how much margin for error we had because the D was so good that we burned some of the margin for error and still weren't forced to the wire.

 

[Baz=Heisman]

And Wright looked good. He didn’t have any horrible throws really.

 

[fcmchi]

He threw a couple pretty down field passes over defenders into the hands of our receivers. His long passes into the end zone a few times were just a bit off.

His passing and running put pressure on defenses. I like him.

 

[Sheffielder]

I, for one, feel great.

I wouldn't say I was expecting a loss, but Miami showed a lot of promise coming into the season/today, and we have a complicated history with this opponent over the years. I don't mind that it was a close win, because it could have easily been a close loss - and then we would have been one of the P4 teams that lost to a G5 opening weekend.

We wouldn't be college football fans if we were totally happy with our team's performance in Week 1. That's just...normal.

 

[EvanstonCat]

I feel like this is a game we lose under the Fitz regime. Nothing spectacular on O, but the D is Hank Like (which speaks well of McGarigle’s training) and I think we will get better as the year progresses. Things are looking up.

 

[Jaguar 88]

Agree. Hard to tell from one game but feels like NU “is who we thought they were,” at least for now.

I think there is a contingent that got hyped up about the hotshot OC and thought we could be instantly amazing on both sides of the ball for the first time in forever… and, well, suffice to say we have a ways to go.

If healthy I think we can still win six games this year.

Curbstomp Duke next week and they’ll have my attention.

We go 3-0 going into Seattle, we should be going bowling again, but we need to definitely see improvement on offense, Miami, Oh is a solid team, but the rest of the conference minus Minnesota looked pretty good, especially our old West rivals. Maryland did well also.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

This was a good win and start to the a season. This team played well against a good opponent. There is room for improvement and I am confident the coaches will get it out of them. I am satisfied.

I’m actually most heartened that the offense DIDNT play well. The talent is apparent and there is room to grow.

Defense is a bunch of absolute dogs though.

 

[phatcat]

1-0.

Miami is a solid opponent.

D looks elite.

Offense needs work (sloppy penalties and turnovers), and will hopefully improve.

Stadium looked *stunning* on television. The lake looked gorgeous. What a setting. The overhead shots on BTN were spectacular.

Again: 1-0!

We have a lot of scar tissue. Like abused children cringing from the next expected blow. All of your positives are true, but who amongst us didn't have that creeping feeling of dread when Olsen missed the clinching FG?

I had a great time, although we didn’t get the seatback we ordered (there were zero in the North end zone) so Mrs Phat had to watch from the South refreshment area on the lawn furniture. Bleachers just tear up her back.

 

[pittcat90]

1-0.

Miami is a solid opponent.

D looks elite.

Offense needs work (sloppy penalties and turnovers), and will hopefully improve.

Stadium looked *stunning* on television. The lake looked gorgeous. What a setting. The overhead shots on BTN were spectacular.

Again: 1-0!

At Northwestern the bandwagon is parked perilously close to the edge of a cliff.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

We have a lot of scar tissue. Like abused children cringing from the next expected blow. All of your positives are true, but who amongst us didn't have that creeping feeling of dread when Olsen missed the clinching FG?

I had a great time, although we didn’t get the seatback we ordered (there were zero in the North end zone) so Mrs Phat had to watch from the South refreshment area on the lawn furniture. Bleachers just tear up her back.

There were a few seat backs in the North End zone. I sat right behind them and it made the aisle’s very tight.

 

[zeek55]

I’m actually most heartened that the offense DIDNT play well. The talent is apparent and there is room to grow.

Defense is a bunch of absolute dogs though.

This was the story from this game; our defense will keep us in a lot of games if it's this stingy... just like how the Hank years and Braun year (as DC) went.

When your defense gives you that much margin for error, you can win a lot of games as we've seen the past 15-20 years. I felt very confident that we could win at halftime, just felt like defense was going to keep making plays and it was just a matter of Wright and co putting together a drive as they did quickly.

 

[cattul]

I think the two most encouraging things on the offensive side of the ball were:

- I thought the OL played pretty well. Wright was generally getting the ball out quickly, but the line was giving him time to do so, and there were a few huge holes they opened up in the run game. It is nice to be able to praise that unit. Well done, OL.

