RE: ***Post week 8 Power ranking***
IMO:
- Toledo: They've got the most powerful O potential, but it's not well grounded enough as it should be. But their D isn't bad and can step up. Their win over @Miami which is a tough place to win at, easily makes them #1.
- NIU: An improved NIU team. Their win at home vs EMU wasn't impressive, but EMU has a good D. But still, it was at home and not on the B&W prison field, so it puts them in position to still have room to prove their O is fully on the right track. And they do have a good D.
- Ohio: They lost to @NIU, their O can move the ball pretty decently, but too much inconsistency and can also be stopped from scoring sufficiently by anyone. However, their D is really solid which makes them a good team. If they're playing with their O on track --- look out.
- Miami: They have a good D that can really step up, but their loss at home to Toledo after getting whipped in the 1st half makes them not too impressive. They have time to turn the tables, though. They play Ohio next week to figure things out.
- BGSU: They impressed people by not having a relatively close game against Akron which happened to too many of their opponents. They beat @GA-Tech convincingly, and only lost to @Liberty by 10 due to giving up *5* turnovers. BGSU is inconsistent. It's like they could beat anyone, but lose to anyone handily. They got whipped by Ohio & Miami, but aside from that -- a decent team with the ability to be more than that.
- EMU: The fighting Emoos have a great D -- but no O. Granted, scoring little against NIU, especially on the road, is to be expected against a team without too solid an offense. But their O does seem to be improving a bit, giving them a slight edge over CMU and WMU.
- WMU: The reason they're better than CMU right now is how things have played out after the season got settled in. WMU is in rebuilding mode, so their performance will be unpredictable somewhat and vulnerable to come up short in close games. They are still finding their way, but are the "dangerous" team. With their new starting QB being good, if they don't have many penalties, and their D plays up to their potential, they could beat almost anyone in the MAC, and certainly can to the ones below.
- CMU: The reason they're better than Buffalo, is because Buffalo's also reeling. CMU only beat New Hampshire by a very small margin. They've been losing lately and are seemingly worse now than the beginning of the season when they did beat a good SB team.
- Buffalo: IMO, they're in a tie with Ball State below, right right now. They're reeling and BSU has been improving the last couple weeks. They're 3-1 in the MAC tho! Yeah, but two of those were against Akron by only 3 barely doing so & Kent State in an adequate but not too impressive of a win. They did crush CMU at home which indicates they could rise, but they lost to BGSU by 10 at home even though that wasn't unexpected and respectable as far as not wanting to be in the bottom end of the MAC. However, losing to FCS Fordham and getting absolutely crushed at home by Liberty overwhelms their respectable loss to @Louisiana.
- Ball State: Taking Toledo down to the wire with their surprisingly improved D, and taking out CMU with their D apparently in the last two games -- can't say I'd rather face them than Buffalo, or CMU. If they play a really close game @BGSU, while Buffalo expectedly getting quite solidly beat by @Toledo -- they'd be over Buffalo, and also CMU if NIU handles them well.
- Akron: They're above Kent State because even though they got destroyed by @BGSU and NIU, they played close against @Temple, @Indiana, and @Buffalo by 3pts or less. And also only lost by a TD to @CMU, while winning their FCS game and not dropping the ball on that.
- Kent St: A reboot year for them. They got CRUSHED by UCF and Fresno St. They had a somewhat respectable game against @Arkansas losing by basically 3 TDs, and won their FCS game. But outside of that, no small positives remaining even when you try and put them in a good light. They got Crushed by Ohio, lost by 20 to Miami-OH, and also lost by 3 possessions to Buffalo. Sure, you can say they played @EMU reasonably close; I guess that's a bit of a positive given it was at EMU... but they gave up 28 points... to EMU! Yikes. That's the most amt of points EMU's scored all season, sans their easy FCS team with whom they only scored 5 more pts on.
(This post was last modified: 10-22-2023 05:48 PM by toddjnsn.)
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