Tough loss and completely overmatched by Michigan. Maybe just maybe Michigan is a real good team though. I’d give this team one more year to grow and develop since they are young. However I’m worried about the defense and coaching on that side of the ball.

Anyways here’s some food for thought….

Michigan beats Western Michigan easily 47-14. Then WMU beats Pittsburgh today. So WMU really isn’t a bad team right? They also got smoked by Michigan.

We barely lose to Wyoming last week, but they are slamming Ball State 31-0 at the moment.

Georgia Tech is holding very close to Clemson at halftime.


So takeaway is NIU has still improved by showing they can beat GT even though they got destroyed today by a very good and more mature and physical team. They are what we expected them to be at this point in this rebuild. Probably a 6 win team making a bowl game. I can see NIU making a big leap next year once the offensive and defensive line get stronger and a year older.

(09-18-2021 05:25 PM)JoeNovak Wrote:  Tough loss and completely overmatched by Michigan. Maybe just maybe Michigan is a real good team though. I’d give this team one more year to grow and develop since they are young. However I’m worried about the defense and coaching on that side of the ball.

Anyways here’s some food for thought….

Michigan beats Western Michigan easily 47-14. Then WMU beats Pittsburgh today. So WMU really isn’t a bad team right? They also got smoked by Michigan.

We barely lose to Wyoming last week, but they are slamming Ball State 31-0 at the moment.

Georgia Tech is holding very close to Clemson at halftime.


So takeaway is NIU has still improved by showing they can beat GT even though they got destroyed today by a very good and more mature and physical team. They are what we expected them to be at this point in this rebuild. Probably a 6 win team making a bowl game. I can see NIU making a big leap next year once the offensive and defensive line get stronger and a year older.

Michigan really let up towards the end. They could’ve scored 100 had they kept the gas down. I’m thankful they didn’t

Michigan is 3-0 and has beaten all their opponents easily, including another P5 school in PAC-12.

I appreciate the optimism, but today was about as bad as it gets.

Michigan was is nowhere as good as we made them look. Had NIU went to Alabama and lost like that I would’ve understood. This was a new top 25(25) team. We we’re getting destroyed by Wyoming also. They only came back because the game was in Dekalb. The football program is in trouble on and off the field. We might average 7k fans this year. Everything is trending bad I can’t think of one thing trending positively

People need to learn to stop taking losses so seriously. It's one game. Yes, we were thoroughly beat. This team is not far off from being 2-1 with a team of 87 freshmen.

Relax a little. And look around at the rest of the MAC. NIU is going to be very competitive in the MAC where we aren't playing a team loaded with 4 and 5 star recruits and no one has stepped up and shown they're the clear MAC leader. NIU has half of the conferences FBS wins.

Toledo only scored 6 points at home against an 0-2 MWC team. Fire the AD and head coach!

Most on here predicted 1-3 or at best 2-2 for occ. It looks like we will be 2-2 heading into conf. Play. Basically at most expectations from the one thread a couple months back. The boise game still seems a lot worse as we were G5 vs G5 with both decent records that year. Beat Maine with some good positive vibes going into MAC play. I do expect the players to come out this week with something to prove after a large loss like that.

Michigan ran for more than 300 yards against Washington. What did you expect?

So G-Tech loses to Clemson 14-6.

Either UM is really good or Clemson sucks.

Wyoming destroys the pre-season MAC West favorites 45-12.

Toledo mauled 22-6 by Col State who got beat by Vandy who lost to E TN ST. 23-3.

I think that Michigan outside speed in running and running game is one of the best. I think they are no worse than a 2-3 loss team in conference. That's only because the East is loaded. Heck they may lose one game. OSU doesn't look invincible.

NIU will not see that speed, running attack again. Their line will hold it's own in MAC, allow running game to do well, give them time to look deep.

NIU can win the west.

