It's sort of funny how a 7-1 season righ now feels like a lost cause. NIU isn't better. We were just didn't play well. Fact is. They have some big players hurt, and we need them to lose a game to a good WMU team for us to be in it.

Win 3 and chances are pretty good we go to the MACC. Most people predicted what? 8-4? 9-3? This team could go down in flames and sail down to the Bahamas... or go to a good bowl with 1 or 2 losses. The talent is there. With creative play calling and pressure off our back... This team has the potential to be the greatest in my lifetime.

It wouldn't hurt so bad if we had not succeeded earlier in the year to get to this point. Hold your heads up Rocket nation. We still need you. A showdown with WMU the day after thanksgiving could determine the MAC West. Congrats to NIU, but they've done it time and time again with 1 loss. This year could be our turn.

I would give you a +1 for the positive post, but after much searching it appears I need to post almost 800 more times before I can.

(11-04-2015 02:00 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  It's sort of funny how a 7-1 season righ now feels like a lost cause. NIU isn't better. We were just didn't play well. Fact is. They have some big players hurt, and we need them to lose a game to a good WMU team for us to be in it.

Win 3 and chances are pretty good we go to the MACC. Most people predicted what? 8-4? 9-3? This team could go down in flames and sail down to the Bahamas... or go to a good bowl with 1 or 2 losses. The talent is there. With creative play calling and pressure off our back... This team has the potential to be the greatest in my lifetime.

It wouldn't hurt so bad if we had not succeeded earlier in the year to get to this point. Hold your heads up Rocket nation. We still need you. A showdown with WMU the day after thanksgiving could determine the MAC West. Congrats to NIU, but they've done it time and time again with 1 loss. This year could be our turn.

The sad part is that there are very few seasons and opportunities where you knock off two P5 programs and have an opportunity to go on to the big stage to show that you are just as good as the "big boys" without all their money. Basketball allows you to have this opportunity every year. In football, if you are a "small guy", you need to go undefeated like a Boise State or Utah to have a chance of becoming a big boy. All power 5 teams at some point in their history were like a Toledo and put a season or two together to become a Perennial power. This was our opportunity, and we failed. We may be better off going D1-AA and compete with The likes of North Dakota State.

(11-04-2015 02:49 PM)Rocketand2nuts Wrote:  

(11-04-2015 02:00 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  It's sort of funny how a 7-1 season righ now feels like a lost cause. NIU isn't better. We were just didn't play well. Fact is. They have some big players hurt, and we need them to lose a game to a good WMU team for us to be in it.

Win 3 and chances are pretty good we go to the MACC. Most people predicted what? 8-4? 9-3? This team could go down in flames and sail down to the Bahamas... or go to a good bowl with 1 or 2 losses. The talent is there. With creative play calling and pressure off our back... This team has the potential to be the greatest in my lifetime.

It wouldn't hurt so bad if we had not succeeded earlier in the year to get to this point. Hold your heads up Rocket nation. We still need you. A showdown with WMU the day after thanksgiving could determine the MAC West. Congrats to NIU, but they've done it time and time again with 1 loss. This year could be our turn.

The sad part is that there are very few seasons and opportunities where you knock off two P5 programs and have an opportunity to go on to the big stage to show that you are just as good as the "big boys" without all their money. Basketball allows you to have this opportunity every year. In football, if you are a "small guy", you need to go undefeated like a Boise State or Utah to have a chance of becoming a big boy. All power 5 teams at some point in their history were like a Toledo and put a season or two together to become a Perennial power. This was our opportunity, and we failed. We may be better off going D1-AA and compete with The likes of North Dakota State.

Wow. don't lose the faith. dream season may be lost but still has possibility to be one of the best in a decade. Day of despair is officially over for me. Still proud of our program.

If we were 6-6 Beat BG and won the MAC I would be cool with it. I dont need to be 12-0 to be a happy camper. Conference championships seem to pass UT. Freaking Akron did it in football more recently than us... CMU is winning in basketball now. It's tiring being relevant and not taking the next step. WIN THE MAC!!

There are two goals in every season... Beat BG. Get to the Title game.
Both are in front of us, with less help than usual. Bowl games are a bonus for me. I'd rather win the conference than win a bowl game if I had to choose one. I'm not giving up yet.

