(09-18-2016 07:52 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-17-2016 10:28 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  I never heard an announced attendance, and don't see it anywhere else. Anybody know what it was?

14,513

That's horrible. Being on tv brings less people out to the stadium but that's unacceptable. It was a perfect day. Plus I'm ready to be done with cbs sports since we are 0-3 this year on that channel. Have we ever won playing on that?

Scott Dochterman ‏@ScottDochterman 2h2 hours ago North Liberty, IA

@gerrydinardo I've seen some fine MAC squads over the years like NIU in 12/13, but NDSU was better than all of them.

(09-18-2016 02:28 PM)Dtownboys Wrote:  

(09-18-2016 07:52 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(09-17-2016 10:28 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  I never heard an announced attendance, and don't see it anywhere else. Anybody know what it was?

14,513

That's horrible. Being on tv brings less people out to the stadium but that's unacceptable. It was a perfect day. Plus I'm ready to be done with cbs sports since we are 0-3 this year on that channel. Have we ever won playing on that?

Wasn't at least one of the UNLV games on CBS sports channel? We won both of those and probably a basketball game as well.

I was very encouraged by the teams performance after halfway through the second quarter. We have a chance to win next week and start a winning streak that could go for a few games. If we can nearly beat what is now the #22 team in the country after the game is 28-0, we have enough game to beat a Central Michigan / Toledo / Western Michigan, especially if we can get some key breaks. I am not saying we are going to run the table this year, but I would take us out of the division title before conference play begins.

(09-17-2016 10:05 PM)NIU1981 Wrote:  Seriously, no joke. For a good period of time today we were kicking their a$$es and the reemergence of Huskie football for the first time in a looong time was great to see. Physical and emotional. I don't even mind some of the penalties because they came from emotion which has been sorely lacking.

Also, it was great that we were in the game late when you consider:

-We spotted them 28 points.

-Our largest D end got kicked out four minutes into the game. That was unfortunate but what can you do. It technically met the criteria for targeting even though it was anything but. They need to continue to refine that rule.

-They had several explosive plays while we got stuffed on 4th and short to end a good scoring opportunity. (It's good that Graham was under center but you might not want the tailback lined up 8 yards deep when you need a half yard, just saying.)

-Their punter pinned us inside our 10 yard line I don't know how many times while our punter was averaging about 15 yards a kick or so (I refuse to look it up, know it was bad).

-Our QB threw a couple of bad picks.

Basically, everything went right for them and a lot went wrong for us and we showed enough resilience to still have a chance at the end.

A lot depends on Graham's continued development of course because it's all about your QB. He will learn from his mistakes and get better. When he's good he's real good, he just needs to reduce his mistakes. If he does that and the team in general continues to get more consistent and bring the energy and emotion this team will be a handful. In fact there's not a game left on our schedule that they couldn't win.

Starting this week we go on a winning streak.

C'mon, 1981, is this really how far we've sunk as a NIU fan base? I can't believe that I'm reading an NIU fan is "very encouraged" that we just lost by two touchdowns, at HOME, to a Mountain West team that traveled all the way from Southern California.

That's pathetic. Have you considered, for one moment, that SDSU went vanilla and took their foot of the gas pedal because they had such a big lead?

Our special teams are awful, our quarterback play is awful, our coaching is awful...but wait, we looked really good in the third quarter after the score was already out of hand.

We're going to pound Western - those who are predicting otherwise are being ridiculous. Beating a minor league team won't mean we're back, though. We may win some of these MAC games, in fact. The worst thing that could possibly happen, however, is for this team to rebound enough that our school doesn't feel compelled make a coaching change.

Vegas, you can't discount the team played harder Saturday, and as it turned out, competed hard against a top 25 team in SDSU. Yeah the bar has been set high at NIU, but going from no effort vs Wyoming and USF to at least a competitive game against a top 25 is progress. The test for me is can NIU compete on the road given the bad things swirling around the program, and still bring the same effort. Anyone can get up for a home game one week. I am afraid we will see some regression Saturday, which if happens, will result in a loss to a very good WIU team. Having said that, I agree with you about Carey. Like I said before I know its your "job" to hate Carey being a PJ supporter, but I think there are irredeemable issues with him. Hare going down saved Carey's job at the end of this year in my opinion.

