Watch Out for This Dude

[niu007]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

I was waiting to see if someone would point out that Harnish didn't play against Iowa State - guess not. I'm not sure why actually - but Demarcus Grady was the QB in that game. After watching the North Dakota game, probably a lot of NIU fans would have echoed some of the sentiments expressed here. Harnish missed open receivers, and we had no kicker. In retrospect, I think Harnish was rusty, as he's played better the last couple games. He was injured this offseason.

I'm sure we're somewhere between the weak RB running attack of North Dakota and Illinois games, and the 10+ ypc running attack against Minnesota. Harnish has improved and it may not be possible to stack the run as much as in previous years. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Here is what we do know. Your style of play has won you nothing and will win you nothing. All you have to do with NIU is stop the run and force an average QB to beat you....they never do.

I hope you're not representative of Akron fans. No class at all.

If you can't take some facts, don't come around. Maybe it is the thin skin that keeps you guys from winning anything.

What facts can you offer? We didn't lose to Akron because we couldn't throw the ball - the exact opposite. We got into a passing shootout. We lost because we couldn't play defense. And like I said, your fact about Harnish playing poorly against Iowa State wasn't a fact either.

[GP1]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

I was waiting to see if someone would point out that Harnish didn't play against Iowa State - guess not. I'm not sure why actually - but Demarcus Grady was the QB in that game. After watching the North Dakota game, probably a lot of NIU fans would have echoed some of the sentiments expressed here. Harnish missed open receivers, and we had no kicker. In retrospect, I think Harnish was rusty, as he's played better the last couple games. He was injured this offseason.

I'm sure we're somewhere between the weak RB running attack of North Dakota and Illinois games, and the 10+ ypc running attack against Minnesota. Harnish has improved and it may not be possible to stack the run as much as in previous years. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Here is what we do know. Your style of play has won you nothing and will win you nothing. All you have to do with NIU is stop the run and force an average QB to beat you....they never do.

I hope you're not representative of Akron fans. No class at all.

If you can't take some facts, don't come around. Maybe it is the thin skin that keeps you guys from winning anything.

What facts can you offer? We didn't lose to Akron because we couldn't throw the ball - the exact opposite. We got into a passing shootout. We lost because we couldn't play defense. And like I said, your fact about Harnish playing poorly against Iowa State wasn't a fact either.

Actually, you guys couldn't run late after running the ball all evening and lost because you couldn't run out the clock against a poor defense with an NFL RB and a huge offensive line.

Fine, throw out the ISU game. His numbers are still not impressive.

You're missing the point. NIU is a good team, but not great. They are just another mac school. The difference between winning and losing in the mac is players executing in a league where the talent level is lacking compared to bcs schools. Most MAC schools don't win games, games are handed to them by the other team. Believe me, UofA has handed away more than our fair share of them over the past 20 years. If Akron makes plays Saturday, we win. If not, we lose. If we drop passes, we lose...If we catch passes, we win. If we tackle, we win....If we don't tackle, we lose. Etc..... A play here or there and you guys may be 1-3. Sorry if I'm not impressed.

Would you like me to pretend as if I am impressed?.....I'm a pretty good writer and could probably drum something up real quick. Just say the word and I can make it happen.

[niu007]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

I was waiting to see if someone would point out that Harnish didn't play against Iowa State - guess not. I'm not sure why actually - but Demarcus Grady was the QB in that game. After watching the North Dakota game, probably a lot of NIU fans would have echoed some of the sentiments expressed here. Harnish missed open receivers, and we had no kicker. In retrospect, I think Harnish was rusty, as he's played better the last couple games. He was injured this offseason.

I'm sure we're somewhere between the weak RB running attack of North Dakota and Illinois games, and the 10+ ypc running attack against Minnesota. Harnish has improved and it may not be possible to stack the run as much as in previous years. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Here is what we do know. Your style of play has won you nothing and will win you nothing. All you have to do with NIU is stop the run and force an average QB to beat you....they never do.

I hope you're not representative of Akron fans. No class at all.

If you can't take some facts, don't come around. Maybe it is the thin skin that keeps you guys from winning anything.