NIU's 2003 team with Michael Turner beat #15 Maryland at home, beat #21 Alabama, got up to #12 before we lost to #23 BG and we were still ranked #21 when we lost to your Rockets. BG game was College Game Day and we **** the bed. Our 2 loses didn't even let us sniff a bowl game back then. We even averaged 23,575 attendance that year.

Worse Season Ever! (edit: and the best season as we've done pretty well since and Novak changed the culture of our program)

Hoping you guys can hold it together and Finish Strong.

Statistics will show that your assessment that NIU isn't better than Toledo isn't a great argument.

Going into the game NIU and Toledo were 1-2 in rushing yards. They were both about the same scoring wise, defensively NIU gave up a TD more a game. QB efficiency NIU was better. Then when you go into the game, yards per play exactly the same. That's with kneeing the ball and having over 50 yards lost in fumble. Until Ely threw the pick to seal the game turnovers were equal. TOP was virtually the same.

It's okay to give the other team credit, especially given the circumstances and Toledo was the home team. Not to mention NIU scored more times and more points. They were better on special teams. Toledo deserves credit for running all over NIU and for starting 7-0, but statistics prove that Toledo wasn't exactly that much better if better at all going into the game.

(11-04-2015 04:19 PM)HuskieJWN Wrote:  Statistics will show that your assessment that NIU isn't better than Toledo isn't a great argument.

Going into the game NIU and Toledo were 1-2 in rushing yards. They were both about the same scoring wise, defensively NIU gave up a TD more a game. QB efficiency NIU was better. Then when you go into the game, yards per play exactly the same. That's with kneeing the ball and having over 50 yards lost in fumble. Until Ely threw the pick to seal the game turnovers were equal. TOP was virtually the same.

It's okay to give the other team credit, especially given the circumstances and Toledo was the home team. Not to mention NIU scored more times and more points. They were better on special teams. Toledo deserves credit for running all over NIU and for starting 7-0, but statistics prove that Toledo wasn't exactly that much better if better at all going into the game.

Whatever, seen every game we've played this year. We beat ourselves last night.

(11-04-2015 02:00 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  It's sort of funny how a 7-1 season righ now feels like a lost cause. NIU isn't better. We were just didn't play well. Fact is. They have some big players hurt, and we need them to lose a game to a good WMU team for us to be in it.

Win 3 and chances are pretty good we go to the MACC. Most people predicted what? 8-4? 9-3? This team could go down in flames and sail down to the Bahamas... or go to a good bowl with 1 or 2 losses. The talent is there. With creative play calling and pressure off our back... This team has the potential to be the greatest in my lifetime.

It wouldn't hurt so bad if we had not succeeded earlier in the year to get to this point. Hold your heads up Rocket nation. We still need you. A showdown with WMU the day after thanksgiving could determine the MAC West. Congrats to NIU, but they've done it time and time again with 1 loss. This year could be our turn.

NIU has done it time and time again with one loss.. Yes but the key is that the one loss can't be to Toledo! Our one loss can't be to NIU. I really think there should be a realignment in the MAC. Toledo should move to the East and Miami to the West. It would balance the divisions. It would put high priority on the BG game every year and set up great MACC with Toledo or BG vs NIU/WMU and maybe Central. Right now it seems like the East can lose a couple games and still win the division. That's BS.

(11-04-2015 04:32 PM)UTLAW Wrote:  

(11-04-2015 04:19 PM)HuskieJWN Wrote:  Statistics will show that your assessment that NIU isn't better than Toledo isn't a great argument.

Going into the game NIU and Toledo were 1-2 in rushing yards. They were both about the same scoring wise, defensively NIU gave up a TD more a game. QB efficiency NIU was better. Then when you go into the game, yards per play exactly the same. That's with kneeing the ball and having over 50 yards lost in fumble. Until Ely threw the pick to seal the game turnovers were equal. TOP was virtually the same.

It's okay to give the other team credit, especially given the circumstances and Toledo was the home team. Not to mention NIU scored more times and more points. They were better on special teams. Toledo deserves credit for running all over NIU and for starting 7-0, but statistics prove that Toledo wasn't exactly that much better if better at all going into the game.

Whatever, seen every game we've played this year. We beat ourselves last night.

Always some excuse, 6 years of excuses!