- The potential for improvement is tremendous with this offense. I think the skill players are quite talented. Coupled with improved OL play, this could turn into one of the better Wildcat offenses of recent years.

Even what I found to be the discouraging thing about the offense ties back into the encouraging thing:

- they did not look comfortable running some of the more gadgety plays (lining up for the direct snap, what looked like an attempt to set up a throwback to Wright, some of the handoff to the motion guy stuff, …) But that can be rectified through practice.

All in all, I think this victory will look a lot better by the end of the season. Miami actually played pretty darn well. I thought it was a good first outing. Let’s hope the guys can get smoother at running the full playbook quickly. They will have their hands full with Duke.

 

[loyolacat]

I think it is 1. because the narrative has changed in college football. Usually we would be excited thinking about our chances to win the West and play in Indy...and maybe the Rose Bowl...and now the only question is can we make the playoffs? If not everything is irrelevant and we know on Day 1 we are not going to be in the 12.....2. The Divorce is over...we used up all our emotions last year trying to survive...now everything seems to be tainted a little bit no matter how nice the new step-dad is. 3. We are wondering in a new wilderness, no Minnesota, no Nebraska....our little comfortable home is now a wild big new unknown environment........Everything just seems different and a little unknown....like ya packed up the family and moved, new house is really nice, new step-dad really nice, defense really nice,,,new qb really nice.....everything just seems a little....??????????

 

[zeek55]

I think it is 1. because the narrative has changed in college football. Usually we would be excited thinking about our chances to win the West and play in Indy...and maybe the Rose Bowl...and now the only question is can we make the playoffs? If not everything is irrelevant and we know on Day 1 we are not going to be in the 12.....2. The Divorce is over...we used up all our emotions last year trying to survive...now everything seems to be tainted a little bit no matter how nice the new step-dad is. 3. We are wondering in a new wilderness, no Minnesota, no Nebraska....our little comfortable home is now a wild big new unknown environment........Everything just seems different and a little unknown....like ya packed up the family and moved, new house is really nice, new step-dad really nice, defense really nice,,,new qb really nice.....everything just seems a little....??????????

Thing is, most of our fans have reasonable expectations.

Compete hard, try to get to a bowl game most years, show improvement across the year, try to beat the teams we should beat, look like we fit into the Big Ten (not at the bottom of the standings), etc.

I don't think anybody is expecting CFP bids in a now top-loaded Big Ten with some heavy spending NIL teams entering the conference to go along with the Ohio State/Michigan/Penn State trio.

This win against Miami is a great building block for Braun and co. and so we should be excited about that. It's great to see the defense looking stout against a team that should put up points in the MAC. It's great to see that the offense had some flashes of brilliance in there that if we can get more of that would make this a team that can win plenty of games.

 

[NUCat320]

The nicest thing about this game is that we’re not griping about playing down to the competition or not showing up for a non-conference game.

As an NU fan, the guaranteed non-conference loss to a team we can/should beat was frustrating. But the fact that NU seemed to be so bad in those losses (and of course also the wins) was the real kicker. As if NU wasn’t ready to play at all.

NU played pretty well yesterday, with week one errors. They beat a team that I think is probably pretty good. We’re used to neither of those things being the case Labor Day weekend. No news is good news today.

One week at a time, of course, but I’d be really happy if the next two board weeks were elation post-Duke, and a silly QB controversy discussion after beating the piss out of EIU.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

I think the two most encouraging things on the offensive side of the ball were:

- I thought the OL played pretty well. Wright was generally getting the ball out quickly, but the line was giving him time to do so, and there were a few huge holes they opened up in the run game. It is nice to be able to praise that unit. Well done, OL.

- The potential for improvement is tremendous with this offense. I think the skill players are quite talented. Coupled with improved OL play, this could turn into one of the better Wildcat offenses of recent years.

Even what I found to be the discouraging thing about the offense ties back into the encouraging thing:

- they did not look comfortable running some of the more gadgety plays (lining up for the direct snap, what looked like an attempt to set up a throwback to Wright, some of the handoff to the motion guy stuff, …) But that can be rectified through practice.