(09-18-2016 11:57 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  Vegas, you can't discount the team played harder Saturday, and as it turned out, competed hard against a top 25 team in SDSU. Yeah the bar has been set high at NIU, but going from no effort vs Wyoming and USF to at least a competitive game against a top 25 is progress. The test for me is can NIU compete on the road given the bad things swirling around the program, and still bring the same effort. Anyone can get up for a home game one week. I am afraid we will see some regression Saturday, which if happens, will result in a loss to a very good WIU team. Having said that, I agree with you about Carey. Like I said before I know its your "job" to hate Carey being a PJ supporter, but I think there are irredeemable issues with him. Hare going down saved Carey's job at the end of this year in my opinion.

I was friends with PJ and I played ball with PJ, but I haven't spoken with him in years. There is zero correlation for me weaving my feelings towards Coach Carey's inability to helm a football team and any past allegiance to Fleck. Also, I don't "hate" Coach Carey. I wish you would stop writing things like this.

There's no question there are two ways to view Saturday's game since it was a tale of two games. My choice, or confirmation bias if you will, is to believe the light has come on for this team and they will play better going forward. Regarding SDSU taking their foot off the gas, it absolutely looked like that happened and I say so what. Unless it's an end to end blowout (see USF) every game has ebs and flows and much of that is based on emotion. If we came all the way back and won that game it would have counted, believe me. Ultimately the results on the field are all that matter and the complete season record will be the true indicator of what this team is about. Until the games are played we are just talking **** as fans do. FWIW I also believe the following, again my confirmation bias:

-Nobody but the people on this board give a **** about the incident at the end of last season, AKA the "rumor". It is ancient history to this team, about one third of which weren't even here then.

-Coach Carey has not "lost" this team. They will get better and continue to play hard for him and themselves.

-There are 9 games left in the regular season. This team will win between 6 and 9 games with the WMU, CMU and Toledo games being the defining ones.

-Ryan Graham will play some great football as he gets more game experience. (Side note: I got a real kick out of a SDSU poster who said Graham will never be more than a game manager who holds our team back. He knows that for certain after watching a sophomore play one game. Apparently it is impossible for Graham to develop beyond what we saw on Saturday, he is locked in stone. Who knew? That guy is an incredible talent evaluator who needs to get into coaching immediately.)

-The new coordinators are learning on the job and it shows. They made some positive steps on Saturday but have a long way to go. Here are some examples. It looked like we were lined up in an unsound defense on Pumphrey's first TD run. When they broke the huddle we immediately saw they were overloaded to our Huskie side and said ruh roh, hope they don't run this way. Boom, touchdown. If idiots like us can see it I'm sure our opponents can too. Before Joe Sanders got ejected they were flipping him to keep him on the wide side of the field, presumably to hold the edge against the run. That is a good idea so kudos on that adjustment. Unfortunatly he was gone after four minutes. On the offensive side, SDSU's linebackers weren't even bothering to hide their blitzes. They would run at the line and time and again we snapped the ball to time their blitzes perfectly. We couldn't have helped them more if we tried. These kinds of things need to be fixed by the coordinators and I believe they will but they illustrate that some of our early season struggles have nothing to do with a talent drain or the players quitting on the coach. We've had some unsound schemes.

-There's plenty of talent on this team to win a conference championship. Not saying they will but talent is not the issue. They need better QB play, better schemes, fewer mistakes, and continue to play with the passion they showed on Saturday.

I am encouraged by what I saw on Saturday and even more encouraged after watching the recorded game yesterday. However, I am a realist. Although we can of course improve, I see our D as very weak, especially giving up > 40 pts. per game so far this year and playing very soft (again a bit better last Saturday). O line is also weak but has shown slight improvement. As to the RBs, we need to use JB less and the others more . Special Teams are not great, and our punter is playing very bad. Having said this, I do not see us competing with the big 3 - Toledo, WMU, and CMU. They will fight it out for 1, 2, and 3. I see us fighting for the #4 spot in the MAC West. It could end up being a battle between us, BSU, and EMU.