We missed open guys. We fair caught balls at the 5 yard line. One corner got beat on the same deep pass 3 times. Toledo's record prove's they were better this season going into that game. NIU says they are better than CMU despite the loss to the chips. This year is the year we can say that if NIU goes down in the next three and we sweep.

(11-04-2015 05:02 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(11-04-2015 04:32 PM)UTLAW Wrote:  

(11-04-2015 04:19 PM)HuskieJWN Wrote:  Statistics will show that your assessment that NIU isn't better than Toledo isn't a great argument.

Going into the game NIU and Toledo were 1-2 in rushing yards. They were both about the same scoring wise, defensively NIU gave up a TD more a game. QB efficiency NIU was better. Then when you go into the game, yards per play exactly the same. That's with kneeing the ball and having over 50 yards lost in fumble. Until Ely threw the pick to seal the game turnovers were equal. TOP was virtually the same.

It's okay to give the other team credit, especially given the circumstances and Toledo was the home team. Not to mention NIU scored more times and more points. They were better on special teams. Toledo deserves credit for running all over NIU and for starting 7-0, but statistics prove that Toledo wasn't exactly that much better if better at all going into the game.

Whatever, seen every game we've played this year. We beat ourselves last night.

Always some excuse, 6 years of excuses!

Yes we have 6 years of excuses.... I would say for the last five years NIU always had the better team. This year I don't think it was the case. And yes you did have some help from the refs this year and probably the worst possible game you could have had from our starting QB. Horrid no call on Offensive PI was a deciding factor in the outcome of the game. But no question, I think NIU deserved the W. But let's put this in perspective, Before the past 6years, NIU had close close to 20 some years of excuses. It's what make all this fun. NIU is to UT what MSU is to UM.... Things will tun around again.

If you looked at the overall team stats for the two teams this season, which NewMex Tom posted in his game preview, they are remarkably similar, with one exception: the red zone figures. It seems to me that you can't expect to go through an entire season without the red zone D slipping up for a game or two, but they were outstanding through 7 games and it was looking like it would continue through the 8th game, as NIU did not have a red zone TD until the drive that was assisted by the leverage penalty late in the game.

There is a difference between making excuses and stating what happened. We all watched the game. It wouldn't even have required a good performance to win last night. I'd have killed for a mediocre or slightly lesser performance, because it would have been enough to win. But it didn't happen and that's all that matters, and it's a lot tougher to accept a loss like that compared to last year where we didn't have much to lose given the situation, and put it all on the line just to come up a little bit short.

(11-04-2015 08:27 PM)BDV27 Wrote:  

(11-04-2015 05:02 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(11-04-2015 04:32 PM)UTLAW Wrote:  

(11-04-2015 04:19 PM)HuskieJWN Wrote:  Statistics will show that your assessment that NIU isn't better than Toledo isn't a great argument.

Going into the game NIU and Toledo were 1-2 in rushing yards. They were both about the same scoring wise, defensively NIU gave up a TD more a game. QB efficiency NIU was better. Then when you go into the game, yards per play exactly the same. That's with kneeing the ball and having over 50 yards lost in fumble. Until Ely threw the pick to seal the game turnovers were equal. TOP was virtually the same.

It's okay to give the other team credit, especially given the circumstances and Toledo was the home team. Not to mention NIU scored more times and more points. They were better on special teams. Toledo deserves credit for running all over NIU and for starting 7-0, but statistics prove that Toledo wasn't exactly that much better if better at all going into the game.

Whatever, seen every game we've played this year. We beat ourselves last night.

Always some excuse, 6 years of excuses!

Yes we have 6 years of excuses.... I would say for the last five years NIU always had the better team. This year I don't think it was the case. And yes you did have some help from the refs this year and probably the worst possible game you could have had from our starting QB. Horrid no call on Offensive PI was a deciding factor in the outcome of the game. But no question, I think NIU deserved the W. But let's put this in perspective, Before the past 6years, NIU had close close to 20 some years of excuses. It's what make all this fun. NIU is to UT what MSU is to UM.... Things will tun around again.

The CMU game was an NIU disaster.
While Toledo had its worst game of the year, they never turned the ball over 5 times.
The game was close as usual, but your team never had the fire and determination that NIU brought to Toledo.

Toledo has the most talented MAC team this year with the best OOC record.
Toledo should blow CMU out. If you turnover the ball 5 times you might lose.
Your team is far too good and well coached to sink into a four game losing streak.