All in all, I think this victory will look a lot better by the end of the season. Miami actually played pretty darn well. I thought it was a good first outing. Let’s hope the guys can get smoother at running the full playbook quickly. They will have their hands full with Duke.

I agree with this take on the offense totally. I haven’t been this genuinely excited about the potential of our offensive weapons since… 2012? I’m not saying we’re Ohio State, but we have a bunch of guys that are actual Big Ten caliber threats and playmakers if we can clean it up. And Wright’s athleticism just jumps right off the page.

 

[SmellyCat]

It was a workmanlike effort over a decent team without any particularly dramatic plays. My son is watching highlights of the first Utah matchup right now, with Gus Johnson on the call and lots of fun stuff happening. I'm thrilled we won yesterday, and the defense was great, but for some reason there isn't just a lot to talk about. Hard to completely understand.

As Freewillie said above, convincingly beat Duke next week and NU will have everyone's attention.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

It was a workmanlike effort over a decent team without any particularly dramatic plays. My son is watching highlights of the first Utah matchup right now, with Gus Johnson on the call and lots of fun stuff happening. I'm thrilled we won yesterday, and the defense was great, but for some reason there isn't just a lot to talk about. Hard to completely understand.

As Freewillie said above, convincingly beat Duke next week and NU will have everyone's attention.

I think part of it is the takeaways are simple and obvious (wow that front seven and those backers are good, the secondary was young but gained confidence before our eyes, the offense flashed potential but shot itself in the foot repeatedly too) but the projection of it is unclear (Miami is a genuinely good defense and sharp team, but it’s unclear how it’ll translate against teams with more P2 talent even if they’re less clean as Miami).

 

[hdhntr1]

1-0.

Miami is a solid opponent.

D looks elite.

Offense needs work (sloppy penalties and turnovers), and will hopefully improve.

Stadium looked *stunning* on television. The lake looked gorgeous. What a setting. The overhead shots on BTN were spectacular.

Again: 1-0!

Had we not fumbled end of first half it would have been far more comfortable. Wright seems to be what I expected based on past stats (36 games 55% completion and about 2500 yds passing dual threat) Don't know how many of those games were starts but hard to see him being big passing threat since that is only about 70 ypg. Looks to be slightly off on accuracy and hopefully they can correct him there but otherwise probably more of a threat as a runner

 

[phatcat]

probably more of a threat as a runner

Couldn't tell from my end zone seats, but I watched the highlights later and that dood is fast

 

[Medill '03]

And Wright looked good. He didn’t have any horrible throws really.

Ben Bryant perfected the flag route from 25. I hope Wright will dial in that pass to Kirtz. He missed it yesterday.

 

[Medill '03]

The nicest thing about this game is that we’re not griping about playing down to the competition or not showing up for a non-conference game.

As an NU fan, the guaranteed non-conference loss to a team we can/should beat was frustrating. But the fact that NU seemed to be so bad in those losses (and of course also the wins) was the real kicker. As if NU wasn’t ready to play at all.

NU played pretty well yesterday, with week one errors. They beat a team that I think is probably pretty good. We’re used to neither of those things being the case Labor Day weekend. No news is good news today.

One week at a time, of course, but I’d be really happy if the next two board weeks were elation post-Duke, and a silly QB controversy discussion after beating the piss out of EIU.

Ugh, that Southern Illinois game in 2022!

Imagine if Gragg were the AD and we'd just lost to Miami in front of 3,000 in Bridgeview. Instead we have the new highly qualified AD in the house, a unique truly NU experience on the lakefront, and a solid win from a competent team with room to improve. Great day!

 

[Medill '03]

I think the two most encouraging things on the offensive side of the ball were:

- I thought the OL played pretty well. Wright was generally getting the ball out quickly, but the line was giving him time to do so, and there were a few huge holes they opened up in the run game. It is nice to be able to praise that unit. Well done, OL.

- The potential for improvement is tremendous with this offense. I think the skill players are quite talented. Coupled with improved OL play, this could turn into one of the better Wildcat offenses of recent years.

