Official Northern Illinois predictions
- Thread starter TULSARISING
- Start date
NIU had less than 150 yards total offense yesterday. Perfect game for our D to gain some confidence.
TU 31
NIU 17
TU 31
NIU 17
Does Northern Illinois have the same coach from last year because he may have been worse than ours.
NIU is doing nothing but practice the passing game this week.
I hate it, but NIU 35 - TU 28
I hate it, but NIU 35 - TU 28
I'm sure OU would be glad to loan them their receivers next week.
Fan Duel has it at -5.5 Tulsa and says 84% chance Tulsa wins. 🤷♂️
We are Keith Burns bad on D, have done nothing special on special teams and our offense has been anemic. Don’t understand the optimism.
OU receivers are on a whole other level then NIU receivers , but I get what your saying
Our secondary isnt great but I also dont think you guys understand just how fast and quick on the route OU's receivers are! NIU we can stay with. I understand morale is down but I do not think this is a game we lose.
Comeback Kings - 42
West Chicago high - 21
Comeback Kings - 42
West Chicago high - 21
Agreed. We are young and raw back there but we've played 2 of the better statistical QBs in the country. NIU scored 11 points against Southern Illinois recently, so let's get a grip here. Our D line should do much better making our secondary look better.
This is about right. I was initially thinking in the 34-20 range.
Special teams have not killed us each game as has it has been in the past. OU just had better athletes on special teams that allowed some hefty returns. When looking at anemic offenses you've got to look at NIU's, which has put up terrible numbers. However, they will find success if our defense doesn't figure some things out in a hurry. Offensively, our numbers aren't horrible, and there have been some bright spots, even against OU and Washington. We've really gotten behind the 8 ball due to turnovers, but playing musical QB will have that affect. I believe that we can pull this one out and have a good run in the conference. My mind would be changed if this week is a disaster.
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Wilson has some alignment issues with his staff that will get worked out I’m sure. That might take a few weeks.
We have a QB2 who is a heck of an athlete with a high school mentality who needs to mature. You can’t just go out there and wing it. And it’s clear that’s what he is trying to do at times. If Luke Skipper has finally grown up, I hope he calls Cardi and gives him some tips on how to handle himself or there could be regrets.
Our DBs are suspect and there’s little to no depth but I’m actually more concerned about size and match up issues elsewhere as we head into conference play.
You can’t really judge this season so far. One opponent who was not evenly matched with us and two more than might be Top 5 teams.
It’s difficult to convey what a difference experienced QB play makes in college football. And we played arguably the two most experienced and most talented QBs in the country this year.
Penix is incredibly hard to defend even if we had an all AAC or all Big 12 backfield out there. You have to defend the entire field with him. With other QBs, some in the Top 10 of the P5, they either don’t have the physical ability or vision to put the ball into high percentage outcomes in half, sometimes two thirds of the field. Or the line to give them time to get the ball to a receiver in those extended areas. In those situations, you can scheme and leverage QBs into even more unfavorable situations once you force them from the pocket. With Penix, he makes you look like a fool. He can gash you anywhere and out of the pocket he has multiple one v one threats getting open. Brodie Coyle before he got hurt is probably the only other QB I’ve seen at the college level that has so many different challenges defensively.
Milton is mixed bag. He came ready to play, he clearly remembered who he was playing and wanted some payback.
It’s true we had some alignment and communication issues but we did what we do pretty well against them. Milton just had the experience, vision, arm and trust of his coaches to extend the field of attack into places we lacked the talent to defend. When he couldn’t do that due to down distance or time, he had 1v1 match ups with elite talent on his side of the ball. They did some iso stuff and gashed us particularly when running tempo. We won’t see a team that fast to the line again this season. The only team I’ve ever seen that quick was maybe the TG/Malzahn blow out game against Houston when we were snapping the ball every 6 seconds. Lebby is a horrible human being who shouldn’t be working in the sport and will be exposed as OU plays elite competition, but he called this game masterfully.
FWIW, I maintain some ties with people who like to style themselves as in touch with the elite OU booster class. The billionaire oil crowd. Im told, perhaps reliably, the consensus amongst the big money oil people visiting was that they had no idea our tailgate scene was what it was, particularly the concert and layout. They want OU to replicate it. That’s a nice grudging compliment that we belong, even if Monty left us with a lopsided roster.
