(10-12-2014 12:41 AM)NIU75 Wrote:  At least we can stop talk about leaving the MAC for a week. How about adding 10,000 seats to HS when we cannot sell out at homecoming.

Yes, because if we lost one game in the MAC we should forget about all the other accomplishments and ignore where CFB is going and just resign to being average. Why don't you smell what you are shoveling?

(10-12-2014 07:21 AM)dekalb222 Wrote:  NIU is 4-4 in its last 8 games and has been destroyed in all 4 losses. The reign at the top is over. I think at best NIU is a 3-3 team the rest of the season. I don't know why people are surprised many of us predicted 6-6 or 7-5. I think beating NORTHWESTERN fooled many people in to thinking this is a good team.

NU game definitely gave me false hope. Although I'd say more people predicted 3-5 losses and not 6-7.

(10-11-2014 09:52 PM)7 Wrote:  This is probably going to be less game thoughts and overall more big picture thoughts, but here we go.

Reality check for everyone, myself included. This was going to happen eventually. If you really expected NIU to come out and win every home game and win 10+ games (which they still might do) and go to the MAC Championship game every year (which they still might do) was not dealing based in facts. They were eventually going to take a step back. It's college football. You have turnover every year, you lose Chandler Harnish and Jordan Lynch, and when you're in the MAC and you win you lose coaches. If you've just become an NIU fan and you seriously expected that, enjoy jumping off the bandwagon as quickly as you jumped on. Even Boise State, the mid-major program, has taken a step back NIU is still a really good mid-major program. They may not be elite at this point anymore, but this is not the end of the world.

Anybody calling for Rod Carey to be fired or seriously think there's any chance of it happening anytime soon, is also a moron. There's no reason to even discuss it further because there's 0 chance it happens anytime soon. So seriously, complain about him all you want but get used to him as your coach because there is 0 chance it changes anytime soon no matter how you feel or I feel.

With that being said, there's no really defending the coaching today. I want to point out though, they were trying different stuff on offense for Hare today. They were way more spread out than they have been at any time this year. A lot of 5 wide and empty backfields, especially early on. Which was good to see them trying something different. But then you go from there. The whole field goal thing when NIU was down by 17 late was so damn dumb. Yes, they were going to need a FG eventually, but to run it on third down and almost seemingly play for the FG was oh my god dumb. The timeout we burned when Enos decided to try a 50 yard FG on 4th and 30 when his offense had 600 yards was almost equally as dumb. The continued dumb penalties and sloppy play, while I think sometimes gets blamed on coaching too much, yeah those aren't new problems and they have yet to be fixed.

As for Coach Cole, yeah don't get me wrong I love the go really fast and dare teams to try to stop your 5 plays is awesome when it's working, but it's not working. NIU has to have the most uncreative run game in all of football right now. Everytime they hand the ball off to Cam or ACRB, it's a dive play up the middle. There's no stretch plays with any of the backs, no tosses, no counters. It's just dive dive dive dive dive.

And if you want to blame this on coaching, you can't blame it all on the current staff. I love Doeren as much as anyone, but good lord did he do a poor job of recruiting at some stuff. Look at the group of corners he left Carey with last year. That was one of the worst groups of corners I've ever seen. Then this year, there's a lot of talent back there, but there's what 5 freshman on the 2 deep at corners? Then you have Marlon Moore who was a terrible corner as one of your safties? Where is any of the DB talent he brought in? Then you look at the QBs. Imagine if Maddie didn't transfer in. Right now your options would be Hare or a true freshman in Root. You don't have to bring in Lynch or Harnish, but where was any talent Doeren recruited at QB or in the defensive backfield?

Now with all that being said, how just awful is Drew Hare? Has there been a less accurate NIU QB? That was a two TD late game late in the third quarter with NIU having all the momentum, and Da'Ron is running open for possibly a TD and he throws it behind him and it gets picked. How many times has he missed open WRs for TDs this year? I've seriously lost count. How many times did he have Brown or Canada open today and missed him? Why, exactly Carey chose today to ride it out with him is something I would love to hear an explanation for. The ONLY thing i can think of is with how big of a hole NIU dug itself, bringing in the running QB wouldn't make a lot of sense. The only problem with that is Hare can neither run or throw.

And then finally, nice of the defense to go all MAC Championship on us today. Not sure NIU would have won this game if Jordan Lynch was the QB because they didn't have a prayer of stopping Rawls. How many times did they run huge plays on the stretch play today? It looked like what NIU did with Wolfe. It was almost comical to watch Logan lose contain like 5+ times today and turn Rawls lose.

