My goodness, is it just me or is this place worse than normal after a loss?

That game was unbelievably disappointing, but for no other reason than it was a game NIU should have won. Short of a 10 or so minute stretch late in the 2nd and early in the 3rd, NIU was the better team the majority of the night. As much as I don't think Boston College is good, they are still an ACC team and they still won a bowl game last year.

Some (a lot) of perspective against Power 5 opponents.

2011
The team that eventually broke NIU's MAC Championship curse went to Kansas AND....lost to literally one of the worst team's in college football and gave up 45 points in the process. The date of that game was September 10th, 2011. Kansas didn't beat another FBS opponent until September 21st, 2013 over two calendar years later!!

2012
Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. But THAT game was played on the road. NIU opened the 2012 season (remember, they went to the Orange Bowl that year), with an Iowa team that was not good. NIU failed to gain 200 yards and threw for a whopping -1 yards in the second half. Iowa would go on to beat 2 more FBS teams the rest of the season and finish 4-8.

Okay, okay, but that game was really a road game because it was 80% iowa fans. Kansas, who again, is literally one of the worst teams in college football came to DeKalb on a beautiful Saturday. Looking a 10 point, 4th quarter deficit square in the face, Jordan Lynch rattles off 17 4th quarter points to lead NIU to a 30-23 win.

2015
A week after nearly upsetting #1 Ohio State, NIU rolls into Chestnut Hill to face Boston College. NIU gains 153 total yards and Drew Hare goes 11/25 for 81 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT and only runs for 15 yards (remember those stats) as NIU falls to BC 17-14. It was Boston College's only victory against an FBS opponent on the season.

My point? Beating Power 5 teams for NIU is HARD. Even during peak NIU years, some of the best NIU teams either struggled to beat or lost to some BAD Power 5 teams.

I don't understand the reaction that NIU just lost to some FCS school. It's frustrating because it's a game they could/should have won, but I came out of that game no less optimistic than I was before the game.

I mentioned NIU's stats vs. BC two years ago above. To repeat, NIU gained an entire 153 total yards against a BC team that won 1 game vs. an FBS team that year. Two nights ago NIU gained 367 yards (and out gained BC for that matter). I am the last person who is going to defend Ryan Graham, but again two years ago Hare had 81 passing yards, 96 total yards, and threw 0 TDs and 1 pick against BC. Graham, on the other hand, threw for 190 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT (admittedly, that completion percentage was terrible) and ran for 99 more.

So what am I missing here that the sky is falling?

Yes, absolutely, if NIU had a better QB that's a game they win. Graham threw some two hoppers to WRs and throws a punt of a deep ball. But this isn't something we didn't already know heading into the game. NIU is going to have to overcome their QB play to win games this year. It's reality.

However, just about everything else on the team? It's hard to find many negatives. The defense got hung out to dry a bit towards the end of the second quarter and it showed. BC had something like 47 plays in the first half and you can really tell how worn out the defense was. Once Graham and company went on the 13 play drive, the defense seemed to find their legs again and settled in.

How awesome were Kyle Pugh and Sutton Smith? Pugh's had a lot of hype, and he lived up to it and then some. He looks like more athletic Boomer Mays which is scary to think about. Sutton Smith, going up against an ACC offensive line, was consistently in their backfield. FIVE (5!!) TFL and a sack, can't say enough good things about Smith.

I thought Bobby Jones had a real nice game as well.

Lurry has officially entered TLL territory in the sense as great of a player as he is, you can't rely on him to be on the field anymore which is a shame because I think Smalls and Lurry would be as good of a duo as NIU has ever had. I thought Embry had some issues filling in for hi.

On the offensive side of the ball, I want to see how Graham does against EIU before I call for his head. Boston College always has a really good defense, and he did do some decent things. However, he needs to be way more accurate than he was. There were back to back series to start the second half where he had 4 straight open WRs and missed all 4 of them. Now, Wesley could have caught one of them, but the throw was behind him.

With that being said, it wasn't a total loss for Graham. I would have never guessed he would take one 60 yards against an ACC team and he had a few other key runs on 3rd downs. The throw to Brown for the TD was nice, and the most overlooked play of the game is going to be his throw to Wimann on 4th down on the last drive. BC's DE got a great jump off the snap and was on Graham immediately and Graham still found Wimann.

Besides Hagan's missed FG (i'm still trying to figure out if that was tipped), the biggest sequence of the game was after NIU tied it at 20 and was driving. Graham had Blake open for a TD and threw an arm punted and overthrew him and then on 4th and 1 Coach U called for a jet sweep to Beebe (wut) and got stuffed. NIU's offense did nothing after that drive until the final drive of the game.

Beebe is going to have a huge year if he stays healthy. He needs to stay healthy though because I'm not sure i have faith in any of the WRs behind him, although i did think DJ Brown played well.

Wimann was a mixed bag. Caught a TD and had the HUGE 4th down catch, but also dropped a wheel route and took a holding penalty to negate a huge run by Brown.

Gotta give the offensive line a lot of credit. 164 rushing yards and 4.6 YPC against BC is solid and Graham didn't get sacked all night. If that's any indication of how good the line is, they're going to hide a lot of NIU's QB issues. They shut down the best DE they'll play all year, and BC was bringing the house on the final drive and the line still held up.

Overall, I thought heading into the game NIU is a 6 win team minimum game and an 8 win team maximum. I still feel the same way now.

I really do think next week is a huge week for Graham though. He can't afford to lay an egg against direction FCS Illinois like he did last year. I think you'll see the run game get going and he'll play better.

R-E-L-A-X