Los Venerables

Damn straight I'm a Zips Fan. What did I win?

Game Prediction Time! Let me preface this by disclosing that I have placed a $100 wager on the Zips +24. Don't get too excited, though. The Badger are going to win. As I've hopefully made clear, I think our defense is pretty stout, but Kron is the type of offense that can (should?) exploit what I think are our weakest parts, the backfield, specifically the safeties. If Kron is smart, they'll target them with slants and skinny posts. I wouldn't be surprised if the Badgers play a lot of 2-4-5 on D to provide some help. That said, I think the focus is going to be on containing and disrupting the QB. Expect to get tired of seeing #47 (Biegel) and #42 (Watt) in your backfield. On offense, I expect the Badgers to play it a bit more conservatively than last week. The running game did well against a very good LSU front 7, forcing Houston to throw more. You'll see all three RBs today, coaches have been hinting that 3rd string back Taiwan Deal may see a lot of action. Take it how you want, but I think they are trying to preserve Clement for the Big Ten games to come. The OL should impose their will, if not right away, by the middle of the 3rd. When he does throw, Houston's security blanket is TE Fumagalli. I don't know how many TE-centric teams you guys see, but Chryst loves himself some TEs. Avoiding turnovers is likely to be a priority today, so I doubt you'll see many long throws, even though Houston has the arm for it. Besides the TE, they like quick outs to the flat and screens to the FBs, both of whom are very good. I don't think the Badger will run away with it, if they get any kind of sizeable lead, they'll likely pull a lot of starters giving Kron a chance for some late-game scores. 37-17 Badgers. Edit: Looks like you won't see me after the game after all, since it says I've been banned until 9/22. If you see this, I guess edit still works.

Some advice. Akron sounds too much like Acorn. You should shorten your name to "Kron", i.e., get rid of the "A". Kron (or, alternatively, KRON!) sounds scary and mean. You're welcome.

Almost to 50 posts. There may be some filler material before my eagerly anticipated game prediction.

Thank you for your kind invitation to come live with you and your family in Akron. I'm going to pass, but will cherish these memories forever.

I'm not quite at 50 posts yet, but I am tingling with anticipation to reaching the "Zip Fan" threshold. No one has yet confirmed that this appellation kicks in at 50 posts, but never mind, I'll post and post until I reach that lofty goal. I'm not sure why you put daughter in scare quotes; are you suggesting that I don't actually have a daughter or are you suggesting that she may not actually be my daughter? If it's the latter, please let me know before kickoff as that gives me the perfect rationale to skip the soccer game and watch my Badgers destroy the Zips live.

Of course. I'm confused because BTN streams in 720p, just like ESPN. Are you on dial-up or something?

You don't own a TV? Oh well, hang in there buddy, things will pick up.

Preseason polls are ridiculous. Week 1 polls only slightly less so. I don't think any Badger fans think the #10 ranking means anything at this point. With @MSU, @Mich, @Iowa, OSU, and Nebraska coming up it's not very likely to stick, either. Win the West and roll the dice in the conference championship game is a reasonable goal for the season.

Yes. He'll handoff to our fullback who was a QB in HS. He'll throw all the passes.

One of these things actually happened.

You didn't let me finish. ... a redshirt freshman named Hornibrook who will do nothing but handoff.

This scenario is impossible. If Houston throws two, you're going to be introduced to a redshirt freshman named Hornibrook.

Darn Tootin'

The line is down to 23 points. Los Venerables gets results. You're welcome.

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I'd be happy to*. Be warned, I won't be watching in real time, as my daughter's soccer game starts at the same time as the game. There's a chance that I'll have caught up to real time on the DVR before the end, but probably not. * This is contingent on a Badger victory. Should the Zips win, I'll be erasing my account and going into hiding in Montana.

This says 6 minutes. This says Evans scored with 6:36 left (this was the next play following the failed 4th down try). The GoZips website says the same. What is your source for 4:30? I'm all ears.

Yes, we have operators standing by to answer all your stupid football questions.

It's not a sample size of 1, it's using an outlier on the far right side of the distribution beyond which there are no other observations. I'm thinking of all 14 games this D (more or less) has played. But Ham Sandwich is confident that Akron is going to push the envelope beyond what the National Champions were able to do. Hey, you never know!

LOL, I know you probably won't believe me, but my season tickets used to be in section Q, 20th row, looking straight down the North goal line. I was at that game. Hendry wasn't close to breaking the plane. You should have kicked the FG. You had all the momentum and wasted it on a dumb 4th down play. And it was closer to 7 minutes left.

You do need to be better informed. Look at me as your exemplar. I took the time to learn all about your team so I could discuss the game cordially and substantively. My point being we have pretty much the same defense as last season, so the performance (such as it was) has some relevance. If you'd prefer a more contemporary example, let's use last week when the Badgers held LSU to 257 total yards on offense. How much better is Akron than LSU?

I can't find the words to describe how much I love this. Even Alabama can't do 300/100 against this D (and no one else even came close), but Akron has the horses!

This article makes the MAC home field advantage sound pretty fearsome: Heck, Wisconsin has a bigger student section that that. In any case, Sagarin usually pegs home field as worth three points. You can check my math, but I think that means that the average winning margin for the Big Ten would only be 15.5 points instead of 18.5.