So, Northwestern
- Thread starter newAD
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I would guess because we played them recently. In a game that went down to the wire, that we probably should have won.
I’m convinced this year is just weird. No fans kinda creates a whatever attitude for both teams. Teams look completely different from week to week. Some teams literally look like they have no desire to play a football game.
we don't win in normal years, either
Pat Fitzgerald's morning constitution contains more coaching ability than our entire staff
Some guys said that last year, “ wait til next year.” I wonder how many more years we will keep saying it?
They have a better coach who isn't so conceited and arrogant enough to ignore the issues and not fix them.
Northwestern I believe has already wrapped up the division. The only program in the big 10 with a legit handicap. Yes, they have down years, but under Fitz they can never be counted out on any given Saturday.
It might be this year’s version of “the O-Line improved dramatically as the season went on....”
(Translation: we played Maryland.)
And even then put a Big 10 Defense on the field like they do virtually every year..
I think someone did a body switcheroo on Frost between his time at UCF and now at Nebraska. Just doesn't seem like the same coach at all.
Frost had a QB at UCF that had the ability to complete a forward (not swing) pass.
Not sure why we can't develop one here. That's a pretty important trait for a QB.
Yes, QB is one issue for sure. No doubt. BUT it's not the only issue. The OL can't block worth crap to either give the QB some protection or to make any holes for the RB's to run through. The center can't even get the ball snapped to the QB reliably. OL has got worse and worse as the season has gone on. What happened to that OL depth we supposedly had in the pre-season reports? False advertising in the pre-season for sure.
I don't know--Wisconsin had 100 more yards of offense. The difference....8 penalties to one, and 5 turnovers to none.
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Northwestern is exhibit A on how important QB play is to the success of your team. THEY have a QB this year and that was the only addition they needed to go from 3-9 to undefeated this year. Think of this. Illinois, Ohio State, Northwestern and Rutgers are all starting transfer QBs. OSU's, Northwestern and Illinois all got transfers from guys who were top national prospects coming out of high school.
Mertz is a freshman. Luke is a redshirt freshman who only played QB full time his senior year of high school. I'm not sure what we expect of these kids.
He did look bad although I think NW probably has the best defense in the conference. OSU is more talented but they kind of lose interest once they open up a lead.
I laugh because I am a Denver Bronco fan. I don’t think Peyton Manning threw a spiral in 4 years. But he always threw perfect passes. It doesn’t have to be a spiral.
Or when you try to have a super aggressive defense to get the ball back to your “offense” as quickly as possible.
Chinander is terrible but he is modeling his defense around what Frost wanted. But instead of forcing the Big Ten to adapt his offense, in 3 short years Frost has one of the worst offenses in the nation.
Northwestern was planning to start a transfer last year as well and it worked out terribly. It goes both ways.
Always better to recruit and develop your own players, but that requires patience.
Badger fans expecting Mertz to be Russell Wilson from day 1 got a reality check.
It's actually kind of funny that we our offense performed the best of anyone so far against NW. Obviously, we didn't finish any drives but we moved the ball better.
Technically if NW was to lose to Minny and lose one other game and Iowa beats Wisky, that means the division would be in one huge tiebreaker because Iowa would have head to head against Minny, who would have the head to against NW, and Wisky would have the head to head over Minny. Because of that they have to move to the 2nd tie breaker which I believe is record in games against the other division.
Their defense does not suck. They have three good senior linebackers and a couple of talented DBs for a change.