CBS ranks the MAC as #10 conference at week 4: https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...p-of-five/

(09-26-2023 01:33 PM)wleakr Wrote:  CBS ranks the MAC as #10 conference at week 4: https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...p-of-five/

Shocking that CBS ranks their MWC ahead of the AAC and their CUSA ahead of the MAC. Sagarin has the MAC West ahead of the MAC East and the MAC East ahead of CUSA, so it's at the very least debatable.

(09-25-2023 06:37 PM)george14 Wrote:  I think people are way too high on Ohio - Miami is probably the team to look out for. I also don't think the West is that bad although the league is wide open. People are just overreacting to the early season records but I supposed that is all you can do at this point.

I made this comment when Gabbert was QB. Really impressed with Miami given they used a backup QB.

Quote:I made this comment when Gabbert was QB. Really impressed with Miami given they used a backup QB.

Their backup QB threw 6/16. He's not a good QB. He can scramble though, but Miami relies on their running game on O which is OK. But their D and kicking game is what they rely on.

They were lucky that Toledo, with 370 yards, only got 2 TDs.

(12-02-2023 03:52 PM)toddjnsn Wrote:  

Quote:I made this comment when Gabbert was QB. Really impressed with Miami given they used a backup QB.

Their backup QB threw 6/16. He's not a good QB. He can scramble though, but Miami relies on their running game on O which is OK. But their D and kicking game is what they rely on.

They were lucky that Toledo, with 370 yards, only got 2 TDs.

Bad break on the targeting call that removed one of Toledo's best players. Just a momentary mistake that was costly.

(12-02-2023 03:52 PM)toddjnsn Wrote:  

Quote:I made this comment when Gabbert was QB. Really impressed with Miami given they used a backup QB.

Their backup QB threw 6/16. He's not a good QB. He can scramble though, but Miami relies on their running game on O which is OK. But their D and kicking game is what they rely on.

They were lucky that Toledo, with 370 yards, only got 2 TDs.

You really believe that they were"lucky?" Miami's defense stopped Toledo when UT wasn't stopping themselves with mistakes and penalties. Miami's special teams gave them good field position all day AND they blocked 2 FGs.

Quote:You really believe that they were"lucky?" Miami's defense stopped Toledo when UT wasn't stopping themselves with mistakes and penalties.

Yeah. Toledo didn't bring their A-game, had penalty after penalty, and their kicking game was on vacation for some odd reason. Not that there isn't credit to Miami -- there is. But Toledo only scoring 14pts on 370 yards, ya can't expect that at all.

Toledo has incredible athletes! Honestly Gleason is probably the second best QB in the league. They are THAT GOOD! Chuckie just out-coached them.

(12-03-2023 04:58 PM)toddjnsn Wrote:  

Quote:You really believe that they were"lucky?" Miami's defense stopped Toledo when UT wasn't stopping themselves with mistakes and penalties.

Yeah. Toledo didn't bring their A-game, had penalty after penalty, and their kicking game was on vacation for some odd reason. Not that there isn't credit to Miami -- there is. But Toledo only scoring 14pts on 370 yards, ya can't expect that at all.

Miami’s defense allowed the fewest points in MAC play since 2000 in a much higher scoring era (with significant help from our special teams unit). Should it be a surprise that we held Toledo in check? A number of offensive penalties were caused from our base linemen getting a ton of pressure on Finn without needing blitz support. Our ST unit is one of the best in the nation according to the ESPN efficiency rank.. It’s a bend-but-don’t-break strategy, but imo it was more to our credit than Toledo playing abnormally undisciplined.

(12-03-2023 09:16 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(12-03-2023 04:58 PM)toddjnsn Wrote:  

Quote:You really believe that they were"lucky?" Miami's defense stopped Toledo when UT wasn't stopping themselves with mistakes and penalties.

Yeah. Toledo didn't bring their A-game, had penalty after penalty, and their kicking game was on vacation for some odd reason. Not that there isn't credit to Miami -- there is. But Toledo only scoring 14pts on 370 yards, ya can't expect that at all.

Miami’s defense allowed the fewest points in MAC play since 2000 in a much higher scoring era (with significant help from our special teams unit). Should it be a surprise that we held Toledo in check? A number of offensive penalties were caused from our base linemen getting a ton of pressure on Finn without needing blitz support. Our ST unit is one of the best in the nation according to the ESPN efficiency rank.. It’s a bend-but-don’t-break strategy, but imo it was more to our credit than Toledo playing abnormally undisciplined.

What our kickoff team and punt team do is guarantee that the opponent has to go between 70 to 95 yards every possession. Then we play a bend but don't break defensive strategy because statistical analysis shows that it is very difficult to have to go double digit plays in a long drive without having penalties, sacks, or turnovers stop/disrupt the drive. Our offense is also one which has very few turnovers, even fewer since we went from Gabbert to Smith. Of all the MAC teams, Toledo was the most successful offense against us, they had 3 touchdowns and 2 touchdowns in the two games against us. One way to look at football is that it is a ground acquisition game. So a traditional way to evaluate that is to look at the total offense figures for both teams and some people realize that turnovers also factor in, but how many yards is the average turnover worth? What most people do not evaluate is just how many hidden yards there are in special teams. I would say our special teams won the game for us, probably worth a + 150 to 200 yards. Our kickoff guy kicked every ball into the end zone, one of them was returned by a guy desperate to try to make a big play and he only got to the 17, so cost UT 8 yards. Our punter averaged 46 yards for 6 punts and put 4 of them down inside the 20, a couple of which were inside the 10. We hurried one punt by Toledo and got a short field, we also had one long punt return for a short field. Our punt return guy also catches almost every punt in the air so there is seldom any ball rolling 15 yards on a punt. It is not yard acquisition, but Toledo's place kicker had a nightmare game as we got a hand on 3 of his kicks. Toledo also had 3 turnovers.