(09-19-2016 09:21 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  There's no question there are two ways to view Saturday's game since it was a tale of two games. My choice, or confirmation bias if you will, is to believe the light has come on for this team and they will play better going forward. Regarding SDSU taking their foot off the gas, it absolutely looked like that happened and I say so what. Unless it's an end to end blowout (see USF) every game has ebs and flows and much of that is based on emotion. If we came all the way back and won that game it would have counted, believe me. Ultimately the results on the field are all that matter and the complete season record will be the true indicator of what this team is about. Until the games are played we are just talking **** as fans do. FWIW I also believe the following, again my confirmation bias:

-Nobody but the people on this board give a **** about the incident at the end of last season, AKA the "rumor". It is ancient history to this team, about one third of which weren't even here then.

-Coach Carey has not "lost" this team. They will get better and continue to play hard for him and themselves.

-There are 9 games left in the regular season. This team will win between 6 and 9 games with the WMU, CMU and Toledo games being the defining ones.

-Ryan Graham will play some great football as he gets more game experience. (Side note: I got a real kick out of a SDSU poster who said Graham will never be more than a game manager who holds our team back. He knows that for certain after watching a sophomore play one game. Apparently it is impossible for Graham to develop beyond what we saw on Saturday, he is locked in stone. Who knew? That guy is an incredible talent evaluator who needs to get into coaching immediately.)

-The new coordinators are learning on the job and it shows. They made some positive steps on Saturday but have a long way to go. Here are some examples. It looked like we were lined up in an unsound defense on Pumphrey's first TD run. When they broke the huddle we immediately saw they were overloaded to our Huskie side and said ruh roh, hope they don't run this way. Boom, touchdown. If idiots like us can see it I'm sure our opponents can too. Before Joe Sanders got ejected they were flipping him to keep him on the wide side of the field, presumably to hold the edge against the run. That is a good idea so kudos on that adjustment. Unfortunatly he was gone after four minutes. On the offensive side, SDSU's linebackers weren't even bothering to hide their blitzes. They would run at the line and time and again we snapped the ball to time their blitzes perfectly. We couldn't have helped them more if we tried. These kinds of things need to be fixed by the coordinators and I believe they will but they illustrate that some of our early season struggles have nothing to do with a talent drain or the players quitting on the coach. We've had some unsound schemes.

-There's plenty of talent on this team to win a conference championship. Not saying they will but talent is not the issue. They need better QB play, better schemes, fewer mistakes, and continue to play with the passion they showed on Saturday.

I simply disagree. This team does have more than enough talent to be 2 -1 right now but it also has a serious issue with chemistry confidence and discipline.

These guys show a complete lack of support for the coach and more problematic each other.

Selfish look at me guys are your leaders. Lots of guys pointing fingers and not supporting teammates. They all just want for themselves.

I could name names and give examples but these are young men and I do not want to bash anyone publicly but trust me they have big issues and do not support each other.

As for "The Rumor" if you dont believe this team was talked into getting on the plane by our AD then you just dont have a clue! What happened last year was horrible and could have been national news had our AD not found a way to talk the guys into going. You can put your head in the sand but this years team is in big trouble and if it does not tank 100 % I will be very surprised.

Trust me as someone who is very motivated for these guys to figure it out and have success I just do not see how this gets better with our current leadership in place both coaches and player leadership must change !!

(09-19-2016 09:21 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  -Ryan Graham will play some great football as he gets more game experience. (Side note: I got a real kick out of a SDSU poster who said Graham will never be more than a game manager who holds our team back. He knows that for certain after watching a sophomore play one game. Apparently it is impossible for Graham to develop beyond what we saw on Saturday, he is locked in stone. Who knew? That guy is an incredible talent evaluator who needs to get into coaching immediately.)

Sorry but do you honestly think that Graham is going to develop into a game changing QB? Right now he's a sub par game managing QB. The stats would back that up even if you hadn't seen him play and it's even more evident having watched every snap. I don't doubt that he can improve but the ceiling looks very low. Our offense needs a play maker at the QB position and unfortunately we don't have one. Hare was not good in the small sample size we saw this year and Graham is worse.

