Opening line: NU -21.5 vs Akron
- Thread starter Fitz51
- Start date
Or we’re not as bad as those on this board believe after a loss.
Keep telling yourself that. Akron is bad, and every decent defense we’ll face is licking their chops right now.
I felt better last year than our 2016 start, and I feel a bit better now. Sorry a big part of my sarcasm came from Akron not playing their first game... meaning the bookies have incomplete info on their team. We could lose next week as easily as we did yesterday if our players believe that line is accurate.
We never were going to win a bunch of slugfests. With our returning talent on O, we should be no worse than last year once CT is able to go the whole game. That was good enough for ten wins last year, so it might be a good idea to slow your roll at least until we see what happens against Michigan. I think Michigan has the best D we will face all year.
Eh, a lot of those Big Ten opponents have offenses that our defense can shut down.
Iowa, Michigan State, Michigan are among the better Big Ten teams that can be held under 20 points. Those are very winnable games.
Yes, the "Chicken Littles" who questioned your bloviating that "we are a good team" and NU fans don't feel they deserve good things, blah blah. Did you rewatch and conclude something brilliant like, but for those darn bad plays we were the better team? LOL.
I’m mostly concerned that our best two tackles were hurt in the same game, and our offensive play calling has shown no more gusto than usual.
If we were healthy, we’d have a puncher’s chance in every game. If not, watch out.
I’m a realist, and we’re due for a reversion to the mean - especially with this schedule.
If we finish with 10 wins again, I’ll eat my words. But if we finish with half of that or less, will you agree that we need offensive coaching upgrades across the board?
Just one against a FCS I think , and not against the other B1G team (UNL) on their schedule.
I’m just saying: if Kent State almost beat Illinois, then Akron can beat us.
SAT question: NU is to Illinois what Akron is to Kent State. The gap is that wide in the MAC.
I still think we are a good team, but won’t reach our potential until/unless Thorson gets healthy so he can play full time.
Akron is picked to finish 4th in the MAC East. There's a reason why we're such huge favorites.
Honestly speaking, I feel better now than I did last year. Last year, I thought the season was over and never saw 10 wins coming.
This year, the hope is that Thorson will finally get healthy after Akron and the bye (fingers crossed) and also our D played a lot better - with one atrociously bad quarter only this year, that wasn't at all helped by 2 INTs and a turn over on downs.
I feel a lot better about the D (including health) than I did last year and hope that with Thorson getting healthier, we will improve. Newsome got burned (as did Hartage), but I think we have 2 stellar corners back there now. Safeties have to step up though, and we will have as stout a defense as ever.
I'm ranting a lot now, more because of the continued ineptitude on our Offensive Line, which will limit what we can do on offense. The hope there is that Fitz sees it and that Anderson coming to the program in a role he's over qualified was not a coincidence, and we will make an in-season de-facto switch (perhaps not in official title, but in day to day duties) that can be face saving for his brah, but will put the team on a better path. I wouldn't expect an overnight improvement, but at least the bleeding should be staunched, the poison sucked out, the wound can be cleaned, and we can finally begin the healing process. My hope is that those who believe the OL change will make the WRs and the overall offense much better are right, and that we don't have more serious problems with our WR coaching and our OC - though I remain to be convinced.
With both our tackles ailing, Thorson possibly sitting some or most (especially if we get a 2 score lead), Fitz not running up the score typically, and Akron having a mobile QB in Kato Nelson, there is no way I would lay the 21.5. I suspect the under may be an even better play.
We won't know if you're a realist until the season is over. Then we will know what is real. You might be a fantasist for all we know.
Everyone is entitled to any feelings they have after a football game, and there's no doubt that we had some big issues on Saturday with our OL, WR group, and a tough second quarter for the defense...but come on guys. I still believe we are a good football team that had a few weaknesses exposed on Saturday (any NU fan already knew these groups were weaknesses though). I expect the o-line to get better. Not excusing a poor performance, or the fact that the o-line continually has issues at the beginning of seasons year in and year out, but this group also has improved in season every year. As long as Slater and Hance come back healthy by Big Ten play, I expect the same this year.
Akron is an average football team AT BEST. I really don't expect them to be able to do much on offense against our defense, which is pretty damn good. I'd be shocked if we don't win by at least 2 TD's. We'd have to play a really bad game and have some bad luck on some odd plays to lose this one. Be realistic.
Akron is an average football team AT BEST. I really don't expect them to be able to do much on offense against our defense, which is pretty damn good. I'd be shocked if we don't win by at least 2 TD's. We'd have to play a really bad game and have some bad luck on some odd plays to lose this one. Be realistic.
Purdue, whom we beat in a close game lost to EMU. Who is supposed to be much worse than Akron.
We SHOULD win, but many of thought that about Duke too. Can't take anything for granted with this offense.