For NIU to get out physicaled and outrushed on their own home field and get their ass handed to them is completely humbling.

I'm sure nobody is going to listen to this, but I'll be pretty surprised if CMU wins out so NIU most likely controls their own destiny to get to Detroit. However, they can't do this with Hare anymore. They have to either play Maddie or hope McIntosh is healthy, put them in there, and run the offense how it's supposed to be run. If Maddie can't pass, I don't care. Hare can't run or pass. Put one of them back there and play. Bring back the QB power, bring back the jet sweeps, bring back the red option, bring back the diamond formation, bring back the goofy little toss they ran with Spencer. Enough is enough. And figure out whatever the hell was going on on defense today.

The season is far from over and the goal is still reachable, but they obviously have a lot to fix in a lot of places.

Well said 7 totally agree!

I think Carey needs to go back to calling plays, and it needs to happen immediately.

As people have mentioned, the 4-4 thing is a bit frustrating, although 3 of the losses were to good teams. NIU isn't better than arkansas anyway you look at it, so I'll scratch that game.

The other 3 NIU had more talent then and they couldn't score. Yes, the defense was bad vs BG and yesterday, but NIU actually could have won that game yesterday with average offensive plays. They shutdown Davis and made stops occasionally. NIU could have scored 34 IMO if they run a normal offense.

One jet sweep, one bubble screen is horrible play calling. NIU has speed, that's why they score. The play calling is also f*cking with offensive personnel. Cle refuses to run plays that are getting. Blake, Saffold, and others in the game. That's formation and play call issue, not Carey saying don't play them.

You can't be successful when you only have 4 guys getting WR reps in this offense.

Also, if. Hare is going to be QB every drive has to be like the first drive. They're trying too hard to play to his skills (which don't match the players NIU has) he has to throw it vertically and get lucky and hit it occasionally.

He should have had at least 3 INTs today. The "catch" by brown was a total bailout by the ref. he made poor throes all day. Missed Brown on the sideline twice, overthrew two TD passes and others.

In his last three games, he's scored the offense a total of 34 points. I'm actually going to say 27 because the last TD should have been CMU ball. He's also turned it over and led to points as well.

Maddie has scored 14 in those three games with about 1/4 of the reps if not less. That says something to me.

I don't care if Maddie can't throw, he or McIntosh have to be the QB. You don't have to change your offensive philosophy for him to play.

Sit Hare, and let Carey call plays.

Also, I just want to piggy back on the Doeren recruiting thing.

I like Doeren, he did a lot for NIU, great in game adjuster (at least at NIU, nc state is a disaster) but he was also horrible at clock management.

Who did he recruit for NIU. Obviously the defensive back and QB issues have been stated.

RB, he had settle and womble. Both didn't really help NIU.
WR his best guy has been Lewis. Sebastiano can never play again, next best is Brescacin, not much more help he brought in. Glasper, and whoever else.
Lineman, he's got a few guys there.
Linebackers, aren't Bass and Santa kill guys? I do like mays and the rest of the bunch so I will give him that.

He didn't bring any help at RB (KHJ nowhere to be found), WR TLL is out, and he left the secondary a mess.

(10-12-2014 07:21 AM)dekalb222 Wrote:  NIU is 4-4 in its last 8 games and has been destroyed in all 4 losses. The reign at the top is over. I think at best NIU is a 3-3 team the rest of the season. I don't know why people are surprised many of us predicted 6-6 or 7-5. I think beating NORTHWESTERN fooled many people in to thinking this is a good team.

You'd call Utah St's win a destroying?

The 7 point game where we out gained them in yards?

Oh ok.

(10-12-2014 09:51 AM)niufan99 Wrote:  

(10-11-2014 09:52 PM)7 Wrote:  This is probably going to be less game thoughts and overall more big picture thoughts, but here we go.

Reality check for everyone, myself included. This was going to happen eventually. If you really expected NIU to come out and win every home game and win 10+ games (which they still might do) and go to the MAC Championship game every year (which they still might do) was not dealing based in facts. They were eventually going to take a step back. It's college football. You have turnover every year, you lose Chandler Harnish and Jordan Lynch, and when you're in the MAC and you win you lose coaches. If you've just become an NIU fan and you seriously expected that, enjoy jumping off the bandwagon as quickly as you jumped on. Even Boise State, the mid-major program, has taken a step back NIU is still a really good mid-major program. They may not be elite at this point anymore, but this is not the end of the world.

Anybody calling for Rod Carey to be fired or seriously think there's any chance of it happening anytime soon, is also a moron. There's no reason to even discuss it further because there's 0 chance it happens anytime soon. So seriously, complain about him all you want but get used to him as your coach because there is 0 chance it changes anytime soon no matter how you feel or I feel.

