(11-06-2014 09:04 AM)niusfactuary Wrote:  Unpopular opinion alert:

While I think Da'Ron is really good at getting open, I feel like unless the pass is perfect, he doesn't come up with it. Hare's passes are not often perfect, but rarely do you see Brown make an effort to go down and get a ball that might be a little low, or reach back to try and catch one that's a little behind him.

Brown is going to be the guy in this years NFL Draft where people on here say "If he gets a chance he's going to succeed. He's tough as nails." And when he doesn't people are going to blame all the NFL teams for not giving him a chance.

(11-06-2014 09:40 AM)PrideinthePack Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 09:04 AM)niusfactuary Wrote:  Unpopular opinion alert:

While I think Da'Ron is really good at getting open, I feel like unless the pass is perfect, he doesn't come up with it. Hare's passes are not often perfect, but rarely do you see Brown make an effort to go down and get a ball that might be a little low, or reach back to try and catch one that's a little behind him.

Brown is going to be the guy in this years NFL Draft where people on here say "If he gets a chance he's going to succeed. He's tough as nails." And when he doesn't people are going to blame all the NFL teams for not giving him a chance.

Nope. He is not good enough.

(11-06-2014 09:45 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 09:40 AM)PrideinthePack Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 09:04 AM)niusfactuary Wrote:  Unpopular opinion alert:

While I think Da'Ron is really good at getting open, I feel like unless the pass is perfect, he doesn't come up with it. Hare's passes are not often perfect, but rarely do you see Brown make an effort to go down and get a ball that might be a little low, or reach back to try and catch one that's a little behind him.

Brown is going to be the guy in this years NFL Draft where people on here say "If he gets a chance he's going to succeed. He's tough as nails." And when he doesn't people are going to blame all the NFL teams for not giving him a chance.

Nope. He is not good enough.

Agreed. Look how many great NIU players have made only practice squads, or even are out of football after short stints on practice squads. It is so hard to make it. Would love to see Brown make it, but I don't think he will. Prove us wrong, Da'Ron.

(11-06-2014 09:53 AM)beachboy Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 09:45 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 09:40 AM)PrideinthePack Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 09:04 AM)niusfactuary Wrote:  Unpopular opinion alert:

While I think Da'Ron is really good at getting open, I feel like unless the pass is perfect, he doesn't come up with it. Hare's passes are not often perfect, but rarely do you see Brown make an effort to go down and get a ball that might be a little low, or reach back to try and catch one that's a little behind him.

Brown is going to be the guy in this years NFL Draft where people on here say "If he gets a chance he's going to succeed. He's tough as nails." And when he doesn't people are going to blame all the NFL teams for not giving him a chance.

Nope. He is not good enough.

Agreed. Look how many great NIU players have made only practice squads, or even are out of football after short stints on practice squads. It is so hard to make it. Would love to see Brown make it, but I don't think he will. Prove us wrong, Da'Ron.

He's got great hands and has an excellent burst of speed after the ball is thrown. Look at all of the great catches that he made last year from Lynch. I disagree with the assessment that he won't go out of his way to get the ball.

That being said, I agree that he may make some team's practice squad or get some free agent try outs, but he is not big enough or possess the skill to make a 53 man NFL roster. He is in the same mold as Nathan Palmer and Britt Davis. They are good college receivers, but not good enough for the NFL.

Great win by our guys. I'm really getting a kick out of this team. It ain't pretty at all but they find a way. Our motto should be "The MAC sucks this year so why not us?" Seriously though this isn't the most talented team in the world but they showed some toughness last night that was good to see.

It looked to me like the QBs were having a hard time gripping the ball last night. In the early going Hare was way off the mark on short passes and that is unlike him. Milas had a few interesting looking throws too and Maddie threw behind Turner on that third down slant which may or may not have been grip related. If cold weather is going to be a problem for Hare he should think about wearing a glove. To his credit he hung in there and threw some pills for first downs in the second half.

I still think Hare has a chance to be pretty good. This year is his apprenticeship. The game should slow down for him next year as he recognizes situations he encountered this year. I like how they have him throw deep a few times a game even though he's not good at it. It's the only way to learn. You'll recall that Harnish couldn't hit a deep ball to save his life as a sophomore. Not saying that Hare will turn into Harnish but he has a chance to get a lot better. If he's going to take a leap it will be next year.

The coaches need to have an audible in the books for when QB Power is called and has zero chance of success. There was a time in the second half when we went empty backfield on about 3rd and 4 and Ball State had every gap filled. They had seven guys up on the line of scrimmage and Hare got killed. There was nobody at the linebacker position so a tight end slant would have been a gimme. Maybe they do have that and Hare didn't recognize it, just saying they need to adjust in that situation.

