My wife and I drove up from Central Ohio and my daughter and granddaughters drove down from Sun Prairie Wisconsin to join us for the game.

The Good - I try to get to at least one game on campus every season and this was by far the loudest and most enthusiastic NIU student section that I can remember in years and they stayed for much of the second half. Just a great atmosphere that made the game more fun for my young granddaughters. The game was close which is actually more entertaining than a blow out victory. I will add that I love our band.

The Bad - NIU's defense looked awful and an FCS school wore them down ... they played progressively worse as the game went on. I had hoped for improvement with another year of lifting and conditioning and adding the new defensive co-coordinator and that has not happened yet. "We are a young team" is no longer a valid excuse. I will add that NIU had too many costly penalties, many on offense, which I suppose is correctable.

The Ugly - I was very disappointed in the O line. They were significantly bigger than Eastern's D line and they could not get a push in the second half to put the game away. This was a bit shocking and it is my biggest concern going forward.

I will add that I was impressed with Eastern's QB. He kept his composure, made smart decisions and completed more than a few accurate passes while running for his life.

Bottom line, my family had a great time but unless there is major improvement in all phases Detroit might be beyond this team's reach.

The EIU QB took an odd path. Started at EIU in 2019, transferred to Colorado State in 2020, played just one game in 2021 and transferred back to EIU. 4th year sophomore and his first complete game, but he was super composed. Still can’t believe he saved that snap over his head.

WRs need help, but could not really tell by limited passing game.

Their receivers seem open all night. Scheme may not be the best. Lack PHYSICAL LBs. Dline better on 2nd look, only counting 1st half. Waylee appears to be the #1 RB at this time. Blakemore is really good, can't believe he is a walk on. RBs are coached hard by Hammock, better make the right cut or expect a chewing out. We ran a lot of 2 TEs and sometimes 3 with overloads. That 1st drive those formations were heavy sets , we going to just bet on you. We may lack SPEED, especially on O. Expect Blakemore to return a kick for 6 this year.

We took the pedal off the metal in the 2nd half

(09-03-2022 11:54 AM)Max Power Wrote:  The EIU QB took an odd path. Started at EIU in 2019, transferred to Colorado State in 2020, played just one game in 2021 and transferred back to EIU. 4th year sophomore and his first complete game, but he was super composed. Still can’t believe he saved that snap over his head.

So maybe Jayvon Ducker will come back to us after one year at Memphis.

How successful our season is going to be will depend on how willing our coaches are to be aggressive in our passing game when defenses load the box. If we are able to take advantage we’ll enjoy great success. If we are limited in the passing game we may lose enough games to lose the MAC.

WRs did not flash SPEED. Thought Thornton would show speed, I did not see it. We need speed out there.

(09-03-2022 10:24 AM)bikechuck Wrote:  My wife and I drove up from Central Ohio and my daughter and granddaughters drove down from Sun Prairie Wisconsin to join us for the game.

The Good - I try to get to at least one game on campus every season and this was by far the loudest and most enthusiastic NIU student section that I can remember in years and they stayed for much of the second half. Just a great atmosphere that made the game more fun for my young granddaughters. The game was close which is actually more entertaining than a blow out victory. I will add that I love our band.

The Bad - NIU's defense looked awful and an FCS school wore them down ... they played progressively worse as the game went on. I had hoped for improvement with another year of lifting and conditioning and adding the new defensive co-coordinator and that has not happened yet. "We are a young team" is no longer a valid excuse. I will add that NIU had too many costly penalties, many on offense, which I suppose is correctable.

The Ugly - I was very disappointed in the O line. They were significantly bigger than Eastern's D line and they could not get a push in the second half to put the game away. This was a bit shocking and it is my biggest concern going forward.

I will add that I was impressed with Eastern's QB. He kept his composure, made smart decisions and completed more than a few accurate passes while running for his life.

Bottom line, my family had a great time but unless there is major improvement in all phases Detroit might be beyond this team's reach.