With that being said, there's no really defending the coaching today. I want to point out though, they were trying different stuff on offense for Hare today. They were way more spread out than they have been at any time this year. A lot of 5 wide and empty backfields, especially early on. Which was good to see them trying something different. But then you go from there. The whole field goal thing when NIU was down by 17 late was so damn dumb. Yes, they were going to need a FG eventually, but to run it on third down and almost seemingly play for the FG was oh my god dumb. The timeout we burned when Enos decided to try a 50 yard FG on 4th and 30 when his offense had 600 yards was almost equally as dumb. The continued dumb penalties and sloppy play, while I think sometimes gets blamed on coaching too much, yeah those aren't new problems and they have yet to be fixed.

As for Coach Cole, yeah don't get me wrong I love the go really fast and dare teams to try to stop your 5 plays is awesome when it's working, but it's not working. NIU has to have the most uncreative run game in all of football right now. Everytime they hand the ball off to Cam or ACRB, it's a dive play up the middle. There's no stretch plays with any of the backs, no tosses, no counters. It's just dive dive dive dive dive.

And if you want to blame this on coaching, you can't blame it all on the current staff. I love Doeren as much as anyone, but good lord did he do a poor job of recruiting at some stuff. Look at the group of corners he left Carey with last year. That was one of the worst groups of corners I've ever seen. Then this year, there's a lot of talent back there, but there's what 5 freshman on the 2 deep at corners? Then you have Marlon Moore who was a terrible corner as one of your safties? Where is any of the DB talent he brought in? Then you look at the QBs. Imagine if Maddie didn't transfer in. Right now your options would be Hare or a true freshman in Root. You don't have to bring in Lynch or Harnish, but where was any talent Doeren recruited at QB or in the defensive backfield?

Now with all that being said, how just awful is Drew Hare? Has there been a less accurate NIU QB? That was a two TD late game late in the third quarter with NIU having all the momentum, and Da'Ron is running open for possibly a TD and he throws it behind him and it gets picked. How many times has he missed open WRs for TDs this year? I've seriously lost count. How many times did he have Brown or Canada open today and missed him? Why, exactly Carey chose today to ride it out with him is something I would love to hear an explanation for. The ONLY thing i can think of is with how big of a hole NIU dug itself, bringing in the running QB wouldn't make a lot of sense. The only problem with that is Hare can neither run or throw.

And then finally, nice of the defense to go all MAC Championship on us today. Not sure NIU would have won this game if Jordan Lynch was the QB because they didn't have a prayer of stopping Rawls. How many times did they run huge plays on the stretch play today? It looked like what NIU did with Wolfe. It was almost comical to watch Logan lose contain like 5+ times today and turn Rawls lose.

For NIU to get out physicaled and outrushed on their own home field and get their ass handed to them is completely humbling.

I'm sure nobody is going to listen to this, but I'll be pretty surprised if CMU wins out so NIU most likely controls their own destiny to get to Detroit. However, they can't do this with Hare anymore. They have to either play Maddie or hope McIntosh is healthy, put them in there, and run the offense how it's supposed to be run. If Maddie can't pass, I don't care. Hare can't run or pass. Put one of them back there and play. Bring back the QB power, bring back the jet sweeps, bring back the red option, bring back the diamond formation, bring back the goofy little toss they ran with Spencer. Enough is enough. And figure out whatever the hell was going on on defense today.

The season is far from over and the goal is still reachable, but they obviously have a lot to fix in a lot of places.

Well said 7 totally agree!

7 for President! Or NIU HC, either one will work for me. I'm sick of this anemic Huskie Offense behind Hare, bench him for his career and move on.

Yesterday we simply got outplayed and out coached. Offensively, we have a ton to figure out, not the least of which is an offensive identity...what are we; pro style, spread, west coast, a little if each? Defensively, we struggle against traditional offenses, with big O lines; our LBs had to take on Guards,Tackles and Fullbacks that were untouched; man we missed Jimmy Ward yesterday; our secondary run support was not good. We also may have missed an obvious Def adjustment. The strength if our D is the LBs. Folliard needs/deserves more playing time; Sants maybe playing better than anyone on D; why not adjust to a 3-4 and get Folliard and Santa on the field at the same time. Force them to make an Off adjustment on their blocking schemes. Lots of season left, much to improve upon.

