(09-01-2013 11:42 AM)badmoonrising13 Wrote:  I wanted him to go for it on 4th and inches and kick the easy FG on 4th and 2 in the third quarter. I also wanted him to throw the ball on first and goal after that amazing fake punt. But he beat a Big Ten team on the road so what the hell do I know?

I would have preferred the FG on 4th and 2 also.

More Stingily carries and less for Lynch. Can't get him hurt.

D line didn't look the best. The Iowa line got a ton of push against them. They did have their good moments though. This will be the biggest O-line they'll face this year in the regular season, so at least the worst is behind them. WR's had the dropsies...but to be fair to them, there were a lot of balls thrown behind the receivers. Overall, the team looks great for being the first game of the season. Look at how much better the team got throughout the season last year. I expect the same this year. Great win yesterday!

(09-01-2013 10:11 AM)cartershaw Wrote:  Brown still ended up with 7 for 92 yds... He should have had 2-4 more catches for another 30-60 yards...

Lynch's completion percentage would have been higher if our WRs didn't have the dropsies

Sebastiano catches everything...need to target him more..

Brescansin is going to be awesome if he can supplant Brown(drops)...

TLL great again, but also has shown durability issues..

Time to try some other guys out at TE...Eakes just can't be allowed to make plays like that..

Our run defense isn't great, thought especially our OLBs got beat real bad on the edges...Thought Bass tried to make the highlight hit a few times instead of just making the tackle

Secondary got torched...WRs with no DBs any where near them...though they did make 2 ints...hopefully communication between CBs and Safetys gets better.


Still fricking excited.. Toledo looked bad, Ball St was terrible....MAC championship here we come...Oh by the way Boise St got destroyed, so BCS bowl is a possibility.

Toledo was playing the #10 ranked team at their house. I would not say they looked terrible. Not only did Boise get destroyed, Tulsa who was picked to win CUSA got hammered by BGSU and San Diego State who was supposed to win their division of the MWC got throttled by Eastern Illinois

I forgot to mention this. Tyler Wedel should be recognized for his punting yesterday. He hit some bombs when we were pinned back deep. Outstanding job.

Kicking game is definitely a big advantage for us. We're solid.

(09-01-2013 03:42 PM)Who You Crappin? Wrote:  I forgot to mention this. Tyler Wedel should be recognized for his punting yesterday. He hit some bombs when we were pinned back deep. Outstanding job.

Yea, he kicks it way farther than Neir did. On that one bomb they returned it a ways, and I heard someone say he outkicked the coverage. But we had a guy down there, he just missed the tackle. That TOTALLY helped our field position for most of the game.

Wedel had 7 punts and averaged 57 yards, I believe. Kickoffs were deep into the end zones. Our special teams play was outstanding.

Just watched the replay...couple more thoughts

- The O-line got tired, which is understandable. We also could use some improvement recognizing the blitz and handling it better (whether that be keeping a blocker in or having an easy short route).

- great tackling all around, maybe the best I've seen from NIU, LB's and the safeties...Ward is fantastic

- TLL is pretty ridiculous, having him out in the 3rd Q and 4th definitely hurt this offense

- the commentators gave NIU and Lynch especially all sorts of credit

- the rollouts or flat routes to the TE just didn't work...and I don't remember them working that much last year either, maybe it's needed to keep the D honest? I don't know...

- I'm actually not too worried about running the lynch up the middle that much...Iowa had 3 senior LB's that were pretty darn good, get daniels back, give it to stingily a little bit more, but it will be fine

- D-line wasn't the best, but I also agree not awful for the 1st game with so much turnover from last year, the DE's get pushed too wide too much

- surprised Iowa didn't go to the TE more...HUGE size advantage on our LB's

- in the end for the D, they allowed 20 to a big ten team (7 was on the fumble return)...we'll take that every time and have a great chance to win. I don't mind getting beat by plays like a flea flicker, that says something when a team has to do that to get something. I do agree we don't necessarily have the depth of last year, but I'm not sure we need it.