(09-18-2021 05:44 PM)dc1 Wrote:  Michigan was is nowhere as good as we made them look. Had NIU went to Alabama and lost like that I would’ve understood. This was a new top 25(25) team. We we’re getting destroyed by Wyoming also. They only came back because the game was in Dekalb. The football program is in trouble on and off the field. We might average 7k fans this year. Everything is trending bad I can’t think of one thing trending positively

"They only came back because the game was in Dekalb"?

Coach Ham must have told all the players and coaches at halftime "We will come back because we are in Dekalb!"

Then the vibe going through all 11,000 fans at halftime was ""We will come back because we are in Dekalb!"

And the team came back because they were in Dekalb.

And if today's game was in Dekalb, they would have came back.

(09-18-2021 09:34 PM)randyfensfanclub1 Wrote:  So G-Tech loses to Clemson 14-6.

Either UM is really good or Clemson sucks.

Wyoming destroys the pre-season MAC West favorites 45-12.

Toledo mauled 22-6 by Col State who got beat by Vandy who lost to E TN ST. 23-3.

I think that Michigan outside speed in running and running game is one of the best. I think they are no worse than a 2-3 loss team in conference. That's only because the East is loaded. Heck they may lose one game. OSU doesn't look invincible.

NIU will not see that speed, running attack again. Their line will hold it's own in MAC, allow running game to do well, give them time to look deep.

NIU can win the west.

UM is good. They've destroyed everyone they've played.

Clemson is a team loaded with 5 star players and is the best of the ACC, which is not saying a whole lot since the ACC looks bad this year. GT has a chance to score 3-4 wins in a bad ACC.

Ball State clearly found magic last year and escaped with wins until they played well in the MACC and bowl season. Now they look like they could finish last in the West after being predicted to win the entire conference.

Toledo only has a FCS win and lost to a winless MWC team at home. The Notre Dame team they almost beat looks like a pretender that is barely escaping with wins.

EMU essentially has two FCS wins (UMass would lose to a lot of FCS teams).

The entire MAC East has zero FBS wins.

Scaeferbeer, I’m sure you also feel that had the Wyoming game been in Wyoming NIU likely doesn’t make a comeback.

Guys, I figured it out.... We're just a night game team. We can't have these early starts. 3:30 or later only. Somebody get STF on the blower.

I think the hard part for all of us is that this game is a heavy dose of all that is believed outside of our circle (NIU fan community):

We are not Iowa, Michigan, Norte Dame, or any relevant P5 team. We may sneak up on a Northwestern or struggling P5 program occasionally...but this game shows the disparity between us and “them”.

It proves the Herbstreit’s of the world right and it feels like although we were once real close to the good stuff (2013 era)...that carrot got moved further and we just don’t have the resources to get it. We will never have a crowd or game day experience like those in the Big House, and it leaves us all a little jealous and feeling let down. But in reality we should all embrace who we are shoot for being a top MAC team

Sorry for the buzzkill, but acceptance can be a healthy thing.

Good post. Pretty much my view of things in general. (One quibble ... the rub against Herbstreit was not about realistic assessment of NIU's achievement, but that he lit up on NIU without giving the team any credit for getting to the BCS Orange.)

Said on another thread (brief repeat here) that UM was so good, it tore the facade off the faults this team has and showed clearly where the work is needed.

On the other hand, it was not the loss but the magnitude of it that caused all the butt-hurt.

(09-19-2021 07:42 AM)JB04 Wrote:  we are not Iowa, Michigan, Norte Dame, or any relevant P5 team. We may sneak up on a Northwestern or struggling P5 program occasionally...but this game shows the disparity between us and “them”.

It's pretty much impossible. Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, etc. outspend us by a ton and have far better facilities, more support staff, better tv deals, etc. Their head coaches alone make more than we spend on our entire football program. There's no shame in beating all the mid-level and low-level P5s that only spend $50-70 million on their athletic department. This is essentially like MLB, where you can far outspend other teams and there is no salary cap. Hence why the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, etc buy their way into the playoffs almost every year.

Besides just all that, we are fielding a defensive two deep with one senior and 16 freshmen.