(10-11-2014 09:52 PM)7 Wrote:  Now with all that being said, how just awful is Drew Hare? Has there been a less accurate NIU QB? That was a two TD game late in the third quarter with NIU having all the momentum, and Da'Ron is running open for possibly a TD and he throws it behind him and it gets picked. How many times has he missed open WRs for TDs this year? I've seriously lost count. Why, exactly Carey chose today to ride it out with him is something I would love to hear an explanation for. The ONLY thing i can think of is with how big of a hole NIU dug itself, bringing in the running QB wouldn't make a lot of sense. The only problem with that is Hare can neither run or throw.

For NIU to get out physicaled and outrushed on their own home field and get their ass handed to them is completely humbling.
....have to either play Maddie or hope McIntosh is healthy, put them in there, and run the offense how it's supposed to be run. If Maddie can't pass, I don't care. Hare can't run or pass. And figure out whatever the hell was going on on defense today.

Are you at practice every day? Because that may provide the answer to some of your questions.
Here's the deal, you read all these posts, o-line sucks, runningbacks have limitations, defense doesn't step up, no field goal kicker, lack of intensity, poor play-calling, or to quote you: It was almost comical to watch Logan lose contain like 5+ times today and turn Rawls lose., and on and on. Yet, you pin everything on Drew Hare.
I'm neither for or against McIntosh, Maddie or even Hare, but what I don't get is that since day one you've been pushing Maddie to the extent of now insulting and berating Hare. You actually think Hare isn't out there trying to complete passes? Maybe he does things better in practice, or the others don't do any better during practice, so the staff decided on Hare.
Early on, the majority of people thought Carey should pick a QB and stick with him knowing there would be good times and bad. Everything would be so different if only they'd picked your guy.
Yes, it was a two-TD game late in the third, so if Hare completed that one pass to Brown and it resulted in a touchdown that would have continued NIU's momentum, you know for a fact that suddenly the defense would stop Rawls and we'd go on to tie the game and then win it? Momentum couldn't possible switch in the fourth quarter?
Realize you stopped keeping count of how many times Hare missed open TEs and WRs, but did you keep count of our opponent's QBs doing the same -- or were those occasions when our defense was just playing better? Or how many times McIntosh or Maddie did the same?
I would love to hear an explanation of why you insist life would be so much better without Hare at QB? Since you brought it up, how exactly is the offense "supposed to be run?" Come up with a series of play calls and forward them to the coaching staff. Oh, and while you're at it, figure out whatever the hell was going on on defense.

We got outplayed. CMU has some talent. We are NOT head and shoulders more talented.

Commentator on replay was talking about our offense lacking an "identity" and did not like the body language of our players. This to me suggests a lack of leadership on team, players are looking for someone else to make the big play. J Lynch's void is not just talent, but his leadership.

Recruiting,the 2013 class had no scholly QB - we lost Mitch Kimble late to Syracuse. Not sure if QB is issue on team as much as knowing what your personnel is capable of and putting them in position to accomplish it. We do NOT have Chandler or Jordan on roster, adjust accordingly.

(10-12-2014 11:37 AM)NIU05 Wrote:  We got outplayed. CMU has some talent. We are NOT head and shoulders more talented.

Commentator on replay was talking about our offense lacking an "identity" and did not like the body language of our players. This to me suggests a lack of leadership on team, players are looking for someone else to make the big play. J Lynch's void is not just talent, but his leadership.

Recruiting,the 2013 class had no scholly QB - we lost Mitch Kimble late to Syracuse. Not sure if QB is issue on team as much as knowing what your personnel is capable of and putting them in position to accomplish it. We do NOT have Chandler or Jordan on roster, adjust accordingly.

I agree I hate mentioning stuff like that because it crosses into the "meatball" realm but the body language, not sure Ive ever seen that from an NIU team like it has been the past 2 weeks, even at home. It does seem like NIU is in that tweener position on offense, not sure exactly how to attack. My only concern with Carey is his ability to put players in best position to succeed.

This is obviously getting way ahead of myself, because NIU could lose multiple more games if they keep playing like this, but I believe the 3 way tiebreaker is record of crossover opponents. NIU's crossover games were Kent State, Miami, and Ohio and you know Toledo plays Bowling Green so that would automatically put Toledo over NIU.

So we need CMU to drop a game to control our own destiny. Their remaining schedule is:

vs. Ball State
@ Buffalo
@ EMU
vs. Miami
vs. WMU

That's not a difficult schedule whatsoever, but I'll still be pretty surprised if they don't drop at least one of those games.

[quote='7' pid='11239806' dateline='1413133391']
This is obviously getting way ahead of myself, because NIU could lose multiple more games if they keep playing like this, but I believe the 3 way tiebreaker is record of crossover opponents. NIU's crossover games were Kent State, Miami, and Ohio and you know Toledo plays Bowling Green so that would automatically put Toledo over NIU.