Just my opinion, but I think if we played Purdue in Week 2 we would have won by more. A significant amount of their success was due to the surprise of Rondale Moore being as electric as he was and how they were using him. Once we got to the half in that one and made adjustments, he (and their offense) did very little in the 2nd half. Also, we'll see where EMU and Akron are at come the end of the year. Neither team is anything special, but EMU is a program that has improved greatly over the last few years (they were arguably the worst D-1 program in America just a couple years ago). Last year, any time Akron played any sort of real competition, they were absolutely destroyed.
I, for one, was on record that I had no strong opinion of how the Duke game would play out. I knew that was a good team we were playing and if they played this season healthy, they are the type of team that could make some noise in an ACC that is looking pretty weak after Clemson and Va Tech. With the injuries, that likely won't happen anymore, but Duke is a nice team. The result of Saturday was disappointing, but did not surprise me. If Akron stays within two touchdowns, I will genuinely be surprised.
Rondale Moore played defense in the second half? It was not Rondale Moore that got Purdue back in the game. It was zero points in the second half.
How come we never seem to make adjustments on offense in the second half? Bizzaro
We have made offensive adjustments in the second half successfully in the past. But when your entire offensive line is getting beat, there is nothing really to adjust.
Why can’t you adjust your scheme and play calling to give a different look? Sure it likely wouldn’t work much, but getting your ass handed to you repeatedly without attempting something seems Ill advised.
Ignorance alert - I have no idea what I am talking about but I am going to post anyway. Enjoy the opportunities to abuse me.
I am not sure there is another scheme. From the snippets that I have heard through the years, I get the opinion that Fitz is of the mindset:
1. Do one thing and do it so well that the opposition cannot stop you.
2. Its all about winning 1 on 1 battles.
So, it is somewhat possible that there really is nothing to adjust to.
Adjusting a scheme mid game isn't really possible. For example, if you run outside zone, you can't switch to man blocking on the fly. The concepts require different techniques.
Play calling can be altered to combat disruptive defensive tactics, but Mick's hands were tied to an extent. Losing Green to targeting hurt because he's a mismatch weapon with experience that can be used to exploit weaknesses in coverage. It seemed like McCall/Thorson was trying to compensate for that loss with Larkin, but Jeremy, while improving, isn't quite at the level JJ was last year. With Brown and Vault unavailable, the lack of an experienced vertical threat certainly didn't help matters either. NU can scheme open receivers in the intermediate passing game (the Michigan State & OSU 2016 games are great examples of this), but it requires precise route running and time for those routes to develop, which leads us to...
...the big guys up front. A leaky offensive line can spell doom for even the strongest offenses. Duke likes to press our WRs and when you're in comeback mode (eg: mostly passing) it's much easier for the defense to "pin their ears" and rush the QB - see the last few offensive possessions by NU. There's a reason Fitz pulled Thorson late. It was dangerous for him out there without Slater and Hance on the field. There was nothing Mick or anyone else could really do at that point. The protection was non existent.
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Fair point, but I think you can blame some bad 3rd down execution (a few 3rd and 1's that were unsuccessful) and some overly conservative play calling for our lack of offense in the 2nd half against Purdue. These aren't excuses, as you are absolutely correct that the offense didn't do their job in the 2nd half against Purdue, but they still scored 31 points in the game. It mean absolutely nothing and doesn't matter since we played them in Week 1 and won the game anyway, but I believe that if we had any tape on Rondale Moore coming into that game, Purdue ends up with less than 20.
I, for one, am not somebody who puts too much into the "well, look at what this team did against that team" argument when saying how good or bad our (or any) football team is. It absolutely needs to be used to determine rankings because results are what they are and that's what really matters, but as far as determining how good Northwestern is, I really don't put much faith in the fact that Purdue lost to EMU on Saturday. College football shows us each any every year (hell, every week) that sometimes bad teams jump up and play great games and pull an upset and sometimes great teams throw in a stinker. Some teams match up well against certain teams and terrible against others. A team may have a ton of injuries one week and that's when you want to play them instead of a month later when they're healthy. Etc, Etc...For me personally, I look at this Northwestern football team, and think we are a pretty good team. It still may only get us 6 or 7 wins this year because of a really tough schedule, but I see a team with a solid defense, an NFL level talent quarterback and a good running back group. If the offense line gets healthy and plays more like they did in Week 1 than they did in Week 2, this is a team that will win games and definitely easily take care of Akron. That was my whole point in the first place.
Who's taking the Cat's and laying the points? Not me.
If that's his mindset, he better start winning more recruiting battles against the big boys. You can't win 1 on 1 without some innovation and keeping the opponent off balance if you're constantly going into the ring as David against Goliath.
Even though Randy Walker failed to pursue and bring in the best talent, he decided he would surround himself with competent coaches to teach his kids and develop them (except the DC), be a bit imaginative with his schemes, and try to outcoach his opposition.
As is the notion that any team on our schedule (well, except the ILOLini) is a gimme.
I'm pretty sure it was you. Either that, or we are just both naturally assholes. Which is probably the most likely case.