If you want something to ruminate over, we brought in Wilson to change the culture and by all accounts that’s been a success. But we’ve seen some hold overs in key positions make the same errors we saw during the PM era during the OU game. We didn’t see that in UW or the PB game. It may take some time to truly weed out the malcontents and weak mentality folks. I was surprised how quickly that turned around but it looks like we still have a few who have not truly gotten the message. That could be a problem.
This is still a solid 6-6 football team imo. We are going to find out if they are really well coached but just not talented enough at some key positions to get there. Which may be the case.
We have a QB2 who is a heck of an athlete with a high school mentality who needs to mature. You can’t just go out there and wing it. And it’s clear that’s what he is trying to do at times. If Luke Skipper has finally grown up, I hope he calls Cardi and gives him some tips on how to handle himself or there could be regrets.
Our DBs are suspect and there’s little to no depth but I’m actually more concerned about size and match up issues elsewhere as we head into conference play.
You can’t really judge this season so far. One opponent who was not evenly matched with us and two more than might be Top 5 teams.
It’s difficult to convey what a difference experienced QB play makes in college football. And we played arguably the two most experienced and most talented QBs in the country this year.
Penix is incredibly hard to defend even if we had an all AAC or all Big 12 backfield out there. You have to defend the entire field with him. With other QBs, some in the Top 10 of the P5, they either don’t have the physical ability or vision to put the ball into high percentage outcomes in half, sometimes two thirds of the field. Or the line to give them time to get the ball to a receiver in those extended areas. In those situations, you can scheme and leverage QBs into even more unfavorable situations once you force them from the pocket. With Penix, he makes you look like a fool. He can gash you anywhere and out of the pocket he has multiple one v one threats getting open. Brodie Coyle before he got hurt is probably the only other QB I’ve seen at the college level that has so many different challenges defensively.
Milton is mixed bag. He came ready to play, he clearly remembered who he was playing and wanted some payback.
It’s true we had some alignment and communication issues but we did what we do pretty well against them. Milton just had the experience, vision, arm and trust of his coaches to extend the field of attack into places we lacked the talent to defend. When he couldn’t do that due to down distance or time, he had 1v1 match ups with elite talent on his side of the ball. They did some iso stuff and gashed us particularly when running tempo. We won’t see a team that fast to the line again this season. The only team I’ve ever seen that quick was maybe the TG/Malzahn blow out game against Houston when we were snapping the ball every 6 seconds. Lebby is a horrible human being who shouldn’t be working in the sport and will be exposed as OU plays elite competition, but he called this game masterfully.
FWIW, I maintain some ties with people who like to style themselves as in touch with the elite OU booster class. The billionaire oil crowd. Im told, perhaps reliably, the consensus amongst the big money oil people visiting was that they had no idea our tailgate scene was what it was, particularly the concert and layout. They want OU to replicate it. That’s a nice grudging compliment that we belong, even if Monty left us with a lopsided roster.
If you want something to ruminate over, we brought in Wilson to change the culture and by all accounts that’s been a success. But we’ve seen some hold overs in key positions make the same errors we saw during the PM era during the OU game. We didn’t see that in UW or the PB game. It may take some time to truly weed out the malcontents and weak mentality folks. I was surprised how quickly that turned around but it looks like we still have a few who have not truly gotten the message. That could be a problem.
This is still a solid 6-6 football team imo. We are going to find out if they are really well coached but just not talented enough at some key positions to get there. Which may be the case.
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Sorry. Getting older. They are six of one as far as I’m concerned.
That Nebraska defense is above average. It's Nebraska's offense that sucks. I think the NIU offense if probably better than they showed last week.
But that still doesn't explain why they lost to an FCS team in Southern Illinois....who just lost at Mizzou State this past weekend
OU's tailgate scene blows. OSU's is pretty decent though less organized.
The hold overs weren't the only ones making errors. There were significant errors by everyone on defense, from Kopenski and Ray all the way down. It's not a discipline issue.
And they beat Boston College who just played #4 Florida State close..... The transitive property of football doesn't always work out too well.