So we need CMU to drop a game to control our own destiny. Their remaining schedule is:

vs. Ball State
@ Buffalo
@ EMU
vs. Miami
vs. WMU

That's not a difficult schedule whatsoever, but I'll still be pretty surprised if they don't drop at least one of those games.

Man, WMU was one overtime away from being in the driver's seat

MD, that's not totally inaccurate but as easily as they could have won that game they could have lost yesterday.

Here's a different take.
For the past few years, we've run a quarterback read option. This year, no. Our offense seems to be limited to running big backs into the line or throwing deep passes. No trickery, no deception, little variability. Teams are packing the box and daring us to open up. Our line seems incapable of blocking for the runners or protecting the passer. Coaches seem to have no confidence in our QB's. We have no speed. TLL is gone. Daniels seems slower and runs little. Our wide outs can't get open. Our tight end never catches a pass. So, it's Stingly or Bougnan up the middle and a long pass. Our one kicker is inconsistent. Our linebackers seem pretty good, but the D line is small and inconsistent in stopping the rush or pressuring the passer. Our DB's are young and make mistakes or get caught out of position often.
Bottom line, I doubt we can beat Toledo. The rest of our games are winnable, but who knows.
Biggest problem is QB, but the lack of speed is a close second. The lack of size on D is another. The O line has been a huge disappointment.
We've got three easier opponents up next, so why not experiment with Maddie, McIntosh or whomever, go back to the read option, and at least introduce some uncertainty in the minds of our opponents.
The HC crowd was great. Great weather. What a shame to waste an excellent opportunity to win some new fans.

Our WRs are getting open, the QB is just missing them. WR play has not been the problem this year.

(10-12-2014 11:40 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(10-12-2014 11:37 AM)NIU05 Wrote:  We got outplayed. CMU has some talent. We are NOT head and shoulders more talented.

Commentator on replay was talking about our offense lacking an "identity" and did not like the body language of our players. This to me suggests a lack of leadership on team, players are looking for someone else to make the big play. J Lynch's void is not just talent, but his leadership.

Recruiting,the 2013 class had no scholly QB - we lost Mitch Kimble late to Syracuse. Not sure if QB is issue on team as much as knowing what your personnel is capable of and putting them in position to accomplish it. We do NOT have Chandler or Jordan on roster, adjust accordingly.

I agree I hate mentioning stuff like that because it crosses into the "meatball" realm but the body language, not sure Ive ever seen that from an NIU team like it has been the past 2 weeks, even at home. It does seem like NIU is in that tweener position on offense, not sure exactly how to attack. My only concern with Carey is his ability to put players in best position to succeed.

Body language tends to suffer when you're getting your ass handed to you.

(10-12-2014 12:23 PM)bigredmachine Wrote:  Here's a different take.
For the past few years, we've run a quarterback read option. This year, no. Our offense seems to be limited to running big backs into the line or throwing deep passes. No trickery, no deception, little variability. Teams are packing the box and daring us to open up. Our line seems incapable of blocking for the runners or protecting the passer. Coaches seem to have no confidence in our QB's. We have no speed. TLL is gone. Daniels seems slower and runs little. Our wide outs can't get open. Our tight end never catches a pass. So, it's Stingly or Bougnan up the middle and a long pass. Our one kicker is inconsistent. Our linebackers seem pretty good, but the D line is small and inconsistent in stopping the rush or pressuring the passer. Our DB's are young and make mistakes or get caught out of position often.
Bottom line, I doubt we can beat Toledo. The rest of our games are winnable, but who knows.
Biggest problem is QB, but the lack of speed is a close second. The lack of size on D is another. The O line has been a huge disappointment.
We've got three easier opponents up next, so why not experiment with Maddie, McIntosh or whomever, go back to the read option, and at least introduce some uncertainty in the minds of our opponents.
The HC crowd was great. Great weather. What a shame to waste an excellent opportunity to win some new fans.

They need to go back to what this offense does well, which is exactly what you said. Hare is not good enough to warrant altering the offense to fit him. Give Maddie the reigns and let's see if he warrants it.

Pridenthepack, yes losing by 7pts is not getting destroyed. In case you didn't realize it a loss is a loss. Also after losing to BG, getting beat by UTAH ST was horrible.

(10-12-2014 12:41 PM)dekalb222 Wrote:  Pridenthepack, yes losing by 7pts is not getting destroyed. In case you didn't realize it a loss is a loss. Also after losing to BG, getting beat by UTAH ST was horrible.

You specifically said they got destroyed in all 4 losses. In case you didn't realize...they didn't.