Band was great. Shout out to them. Silvrettes-- nice job-- but go recruit-- too small a group. Cheerleaders--- ? i blinked and missed them.

Worn down -- our defense looked worn down VERy early. Did we skimp on conditioning?
EIU's QB was impressive. I was thinking that -- but then--- the problem is we are gonna play a lot of guys that are also impressive.

Our players played hard. Showed flashes. Need to pick up the pace. And the coaches--- didn't do a great job of game planning or adjusting in that game.

On to Tulsa!

Good:

1. Defense got two INTs. That's twice as many as we had in 12 games last year.

2. Students were cheering and loud. Stayed for most of the game.

3. No first game concession issues on East side.

4. Marching band and Mission II were fun and always a joy to see/hear.

5. Three RBs got carries and all three had TDs. I like the running back committee and it will allow them to stay fresh and healthy. The TD run by Blakemore was pure determination and grit. Loved it!

On a rewatch this wasn't as bad as I thought. The D-line was decent. Still needed Lb blitzes for consistent pressure, but Omalley, Ester and IGM had solid performances. Haberman too. Our back 7 were not good. Rayner had a rough game until the final drive. They abused him. Isolated him. Sealed him off and ran by him. In contrast, EIU's LB's and safeties played great up at the line. stayed in their lanes. Shed blocks. Made tackles.

The O-line wasn't terrible. They just didn't get too much push. Blocking was more of a problem with FB's and Wr's. Blakemore got thrown backwards 3 yards blocking out of the slot when Waylee ran to his side. Lampe missed at times. Rocky was fairly accurate with his arm, but less so with his eyes. He left a few big plays out there. It was fun Soraghan caught a td. Lets call it a career for his receptions.

Bottom line was EIU played very, very well. Smart and aggressive. NIU was passive and a bit sloppy. I think next week is 100% better.

Next week will tell us a lot, hope some of the prowess we were expecting last week continues to unfold.

(09-04-2022 02:31 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  On a rewatch this wasn't as bad as I thought. The D-line was decent. Still needed Lb blitzes for consistent pressure, but Omalley, Ester and IGM had solid performances. Haberman too. Our back 7 were not good. Rayner had a rough game until the final drive. They abused him. Isolated him. Sealed him off and ran by him. In contrast, EIU's LB's and safeties played great up at the line. stayed in their lanes. Shed blocks. Made tackles.

The O-line wasn't terrible. They just didn't get too much push. Blocking was more of a problem with FB's and Wr's. Blakemore got thrown backwards 3 yards blocking out of the slot when Waylee ran to his side. Lampe missed at times. Rocky was fairly accurate with his arm, but less so with his eyes. He left a few big plays out there. It was fun Soraghan caught a td. Lets call it a career for his receptions.

Bottom line was EIU played very, very well. Smart and aggressive. NIU was passive and a bit sloppy. I think next week is 100% better.

What he said .

I was disappointed in the offensive line. I thought they would have controlled the line of scrimmage more. We has a lot of 2-3 yard ruins. I was expecting brown to have ten 7-8 yard bursts. The yards per carry is deceiving, we had 54, 35 and 19 yard runs.

(09-05-2022 02:17 PM)klake87 Wrote:  I was disappointed in the offensive line. I thought they would have controlled the line of scrimmage more. We has a lot of 2-3 yard ruins. I was expecting brown to have ten 7-8 yard bursts. The yards per carry is deceiving, we had 54, 35 and 19 yard runs.

I thinking facing a 9 man front you have a whole bunch of 1-3 yard runs and then once in a great while a 50 yarder when you get passed those backers. When they pulled 3 linemen on a sweep it worked better than running right into the teeth of that D-wall. It’s where we missed Ratdog being a lead blocker. There’s just not enough O-linemen and you need good blocking from TEs, WRs and RBs.

First week of the season. Lots of bugs in the air. I feel better. Since VA tech lost to ODU and Iowa almost lost to South Dakota State.