This is probably going to be less game thoughts and overall more big picture thoughts, but here we go.

Reality check for everyone, myself included. This was going to happen eventually. If you really expected NIU to come out and win every home game and win 10+ games (which they still might do) and go to the MAC Championship game every year (which they still might do) was not dealing based in facts. They were eventually going to take a step back. It's college football. You have turnover every year, you lose Chandler Harnish and Jordan Lynch, and when you're in the MAC and you win you lose coaches. If you've just become an NIU fan and you seriously expected that, enjoy jumping off the bandwagon as quickly as you jumped on. Even Boise State, the mid-major program, has taken a step back NIU is still a really good mid-major program. They may not be elite at this point anymore, but this is not the end of the world.

Anybody calling for Rod Carey to be fired or seriously think there's any chance of it happening anytime soon, is also a moron. There's no reason to even discuss it further because there's 0 chance it happens anytime soon. So seriously, complain about him all you want but get used to him as your coach because there is 0 chance it changes anytime soon no matter how you feel or I feel.

With that being said, there's no really defending the coaching today. I want to point out though, they were trying different stuff on offense for Hare today. They were way more spread out than they have been at any time this year. A lot of 5 wide and empty backfields, especially early on. Which was good to see them trying something different. But then you go from there. The whole field goal thing when NIU was down by 17 late was so damn dumb. Yes, they were going to need a FG eventually, but to run it on third down and almost seemingly play for the FG was oh my god dumb. The timeout we burned when Enos decided to try a 50 yard FG on 4th and 30 when his offense had 600 yards was almost equally as dumb. The continued dumb penalties and sloppy play, while I think sometimes gets blamed on coaching too much, yeah those aren't new problems and they have yet to be fixed.

As for Coach Cole, yeah don't get me wrong I love the go really fast and dare teams to try to stop your 5 plays is awesome when it's working, but it's not working. NIU has to have the most uncreative run game in all of football right now. Everytime they hand the ball off to Cam or ACRB, it's a dive play up the middle. There's no stretch plays with any of the backs, no tosses, no counters. It's just dive dive dive dive dive.

And if you want to blame this on coaching, you can't blame it all on the current staff. I love Doeren as much as anyone, but good lord did he do a poor job of recruiting at some stuff. Look at the group of corners he left Carey with last year. That was one of the worst groups of corners I've ever seen. Then this year, there's a lot of talent back there, but there's what 5 freshman on the 2 deep at corners? Then you have Marlon Moore who was a terrible corner as one of your safties? Where is any of the DB talent he brought in? Then you look at the QBs. Imagine if Maddie didn't transfer in. Right now your options would be Hare or a true freshman in Root. You don't have to bring in Lynch or Harnish, but where was any talent Doeren recruited at QB or in the defensive backfield?

Now with all that being said, how just awful is Drew Hare? Has there been a less accurate NIU QB? That was a two TD late game late in the third quarter with NIU having all the momentum, and Da'Ron is running open for possibly a TD and he throws it behind him and it gets picked. How many times has he missed open WRs for TDs this year? I've seriously lost count. How many times did he have Brown or Canada open today and missed him? Why, exactly Carey chose today to ride it out with him is something I would love to hear an explanation for. The ONLY thing i can think of is with how big of a hole NIU dug itself, bringing in the running QB wouldn't make a lot of sense. The only problem with that is Hare can neither run or throw.

And then finally, nice of the defense to go all MAC Championship on us today. Not sure NIU would have won this game if Jordan Lynch was the QB because they didn't have a prayer of stopping Rawls. How many times did they run huge plays on the stretch play today? It looked like what NIU did with Wolfe. It was almost comical to watch Logan lose contain like 5+ times today and turn Rawls lose.

For NIU to get out physicaled and outrushed on their own home field and get their ass handed to them is completely humbling.

I'm sure nobody is going to listen to this, but I'll be pretty surprised if CMU wins out so NIU most likely controls their own destiny to get to Detroit. However, they can't do this with Hare anymore. They have to either play Maddie or hope McIntosh is healthy, put them in there, and run the offense how it's supposed to be run. If Maddie can't pass, I don't care. Hare can't run or pass. Put one of them back there and play. Bring back the QB power, bring back the jet sweeps, bring back the red option, bring back the diamond formation, bring back the goofy little toss they ran with Spencer. Enough is enough. And figure out whatever the hell was going on on defense today.

The season is far from over and the goal is still reachable, but they obviously have a lot to fix in a lot of places.

First of all congrats to CMU. They played great today and were deserving winners. 552 total yards and 39:01 of possession tell you all you need to know. Rawls is one of the best backs I've seen in a long time. We were commenting on how he reminded us of Garrett Wolfe with his ability to bounce it outside. Just a great performance. I didn't think anyone could run on us like that.

We are dealing with the reality that we don't have a QB who's ready right now. Hare shows flashes but as many have pointed out he doesn't fit the offense we've run for the last several years. Part of our inability to run the ball is that defenses don't have to respect the QB run, they just stack the box. McIntosh would really come in handy, I hope he's back soon. His running ability would open a lot of other things up.

Akeem looks hobbled, too bad. We don't really have a speed option at RB without him. You'd think we would compensate with some jet sweeps but we only ran one that I remember. It would be nice to get Turner and Saffold involved in that way. Handoffs up the middle are rough when there's no threat of the sweep or QB run.

They'll have to work on some schematic things and eliminate mistakes. We say that every week by the way. What's up with all the bad snaps?? Many low ones today in addition to the one that bounced past Hare. We can still win conference but it's not going to be easy.

The McIntosh thing is interesting because would they throw somebody out there who has been out a month when apparently all 3 were neck and neck in the preseason?