Our D played pretty well last night with the exception of Logan getting burned on that double move. Fantastic job in stoning BSU after the turnovers, that was clutch. They held Jahwan Edwards under 100 yards which is no small thing. That guy is really good and it's great that we won't see him any more. It feels like he's been there about six years. We got some good pressure on the QB which was nice. Ben Compton was getting after it in the second half. Payton seemed to be around the ball all night. I noticed Smaha out there on D for the first time all season, he has been a forgotten man.

It's weird how our offense can be so good sometimes and so bad others. The opening series' of the Ball State and CMU games and the two scoring drives of the Arkansas game are examples of when we look absolutely unstoppable. And then the next three times we have the ball we can't get out of our own way. This offensive unit has been teasing us all year, like a high performance engine that gets clogged up now and again. Realistically it's probably due to QB inconsistency for the most part. A small improvement there will yield a big improvement overall. There was some bad luck last night too. One time last night we had a nice drive going and had 3rd and 3 just outside their 30 and Turner got crushed on a jet sweep for a 7 yard loss. Great play by BSU, they had it defensed perfectly. And that offensive pass interference on Brescacin was ridiculous. He barely touched that guy. It took away a 40 yard gain.

On the subject of bad calls how about the roughing the kicker on Wimann. The return guy stuck his foot out and did his best FIFA flop. That was a joke.

Great job by Wedel on his punts, he was crushing those things. What little we saw of Hagan looked good too. His extra points were high and straight as an arrow, something we haven't seen this year. Wedel's kickoffs were weird all night, not sure of that was intentional or it was just a tough night to kick the ball. That first kickoff worked out well for us obviously. Great hustle by Huff and Payton to get right in Edwards' face and get the recovery.

Cam Stingily. How terrible it must be to tackle him in the 4th quarter. He was a man among boys out there and did a great job of icing this game. We got the pick 6 with 12:58 left and BSU came back and scored 2 minutes and change later. After that it was all Cam. He's the perfect guy for that situation, like a bowling ball rumbling down the alley.

Final thoughts. We are in a transition year and have managed to get to 7 and 2. Not pretty but we've done it. Ball State is in a transition year and they're 3 and 6. This year there are 125 full time and 3 transitional FBS teams. How many have 7 or more wins at this point? 23. So we must be doing something right.

1. I thought we got away from our strengths last in the first quarter and early in the second quarter. Seemed like lazy play and lazy play-calling due to the early lead/scores. Football isn't that easy; you still have to put the work in!

2. I'm waiting for 'that game' or more hopefully 'that stretch' where we all look at Hare and go "Ohhhhhh, now it makes sense why he's the guy." I'm not going to hold my breath that it's going to happen, but sometimes it just takes time and I'm hoping that starting this week with Toledo, a stretch of hot QB play that takes us to (and through) Detroit begins.

Brown doesn't have great hands, they're super inconsistent.

He makes a ton of great catches see iowa a few times last year, a lot of good sideline grabs and others, but he drops some easy ones.

Not sure if it's cuz he played QB in high school or just a focus issue.

However, he's certainly more of a prospect than NIU has had at WR than anyone lately. Other guys had better stats but he's bigger and faster than Moore is and has more game tape than Ashford.

I think people forget a lot of good prospects and NFL players don't always have the best college stats. But he has the best skill set, good possession WR an big play threat. He's also the best blocking WR since I can remember. He is inconsistent but when he's consistent hes one of the best players in the conference and one of NIUs best receivers in recent memory.

Daron Brown has great hands? This board never cease to amaze and entertain me

Interesting notes on the "gripping the ball" issues with the QB's, I've never thought about it before, but it makes a huge difference in our offense where it's getting the ball out quick and needing to hit the WR in stride on the screens/short passes, we haven't been able to do that consistently, which makes those 10 yard gains...2 yards gains. On the 1st drive last night, we did hit them in stride, but then it stopped.

I thought this was the best the D has played since Northwestern. Other than the easy drive we gave up in the 4th, pretty great night for them. Yes, the bad QB helped, but we had most of the passes defended well anyways.

I disagree on the comments on Brown's hands...did you see some of the sideline catches last night? What exactly did he miss? The deep ball that was overthrown a bit? He has had a past of some bad drops, but haven't seen that very much this year. No idea if he'll make it in the NFL.

This team is fun to watch...if you aren't enjoying it, I feel bad. It's not pretty, but all of these games are going to be exciting...it's not easy.

NIU ran 93 plays last night. I would love to see a rematch with Bowling Green for no other reason to see how many plays the two teams could run.

Announced attendance: 6,642. Pretty sad, but that's what happens on a weeknight game when the home team is not fighting for anything. That attendance would have been even lower with bad weather.

