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(11-15-2017 10:40 PM)Stampede your face!! Wrote:  

(11-15-2017 10:36 PM)wingsenforcer Wrote:  Going to officially predict 4-8 next year. It's gonna be rough.

I don't know. Where we going to get the 4 from? Ball State and the FCS team. But as we can see, can't count on Akron that is for sure.

I just fished it out of my ass. 2-10 is probably more realistic.

(11-15-2017 10:33 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  We played hard, but we're thin in certain sectors-several on Defense. DL and LBer, for one.

We haven't really had an effective pass rush all season. That forces us to blitz a lot and that creates opening elsewhere. Lester is going to have to see if he can bring in some more ready-to-play talent in those sectors next season.

Exactly right. NIU established TOP with their first drive of the 2nd half, and never let up. Our D was gassed (again) in the last 10 minutes.

On a positive note, Goddard is improving. The game isn't overwhelming him as much now.

It's still tough to see teams make defensive adjustments at half time that neutralize our run game.

(11-15-2017 10:40 PM)Stampede your face!! Wrote:  

(11-15-2017 10:36 PM)wingsenforcer Wrote:  Going to officially predict 4-8 next year. It's gonna be rough.

I don't know. Where we going to get the 4 from? Ball State and the FCS team are two. But as we can see, can't count on Akron and even Bono will likely start another run over us.

CMU is losing a ton their 3 best defensive players their qb their whole oline, emu, toledo will both be replacing their qbs. We will likely get bg next year. I think we should be ok we are missing 15 players with season ending injuries.

Who’s gonna bump the fire Lester thread lol

Think we played pretty darn good. NIU was better, but it came down to the last few seconds. I wasn't watching the same game some of you were, apparently.

We're thin and undersized at DL-agreed. We're thin at LBer-agreed. We're inexperienced at Safety-agreed. That was the difference in the game.

Our Freshman QB was more an asset than a liability in this game-going to be an interesting Spring Game with Wassink and Goddard battling, IMO.

NIU dominated the line of scrimmage and they did more so as the game went on. Their OL dominated our DL in the second half the way our OL dominated their DL in the first half. They had better endurance.

Did you see the way Okorafor was getting owned by that small DE of NIU? He'll never be a Tackle in the NFL-too slow and poor footwork. But he may be a Guard.

(11-15-2017 10:44 PM)rsswmu Wrote:  

(11-15-2017 10:40 PM)Stampede your face!! Wrote:  

(11-15-2017 10:36 PM)wingsenforcer Wrote:  Going to officially predict 4-8 next year. It's gonna be rough.

I don't know. Where we going to get the 4 from? Ball State and the FCS team are two. But as we can see, can't count on Akron and even Bono will likely start another run over us.

CMU is losing a ton their 3 best defensive players their qb their whole oline, emu, toledo will both be replacing their qbs. We will likely get bg next year. I think we should be ok we are missing 15 players with season ending injuries.

I hate to bring this up, but we weren't playing all that well when we had them.

(11-15-2017 10:45 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  Think we played pretty darn good. NIU was better, but it came down to the last few seconds. I wasn't watching the same game some of you were, apparently.

We're thin and undersized at DL-agreed. We're thin at LBer-agreed. We're inexperienced at Safety-agreed. That was the difference in the game.

Our Freshman QB was more an asset than a liability in this game-going to be an interesting Spring Game with Wassink and Goddard battling, IMO.

NIU dominated the line of scrimmage and they did more so as the game went on. Their OL dominated our DL in the second half the way our OL dominated their DL in the first half. They had better endurance.

Did you see the way Okorafor was getting owned by that small DE of NIU? He'll never be a Tackle in the NFL-too slow and poor footwork. But he may be a Guard.

3 4 year starters at LB is your definition of THIN? Plus Alex Grace who’s gotten plenty of time since middle of last year.

Clark and Matich are veterans at DT and Assoua is a 2 year starter at DE.

The team isn’t thin on D. Our DC is just awful.