Even what I found to be the discouraging thing about the offense ties back into the encouraging thing:

- they did not look comfortable running some of the more gadgety plays (lining up for the direct snap, what looked like an attempt to set up a throwback to Wright, some of the handoff to the motion guy stuff, …) But that can be rectified through practice.

All in all, I think this victory will look a lot better by the end of the season. Miami actually played pretty darn well. I thought it was a good first outing. Let’s hope the guys can get smoother at running the full playbook quickly. They will have their hands full with Duke.

I can recall at least three plays where the NU OL got whipped, or where a lineman just whiffed on a block. That's improvement over seeing someone do that on just about every single play and wondering about at least a couple changes needed on the OL.

 

[Medill '03]

I feel like this is a game we lose under the Fitz regime. Nothing spectacular on O, but the D is Hank Like (which speaks well of McGarigle’s training) and I think we will get better as the year progresses. Things are looking up.

Fitz won a lot of games that looked like this, they just usually happened in the Big Ten season against West rivals.

 

[Medill '03]

He threw a couple pretty down field passes over defenders into the hands of our receivers. His long passes into the end zone a few times were just a bit off.

His passing and running put pressure on defenses. I like him.

His TD drive was hopefully a sign of things to come. You could see how the defense was forced to adjust by the threat of his running. Wright plays a lot like Jalen Milroe at Alabama. He's not nearly as good, but they have a similar running/passing style. Milroe excels much more in deep passing, and so far we haven't seen Wright do so. Bryant had success last year so there's hope with Henning and Kirtz.

 

[techtim72]

I think part of it is the takeaways are simple and obvious (wow that front seven and those backers are good, the secondary was young but gained confidence before our eyes, the offense flashed potential but shot itself in the foot repeatedly too) but the projection of it is unclear (Miami is a genuinely good defense and sharp team, but it’s unclear how it’ll translate against teams with more P2 talent even if they’re less clean as Miami).

What was notable was how clean both teams played except for the two miscues by NU on snaps. The first interception was a tough pass but in a good spot that bounced off the receiver's hands. The second one was great D. Very few penalities. Plays were made but no one was blowing coverages, etc. Kicks were made. When teams play clean like that, particularly in the first game, that is a good sign of veteran, well-coached teams.

I thought Miami had good receivers but no one who could take the DB's to school like Casey Washington of Illinois did last year. So how good the DB's are against great receivers is still TBD.

 

[phatcat]

Casey Washington of Illinois

Biased, but I feel like he gets 100 less yards w Coco out there. Also the Purdue guy that had 900 yards rushing

 

[AdamOnFirst]

What was notable was how clean both teams played except for the two miscues by NU on snaps. The first interception was a tough pass but in a good spot that bounced off the receiver's hands. The second one was great D. Very few penalities. Plays were made but no one was blowing coverages, etc. Kicks were made. When teams play clean like that, particularly in the first game, that is a good sign of veteran, well-coached teams.

I thought Miami had good receivers but no one who could take the DB's to school like Casey Washington of Illinois did last year. So how good the DB's are against great receivers is still TBD.

NU didn’t play clean at ALL on offense, as Braun has said. Several snap mistakes, including disasters, and a bunch of procedural penalties on top.

 

[techtim72]

NU didn’t play clean at ALL on offense, as Braun has said. Several snap mistakes, including disasters, and a bunch of procedural penalties on top.

Two penalties on offense. One procedure and the one for holding. Total of 20 yards.

 

[GOUNUII]

It was a workmanlike effort over a decent team without any particularly dramatic plays. My son is watching highlights of the first Utah matchup right now, with Gus Johnson on the call and lots of fun stuff happening. I'm thrilled we won yesterday, and the defense was great, but for some reason there isn't just a lot to talk about. Hard to completely understand.

As Freewillie said above, convincingly beat Duke next week and NU will have everyone's attention.

I'll take any win against Dook this Friday. It's Dook week. I hate Dook.

GOUNUII

 

[zeek55]

I'll take any win against Dook this Friday. It's Dook week. I hate Dook.

GOUNUII

Past 5 losses against Duke have taught me that any win against Duke is a good win. Could be the ugliest game we've ever played, as long as we end up on top, I'll be happy.