(11-06-2014 12:22 PM)17Huskies Wrote:  Interesting notes on the "gripping the ball" issues with the QB's, I've never thought about it before, but it makes a huge difference in our offense where it's getting the ball out quick and needing to hit the WR in stride on the screens/short passes, we haven't been able to do that consistently, which makes those 10 yard gains...2 yards gains. On the 1st drive last night, we did hit them in stride, but then it stopped.

I thought this was the best the D has played since Northwestern. Other than the easy drive we gave up in the 4th, pretty great night for them. Yes, the bad QB helped, but we had most of the passes defended well anyways.

I disagree on the comments on Brown's hands...did you see some of the sideline catches last night? What exactly did he miss? The deep ball that was overthrown a bit? He has had a past of some bad drops, but haven't seen that very much this year. No idea if he'll make it in the NFL.

This team is fun to watch...if you aren't enjoying it, I feel bad. It's not pretty, but all of these games are going to be exciting...it's not easy.

+1 Brown has amazing hands, for anyone to question that, they must not be speaking of the same Brown.

(11-06-2014 01:39 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  Announced attendance: 6,642. Pretty sad, but that's what happens on a weeknight game when the home team is not fighting for anything. That attendance would have been even lower with bad weather.

That would never happen at EMU

(11-06-2014 01:49 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 12:22 PM)17Huskies Wrote:  Interesting notes on the "gripping the ball" issues with the QB's, I've never thought about it before, but it makes a huge difference in our offense where it's getting the ball out quick and needing to hit the WR in stride on the screens/short passes, we haven't been able to do that consistently, which makes those 10 yard gains...2 yards gains. On the 1st drive last night, we did hit them in stride, but then it stopped.

I thought this was the best the D has played since Northwestern. Other than the easy drive we gave up in the 4th, pretty great night for them. Yes, the bad QB helped, but we had most of the passes defended well anyways.

I disagree on the comments on Brown's hands...did you see some of the sideline catches last night? What exactly did he miss? The deep ball that was overthrown a bit? He has had a past of some bad drops, but haven't seen that very much this year. No idea if he'll make it in the NFL.

This team is fun to watch...if you aren't enjoying it, I feel bad. It's not pretty, but all of these games are going to be exciting...it's not easy.

+1 Brown has amazing hands, for anyone to question that, they must not be speaking of the same Brown.

He also has butterfingers AT TIMES.

NaPalm has carved a niche for himself in the NFL and I do not believe he has the same overall talent that Brown does at the WR position. I would be surprised if Brown is not picked up as an undrafted FA this coming offseason.

(11-06-2014 01:51 PM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:39 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  Announced attendance: 6,642. Pretty sad, but that's what happens on a weeknight game when the home team is not fighting for anything. That attendance would have been even lower with bad weather.

That would never happen at EMU

A Wednesday night MACtion game at EMU would most definitely be 20k+!!!

(11-06-2014 01:51 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:49 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 12:22 PM)17Huskies Wrote:  Interesting notes on the "gripping the ball" issues with the QB's, I've never thought about it before, but it makes a huge difference in our offense where it's getting the ball out quick and needing to hit the WR in stride on the screens/short passes, we haven't been able to do that consistently, which makes those 10 yard gains...2 yards gains. On the 1st drive last night, we did hit them in stride, but then it stopped.

I thought this was the best the D has played since Northwestern. Other than the easy drive we gave up in the 4th, pretty great night for them. Yes, the bad QB helped, but we had most of the passes defended well anyways.

I disagree on the comments on Brown's hands...did you see some of the sideline catches last night? What exactly did he miss? The deep ball that was overthrown a bit? He has had a past of some bad drops, but haven't seen that very much this year. No idea if he'll make it in the NFL.

This team is fun to watch...if you aren't enjoying it, I feel bad. It's not pretty, but all of these games are going to be exciting...it's not easy.

+1 Brown has amazing hands, for anyone to question that, they must not be speaking of the same Brown.

He also has butterfingers AT TIMES.

NaPalm has carved a niche for himself in the NFL and I do not believe he has the same overall talent that Brown does at the WR position. I would be surprised if Brown is not picked up as an undrafted FA this coming offseason.

The way he catches sideline passes with the great foot control while making a pure hands catch...that's as good as Ive seen in awhile.

(11-06-2014 01:55 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:51 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:49 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 12:22 PM)17Huskies Wrote:  Interesting notes on the "gripping the ball" issues with the QB's, I've never thought about it before, but it makes a huge difference in our offense where it's getting the ball out quick and needing to hit the WR in stride on the screens/short passes, we haven't been able to do that consistently, which makes those 10 yard gains...2 yards gains. On the 1st drive last night, we did hit them in stride, but then it stopped.