(11-15-2017 10:09 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  

(11-15-2017 10:07 PM)ITalian83i Wrote:  Our defense has looked so uninspired when the game is on the line. Same with the Central game, just getting hit in the mouth in the 4th quarter and not hitting back.

The Tim Lester effect. Lester won't get fired up, so neither will his team.

The refs gave NIU a first down on the first drive of 3rd qtr on a 3rd down & 1 play that was clearly 1/2 yard Short. Line to gain was their 36 and they spotted it generous but still short of the 36 and they didn't even measure? Instead of giving the ref an earful he walked down the sideline with that damn howdy doody grin. It's hard to watch.
Although it didn't result in points for NIU it was a 6:30 minute drive that resulted in Spillane nearly decapitating Asante Brown. And they punted to our 11. It's a seemingly harmless drive that takes something out of the defense and flipped the field. Especially in the quarter that you have the wind advantage you don't want your defense on the field.

(11-15-2017 10:49 PM)WMUlaxer97 Wrote:  

(11-15-2017 10:09 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  

(11-15-2017 10:07 PM)ITalian83i Wrote:  Our defense has looked so uninspired when the game is on the line. Same with the Central game, just getting hit in the mouth in the 4th quarter and not hitting back.

The Tim Lester effect. Lester won't get fired up, so neither will his team.

The refs gave NIU a first down on the first drive of 3rd qtr on a 3rd down & 1 play that was clearly 1/2 yard Short. Line to gain was their 36 and they spotted it generous but still short of the 36 and they didn't even measure? Instead of giving the ref an earful he walked down the sideline with that damn howdy doody grin. It's hard to watch.
Although it didn't result in points for NIU it was a 6:30 minute drive that resulted in Spillane nearly decapitating Asante Brown. And they punted to our 11. It's a seemingly harmless drive that takes something out of the defense and flipped the field. Especially in the quarter that you have the wind advantage you don't want your defense on the field.

It was clearly short. Should have been reviewed.


#smilingtim

(11-15-2017 10:49 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  

(11-15-2017 10:45 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  Think we played pretty darn good. NIU was better, but it came down to the last few seconds. I wasn't watching the same game some of you were, apparently.

We're thin and undersized at DL-agreed. We're thin at LBer-agreed. We're inexperienced at Safety-agreed. That was the difference in the game.

Our Freshman QB was more an asset than a liability in this game-going to be an interesting Spring Game with Wassink and Goddard battling, IMO.

NIU dominated the line of scrimmage and they did more so as the game went on. Their OL dominated our DL in the second half the way our OL dominated their DL in the first half. They had better endurance.

Did you see the way Okorafor was getting owned by that small DE of NIU? He'll never be a Tackle in the NFL-too slow and poor footwork. But he may be a Guard.

3 4 year starters at LB is your definition of THIN? Plus Alex Grace who’s gotten plenty of time since middle of last year.

Clark and Matich are veterans at DT and Assoua is a 2 year starter at DE.

The team isn’t thin on D. Our DC is just awful.

Good teams have solid two-deeps. Yeah, we have some talent at LBer-but who goes in when those guys need a blow?

Clark is strong, but he's getting double-teamed on most plays. Matich has been hurt much of the year. Our DE's aren't big and were getting blown off the line of scrimmage more and more as the game went on.

We weren’t any better in our 2nd strong last year either except for RB. Most MAC teams aren’t. That’s the different between P5 and G5 teams.

G5 teams are judged by how good your starters are. No great players are going to willingly be a backup at a MAC school.

Our first string players last year just played to best of their abilities all year and this year they aren’t. I don’t blame the players, it’s on coaches to figure out how to get best out of them every week.

I think 2-10 is a little hyperbolic, even for post-lost angst. This team is going to return practically the entire offense, and most of the defense. The question marks are can Grace/Spears/Clayton fill in? Also, can we use the experience to develop consistentcy in the passing game. If yes, then we're sitting pretty for a run. And, can we stay healthy.

These "terrible" coaches have a M*A*S*H squad with 10 seniors and a true freshman QB four drives from a 10-1 season going into Toledo. I think we're going to be fine.