(09-19-2021 08:04 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(09-19-2021 07:42 AM)JB04 Wrote:  we are not Iowa, Michigan, Norte Dame, or any relevant P5 team. We may sneak up on a Northwestern or struggling P5 program occasionally...but this game shows the disparity between us and “them”.

It's pretty much impossible. Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, etc. outspend us by a ton and have far better facilities, more support staff, better tv deals, etc. Their head coaches alone make more than we spend on our entire football program. There's no shame in beating all the mid-level and low-level P5s that only spend $50-70 million on their athletic department. This is essentially like MLB, where you can far outspend other teams and there is no salary cap. Hence why the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, etc buy their way into the playoffs almost every year.

Besides just all that, we are fielding a defensive two deep with one senior and 16 freshmen.

I agree with everything except this. These aren’t “kids” some of them have played 3 years in the system. This is the year they MUST make a step. Some haven’t.

I went back and watched…we do seriously weird things on defense.

One play in particular, I wish I had written down when, we run what looks like a 3-3-5, then Rayner steps up to the end…yes a vaunted 205 lbs end. The safety is a single high…brown…and the corners are playing press (Rodgers) and way off (Gandy). Hanson walks up near the LBs (now it’s a 4-3…with a 205lbs end and a 190ish LB). At the snap the corners bail, including the 3rd corner) Hanson drops…Rattin & Lance just read (surprise it’s a run to the outside) - Brown was crashing at the snap.

So to review we have 4 guys dropping hard, brown crashing, and undersized LBs and DEs. My guess is this is a bastardized quarters coverage - against a run team.

In general, when a team is a running team you don’t have 4 guys bailing hard, especially if the run is to the outside. Once they get around your DE and the 2 LBs who are reading and no doubt going to get caught in the wash of the DLine getting blown back, all the back has to do is hit the seam created by the blocking WR. Simple stalk block, just read it. The only guy who could make the tackle…by ******* design, is Brown.

What in the hell type D is that? They literally schemed it so it would be your single high safety came and made a play. If it worked to perfection you are scheming for what? A 7 yard gain? WTF.

(09-19-2021 07:42 AM)JB04 Wrote:  I think the hard part for all of us is that this game is a heavy dose of all that is believed outside of our circle (NIU fan community):

We are not Iowa, Michigan, Norte Dame, or any relevant P5 team. We may sneak up on a Northwestern or struggling P5 program occasionally...but this game shows the disparity between us and “them”.

It proves the Herbstreit’s of the world right and it feels like although we were once real close to the good stuff (2013 era)...that carrot got moved further and we just don’t have the resources to get it. We will never have a crowd or game day experience like those in the Big House, and it leaves us all a little jealous and feeling let down. But in reality we should all embrace who we are shoot for being a top MAC team

Sorry for the buzzkill, but acceptance can be a healthy thing.

The Herbstreit reference was more about his job: Professional commentator. Really no reference to what he said about us back in the day

(09-19-2021 07:42 AM)JB04 Wrote:  I think the hard part for all of us is that this game is a heavy dose of all that is believed outside of our circle (NIU fan community):

We are not Iowa, Michigan, Norte Dame, or any relevant P5 team. We may sneak up on a Northwestern or struggling P5 program occasionally...but this game shows the disparity between us and “them”.

It proves the Herbstreit’s of the world right and it feels like although we were once real close to the good stuff (2013 era)...that carrot got moved further and we just don’t have the resources to get it. We will never have a crowd or game day experience like those in the Big House, and it leaves us all a little jealous and feeling let down. But in reality we should all embrace who we are shoot for being a top MAC team

Sorry for the buzzkill, but acceptance can be a healthy thing.

Everybody knows we aren't Iowa or Michigan. Everybody knows we were likely to lose by a lot. To have such low expectations and still be disappointed is really bad. Michigan could have scored 100. I've never seen a defense that bad. I think a lot of it is on the coaches. How do you spend. almost the whole game having NOBODY on the outside? As soon as the RB got to the outside it was an easy 20+ yard gain. I do think the Michigan RBs are very good but still.