(09-17-2023 08:49 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote: 1. Ohio- Their defense has been stout. Up there with the best units in the conference. Did the kick miss or not?
2. Toledo- The other team with an impressive defense. Keeping Cordeiro to 17 pts, and grabbing the pick 6 was the game.
3. Miami- This is probably the best win in the league and won't be matched this season. Martin figured out how to win OOC I guess. The blowout to Miami is the only reason they are 3 and not 1.
I think that these are the three best teams and I agree that the win over Cincinnati is going to be the best win. I think Toledo was clearly the favorite going into the year and nothing has made a definitive argument for another team to pass them yet.
Ohio was possibly fortunate with the kick, but I do believe that was probably a miss because the ref was where he should have been with the only good view and the videos are at best indeterminate. ISU fans mostly seem to believe otherwise. Maybe because the commentator wanted a review but what angle is going to give you indisputable evidence. We probably got away with a PI on the game sealing INT but ISU still would have been about 50 yards from a FG attempt with no timeouts.
I do believe OUr offense has a good chance to improve dramatically. We had the top scoring offense in the MAC last year in spite of playing two of the better defenses in the country non-conference and playing without the MAC POY for 3.5 games. We basically have 10 starters back on offense and the defense was expected by most fans to be the weaker unit by far. If that improvement happens to 2022 scoring levels then we'd establish a good argument for #1 but it hasn't happened yet. However, Rourke wasn't cleared to play until the Monday prior to the first game, missed a lot of offseason work and most two games with (probably) a concussion, and our three top WRs and TE have all only been on the field for about half the snaps we might have hoped for with injuries. Also, part of the reason the defensive stats look so good is that the offense has been playing conservatively. We have won the time of possession in every game by a big margin. Even of their offense is pathetic for a P5 team, most teams in the country, let alone most G5 teams, are going to struggle to score on ISU. We didn't put up many offensive stats but we also didn't commit an offensive penalty, fumble, allow a sack, drop a pass, or turn it over and had the ball for almost 12 more minutes than ISU
Miami, I think was also fortunate. I'm not really talking about possible bad calls. I mean they got outgained by 180 yards and lost TOP by 13 minutes. Unless you win the TO battle, and they didn't, you usually lose a game like that by about three TDs. They made just the right plays at just the right times, and I'm pleased that they won, but I would be not much more inclined to bet on Miami to beat UC if they played again than I would have been before this game started. So I agree with them still being 3rd.
(09-18-2023 08:22 AM)bobcat_backer Wrote: OHIO received three votes in this week's coaches poll.
With a loss and without a marquee win it is very hard to argue that we deserve any votes. If this, under that circumstance, was because Albin was the only coach to vote for Ohio then, IMO, it is kind of cheesy. But we don't actually know where the votes came from.