(11-15-2017 11:03 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  We weren’t any better in our 2nd strong last year either except for RB. Most MAC teams aren’t. That’s the different between P5 and G5 teams.

G5 teams are judged by how good your starters are. No great players are going to willingly be a backup at a MAC school.

Our first string players last year just played to best of their abilities all year and this year they aren’t. I don’t blame the players, it’s on coaches to figure out how to get best out of them every week.

Some truth in that, but we've sustained more serious injuries this season than last season-that is also true. You also have to have luck to be a champion.

When Zach Terrell and our stable of experienced and talented WRers graduated last season I knew it was going to be tough this season. All that talent in the other sectors that folks ballyhoo doesn't do us any good if we're thin in experience at QB/WR.

I predicted 7-8 wins for this season, but that was predicated on Wassink not getting hurt. Really, the only ugly and unexpected loss this season has been Akron. I suppose you could make a case for CMU as well, but I wasn't really surprised at that with Goddard playing his first game and the weather being what it was.

(11-15-2017 11:04 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  I think 2-10 is a little hyperbolic, even for post-lost angst. This team is going to return practically the entire offense, and most of the defense. The question marks are can Grace/Spears/Clayton fill in? Also, can we use the experience to develop consistentcy in the passing game. If yes, then we're sitting pretty for a run. And, can we stay healthy.

These "terrible" coaches have a M*A*S*H squad with 10 seniors and a true freshman QB four drives from a 10-1 season going into Toledo. I think we're going to be fine.

If we can find a 5th year LBer or DLman to help add depth that would be great. Our history has shown that to be effective.

To me it’s how the teams been losing. The strength of this team should be run defense and that’s our worst part.

Chukes has been much more inconsistent than last year.

Tonight was the first night we’ve seen a reason to be encouraged by the future of our passing game. Hope that continues. On other side i hated Daoust being hired in January and it’s showing even more now.

Big question we don’t know is how big will loss of Ernsberger impact the team next year?

He makes the inside zone go.

(11-15-2017 10:27 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  NIU or CMU will win the MAC.

(11-15-2017 11:12 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  

(11-15-2017 11:04 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  I think 2-10 is a little hyperbolic, even for post-lost angst. This team is going to return practically the entire offense, and most of the defense. The question marks are can Grace/Spears/Clayton fill in? Also, can we use the experience to develop consistentcy in the passing game. If yes, then we're sitting pretty for a run. And, can we stay healthy.

These "terrible" coaches have a M*A*S*H squad with 10 seniors and a true freshman QB four drives from a 10-1 season going into Toledo. I think we're going to be fine.

If we can find a 5th year LBer or DLman to help add depth that would be great. Our history has shown that to be effective.

I think we're fine depth-wise and experience-wise barring catastrophic injuries. We return 7/8 DL. Lots of freshman backers, but lots of talent.

What we really need is a dynamic go-to target in the passing game. We're missing Corey Davis or a Simmons/White-type player. Watson may be that guy next year, but still too many drops.

(11-15-2017 11:14 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  To me it’s how the teams been losing. The strength of this team should be run defense and that’s our worst part.

Chukes has been much more inconsistent than last year.

Tonight was the first night we’ve seen a reason to be encouraged by the future of our passing game. Hope that continues. On other side i hated Daoust being hired in January and it’s showing even more now.

Big question we don’t know is how big will loss of Ernsberger impact the team next year?

He makes the inside zone go.

True, that's a big hole, but Miller is a good blocker, I think Heimbuch too. I think a consistent passing game makes our defense look better, they get hung out to dry a lot by this offense.

And a Keion type DE. Assoua was supposed to be that guy this year and Fayad started hot but has disappeared since.

(11-15-2017 11:21 PM)Wmufan715 Wrote:  And a Keion type DE. Assoua was supposed to be that guy this year and Fayad started hot but has disappeared since.

Yeah, but Fayad still is a young guy, maybe the long season wore him down. I'd love to look at film and see how the defense runs differently, last time we ran this D Ameer Ismail was a sack monster, way more than the linemen.