Again, two ways to look at it. You can say they're not winning because of these issues and I can say these issues exist because they're not winning and everyone is frustrated and bitchy. A losing locker room is not a happy place. The results on the field will tell us which it is. (This is in reference to Randy's post two prior.)

I'm not as optimistic as 81, but there's hope, that's what I got from Saturday, hope (and a bit of a hangover).

I do agree that this was the first time I saw the DC and/or OC make in-game adjustments...so that is an improvement!

For those that think they can 'easily' predict the rest of the season based on 3 games and seeing the other teams, how long have you been watching college athletics? Come on...if you're pretending to know how 75 18-21 yo kids will grow and respond for the next 2.5 months, you're lying to yourself. When has the MAC ever been fully decided by performance in non-conference?

They need to become way more disciplined, they need better coaching, the O-line needs to continue to grow, Graham has to get much better, the secondary has to take big steps, but count us out 3 games in? Please. My mind isn't built that way and yours shouldn't be either.

Best case scenario? We had a really sh*tty 6 quarters (start of USF - 1st half of SDS), team got a taste of success in the 2nd half, they pick up a victory next week and build momentum on it going into MAC Play. Likely? Heck if I know, but there's a chance.

(09-19-2016 10:05 AM)armour248 Wrote:  

(09-19-2016 09:21 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  -Ryan Graham will play some great football as he gets more game experience. (Side note: I got a real kick out of a SDSU poster who said Graham will never be more than a game manager who holds our team back. He knows that for certain after watching a sophomore play one game. Apparently it is impossible for Graham to develop beyond what we saw on Saturday, he is locked in stone. Who knew? That guy is an incredible talent evaluator who needs to get into coaching immediately.)

Sorry but do you honestly think that Graham is going to develop into a game changing QB? Right now he's a sub par game managing QB. The stats would back that up even if you hadn't seen him play and it's even more evident having watched every snap. I don't doubt that he can improve but the ceiling looks very low. Our offense needs a play maker at the QB position and unfortunately we don't have one. Hare was not good in the small sample size we saw this year and Graham is worse.

I believe Graham has a chance to develop into an excellent QB, yes. Some may disagree which is the way of fandom. I do agree that he is not the prototype for our system becasue his running ability is just OK but think he has great potential as a passer.

(09-19-2016 10:08 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  Again, two ways to look at it. You can say they're not winning because of these issues and I can say these issues exist because they're not winning and everyone is frustrated and bitchy. A losing locker room is not a happy place. The results on the field will tell us which it is. (This is in reference to Randy's post two prior.)

Winning will help but we do have an underlying issue this year compared to last year. we miss ford and boomer and moore and tll and bebe logan. These guys supported each other and had a chemistry that gave the team confidence and brought them all together. This team lacks that in a big way !

some of our very best guys do not have the same qualities this year. and many of our young guys are very frustrated not playing and seeing starters struggle and not getting a chance to play makes for a terrible locker room

If like to see DJ Brown instead of Saffold.

And Lurry needs to grow up. Seems it's all about him.

(09-18-2016 11:39 PM)VegasHuskie Wrote:  C'mon, 1981, is this really how far we've sunk as a NIU fan base? I can't believe that I'm reading an NIU fan is "very encouraged" that we just lost by two touchdowns, at HOME, to a Mountain West team that traveled all the way from Southern California.

Vegas, you do realize "very encouraged by what I saw" included the following observations:
-- We spotted them 28 points
-- Our largest D end got kicked out
-- They had several explosive plays
-- Their punter pinned us inside our 10 yard line
-- Our QB threw a couple of bad picks
Aren't you encouraged by those things?

Seriously folks, if the roles were reversed, you'd say the game was put away early and the winners did what was necessary the rest of the way to stay ahead but not reveal too much to future opponents. And if the roles were reversed, we'd say let the other team find positive in their second half play.

(09-19-2016 11:30 AM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  And Lurry needs to grow up. Seems it's all about him.

see my prev post lurry is the biggest problem glad you see it
and he really can not cover and should not be our PR give DJ Brown a shot a PR or one of our other talented young guys who are not being used

Safety play needs to step up. It will also help to have Smalls back at CB. I've always felt that Smalls was our best CB. How long is he supposed to be out?