You have Miami, EMU, and then a half bye before Ball State so if you're going to bring McIntosh back, if he's healthy, this might be the time.

What happened to Meehan?

Saffold?

Good analysis by 7 and others..thanks.

I think they've kinda ditched the jet sweeps because, again, there's no QB run fake. So when you see the jet sweep action (like on third and four today) everyone just runs outside to the jet man.

I think it would be hard for any coaching staff to win getting the QB play NIU is. The fact that Hare's numbers are as good as they are tells you how QB friendly the system is. With that being said, the longer they continue to play Hare, the more they deserve the blame because they're the ones playing him.

Felt bad for Santa and Da'Ron today. Seniors who've never lost in DeKalb who both had huge plays and really got nothing out of it. Brown especially was playing his ass off today.

I thought we were in for a long game after the quick strike drive to start the game. I haven't seen you guys play much this season, but I will say that may be the best game Enos has coached at CMU. Our offense was consistent and I think the TOP was a big factor as was mentioned. The pro style offense can be boring, but when your sustaining drives like we were able to do, you wear down the opposing defense and you allow your defense to rest. These were key pieces as CMU had multiple sustained drives.

Lynch was obviously an amazing player, very similar to LeFevour and I think you guys are in a similar situation that we experienced after LeFevour left. I don't know if Carey is quite the coach that Doeren is, but I think you guys are just having some growing pains. The offensive system has remained the same which I think will ease the transition for you guys. It's just so difficult to remain at the top for an extended period of time in the MAC, there's not much separation between the teams.

Good luck the rest of the season.

I have watched Anthony Maddie in practice many times when he was at WMU. He's not your answer at QB. He might make a good WR or DB, but he has happy feet in the pocket, can't set himself, and it will be hard to change that any time soon. I don't think Western's current QB is a keeper, but when Maddie was here he was far behind Terrel and Perish who is now at Indiana State. I published for Rivals.com and know for a fact that Cubit was probably going to convert him to WR or DB.

I think you're better off developing the current starter.

So you watched him as a true freshman in practice. Yeah, I would bet most true freshman QBs don't look great in practice.

(10-11-2014 11:14 PM)7 Wrote:  So you watched him as a true freshman in practice. Yeah, I would bet most true freshman QBs don't look great in practice.

Watched him at Spring game when he was competing for a starting position. He was NOWHERE in the running and the competition wasn't that stiff. Believe what you want. But I'd bet real money that he ends up at another position before he ends up as your answer at QB. He had nice wheels in HS, but he wasn't much of a passer, and that was in a lower HS division. He reminds me of Niznak who played at CMU last year. Played for a small MI HS, won a state title, lit up teams with his legs, and bombed at the DI level. Now playing back up at a D1AA school. That's probably the route Maddie should have gone, although he could pan out at another position.

Anyhow, I've given my two cents on Maddie and the CMU felon. I'll leave you guys alone. Hope we have a good game in Kalamazoo.

(10-11-2014 11:17 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(10-11-2014 11:14 PM)7 Wrote:  So you watched him as a true freshman in practice. Yeah, I would bet most true freshman QBs don't look great in practice.

Watched him at Spring game when he was competing for a starting position. He was NOWHERE in the running and the competition wasn't that stiff. Believe what you want.

Go away.

How is it that Kent State (0-5) and CMU (3-3), both coming off mediocre seasons walk into HS all fired up like its the f'n Superbowl and NIU just sleep walks through both games. The team just looks so incredibly sloppy and emotionless. Are the players and coaches tired of winning and going to Detroit? /sarcasm

I don't think NIU slept walk through this one. They came out playing with their hair on fire. Just got beat, but yeah NIU's everyone in the MAC's biggest game. That's what happens when you've been the class of the league.

At least we can stop talk about leaving the MAC for a week. How about adding 10,000 seats to HS when we cannot sell out at homecoming.

(10-12-2014 12:41 AM)NIU75 Wrote:  At least we can stop talk about leaving the MAC for a week. How about adding 10,000 seats to HS when we cannot sell out at homecoming.

I don't see how the loss today affects wanting to leave the MAC. It should be every schools long term goal from EMU to NIU/Toledo to advance in terms of conference affiliation.

Well, most teams that moved up like Boise and TCU were in the midst of great success. Pretty sure conferences aren't going to be impressed by our last three performances. They've been ghastly and our coaches need to find an answer. The answer is on the roster and our coaches need to find it and make this situation a lot better. Our roster has no business getting smoked by CMU...

For all the talk about how we were deep and talented at running back we haven't looked that way. No explosive plays from RB's...huff must suck in practice not to get a few carries in the game. We had 110 yds rushing. Don't recall a time when that happened at home. Obviously something is not working. O-line which was a supposed strength hasn't been very good
Either.


Sent from my iPhone.

NIU is 4-4 in its last 8 games and has been destroyed in all 4 losses. The reign at the top is over. I think at best NIU is a 3-3 team the rest of the season. I don't know why people are surprised many of us predicted 6-6 or 7-5. I think beating NORTHWESTERN fooled many people in to thinking this is a good team.

Something to keep mind regarding Moore. If Mycial Allen wasn't injured, he'd be starting back there with Durante more than likely.

Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

(10-12-2014 07:21 AM)dekalb222 Wrote:  NIU is 4-4 in its last 8 games and has been destroyed in all 4 losses. The reign at the top is over. I think at best NIU is a 3-3 team the rest of the season. I don't know why people are surprised many of us predicted 6-6 or 7-5. I think beating NORTHWESTERN fooled many people in to thinking this is a good team.

yep