I thought this was the best the D has played since Northwestern. Other than the easy drive we gave up in the 4th, pretty great night for them. Yes, the bad QB helped, but we had most of the passes defended well anyways.

I disagree on the comments on Brown's hands...did you see some of the sideline catches last night? What exactly did he miss? The deep ball that was overthrown a bit? He has had a past of some bad drops, but haven't seen that very much this year. No idea if he'll make it in the NFL.

This team is fun to watch...if you aren't enjoying it, I feel bad. It's not pretty, but all of these games are going to be exciting...it's not easy.

+1 Brown has amazing hands, for anyone to question that, they must not be speaking of the same Brown.

He also has butterfingers AT TIMES.

NaPalm has carved a niche for himself in the NFL and I do not believe he has the same overall talent that Brown does at the WR position. I would be surprised if Brown is not picked up as an undrafted FA this coming offseason.

The way he catches sideline passes with the great foot control while making a pure hands catch...that's as good as Ive seen in awhile.

+1

(11-06-2014 01:52 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:51 PM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:39 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  Announced attendance: 6,642. Pretty sad, but that's what happens on a weeknight game when the home team is not fighting for anything. That attendance would have been even lower with bad weather.

That would never happen at EMU

A Wednesday night MACtion game at EMU would most definitely be 20k+!!!

And maybe a sellout if the weather is miserable.

(11-06-2014 01:55 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:51 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:49 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 12:22 PM)17Huskies Wrote:  Interesting notes on the "gripping the ball" issues with the QB's, I've never thought about it before, but it makes a huge difference in our offense where it's getting the ball out quick and needing to hit the WR in stride on the screens/short passes, we haven't been able to do that consistently, which makes those 10 yard gains...2 yards gains. On the 1st drive last night, we did hit them in stride, but then it stopped.

I thought this was the best the D has played since Northwestern. Other than the easy drive we gave up in the 4th, pretty great night for them. Yes, the bad QB helped, but we had most of the passes defended well anyways.

I disagree on the comments on Brown's hands...did you see some of the sideline catches last night? What exactly did he miss? The deep ball that was overthrown a bit? He has had a past of some bad drops, but haven't seen that very much this year. No idea if he'll make it in the NFL.

This team is fun to watch...if you aren't enjoying it, I feel bad. It's not pretty, but all of these games are going to be exciting...it's not easy.

+1 Brown has amazing hands, for anyone to question that, they must not be speaking of the same Brown.

He also has butterfingers AT TIMES.

NaPalm has carved a niche for himself in the NFL and I do not believe he has the same overall talent that Brown does at the WR position. I would be surprised if Brown is not picked up as an undrafted FA this coming offseason.

The way he catches sideline passes with the great foot control while making a pure hands catch...that's as good as Ive seen in awhile.

He's just a little inconsistent that's all. Seems to have a harder time adjusting to the ball sometimes. But he's had fewer drops this year than previously. If we had a QB that could hit him in stride more consistently he'd be putting up big numbers IMO.

(11-06-2014 03:34 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:55 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:51 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 01:49 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(11-06-2014 12:22 PM)17Huskies Wrote:  Interesting notes on the "gripping the ball" issues with the QB's, I've never thought about it before, but it makes a huge difference in our offense where it's getting the ball out quick and needing to hit the WR in stride on the screens/short passes, we haven't been able to do that consistently, which makes those 10 yard gains...2 yards gains. On the 1st drive last night, we did hit them in stride, but then it stopped.

I thought this was the best the D has played since Northwestern. Other than the easy drive we gave up in the 4th, pretty great night for them. Yes, the bad QB helped, but we had most of the passes defended well anyways.

I disagree on the comments on Brown's hands...did you see some of the sideline catches last night? What exactly did he miss? The deep ball that was overthrown a bit? He has had a past of some bad drops, but haven't seen that very much this year. No idea if he'll make it in the NFL.

This team is fun to watch...if you aren't enjoying it, I feel bad. It's not pretty, but all of these games are going to be exciting...it's not easy.

+1 Brown has amazing hands, for anyone to question that, they must not be speaking of the same Brown.

He also has butterfingers AT TIMES.

NaPalm has carved a niche for himself in the NFL and I do not believe he has the same overall talent that Brown does at the WR position. I would be surprised if Brown is not picked up as an undrafted FA this coming offseason.

The way he catches sideline passes with the great foot control while making a pure hands catch...that's as good as Ive seen in awhile.

He's just a little inconsistent that's all. Seems to have a harder time adjusting to the ball sometimes. But he's had fewer drops this year than previously. If we had a QB that could hit him in stride more consistently he'd be putting up big numbers IMO.

Agreed, our QBs do not make our receivers look very good. Brown would be a deadly weapon with a great QB