What facts can you offer? We didn't lose to Akron because we couldn't throw the ball - the exact opposite. We got into a passing shootout. We lost because we couldn't play defense. And like I said, your fact about Harnish playing poorly against Iowa State wasn't a fact either.

Actually, you guys couldn't run late after running the ball all evening and lost because you couldn't run out the clock against a poor defense with an NFL RB and a huge offensive line.

Fine, throw out the ISU game. His numbers are still not impressive.

You're missing the point. NIU is a good team, but not great. They are just another mac school. The difference between winning and losing in the mac is players executing in a league where the talent level is lacking compared to bcs schools. Most MAC schools don't win games, games are handed to them by the other team. Believe me, UofA has handed away more than our fair share of them over the past 20 years. If Akron makes plays Saturday, we win. If not, we lose. If we drop passes, we lose...If we catch passes, we win. If we tackle, we win....If we don't tackle, we lose. Etc..... A play here or there and you guys may be 1-3. Sorry if I'm not impressed.

Would you like me to pretend as if I am impressed?.....I'm a pretty good writer and could probably drum something up real quick. Just say the word and I can make it happen.

I won't argue about most of that. Minnesota was a pretty good win, it's not like we were playing Indiana State. Minnesota isn't that good this year, certainly, and they might have had a letdown after the USC game. And I'm still concerned about the running game since we couldn't block for Spann in the Illinois game (and overall didn't do well against North Dakota). And of course, it remains to be seen whether our QB can make the MAC defenses pay for stacking the LOS against the run. I'm optimistic, but I've watched too many of our games to get my hopes up too much.

Most games are handed away by one team, it's just a question of how egregious the errors are. There's no definite difference there between the MAC schools and Big10 schools. And the bottom 5 Big10 teams are not much different than the best MAC schools.

Actually, in that Akron game, it was really just the one drive at the end where we failed, and of course, Akron knew we were going to run the ball in order to run out the clock. That's a lot harder. The real difference was our defense. We've never had a good pass defense in all the years I've been watching them (going back into the 80s), with the exception of 2003 and to some extent 2004. So our epic fail at the end of the championship game was something that Toledo in particular is pretty familiar with as well.

[Lee Adams]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

I was waiting to see if someone would point out that Harnish didn't play against Iowa State - guess not. I'm not sure why actually - but Demarcus Grady was the QB in that game. After watching the North Dakota game, probably a lot of NIU fans would have echoed some of the sentiments expressed here. Harnish missed open receivers, and we had no kicker. In retrospect, I think Harnish was rusty, as he's played better the last couple games. He was injured this offseason.

I'm sure we're somewhere between the weak RB running attack of North Dakota and Illinois games, and the 10+ ypc running attack against Minnesota. Harnish has improved and it may not be possible to stack the run as much as in previous years. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Here is what we do know. Your style of play has won you nothing and will win you nothing. All you have to do with NIU is stop the run and force an average QB to beat you....they never do.

I hope you're not representative of Akron fans. No class at all.

If you can't take some facts, don't come around. Maybe it is the thin skin that keeps you guys from winning anything.

What facts can you offer? We didn't lose to Akron because we couldn't throw the ball - the exact opposite. We got into a passing shootout. We lost because we couldn't play defense. And like I said, your fact about Harnish playing poorly against Iowa State wasn't a fact either.

Actually, you guys couldn't run late after running the ball all evening and lost because you couldn't run out the clock against a poor defense with an NFL RB and a huge offensive line.

Fine, throw out the ISU game. His numbers are still not impressive.

You're missing the point. NIU is a good team, but not great. They are just another mac school. The difference between winning and losing in the mac is players executing in a league where the talent level is lacking compared to bcs schools. Most MAC schools don't win games, games are handed to them by the other team. Believe me, UofA has handed away more than our fair share of them over the past 20 years. If Akron makes plays Saturday, we win. If not, we lose. If we drop passes, we lose...If we catch passes, we win. If we tackle, we win....If we don't tackle, we lose. Etc..... A play here or there and you guys may be 1-3. Sorry if I'm not impressed.

Would you like me to pretend as if I am impressed?.....I'm a pretty good writer and could probably drum something up real quick. Just say the word and I can make it happen.

I am impressed.

[Dr Z]

I am impressed.

Spann had 16 carries for 84 yards. That's good, but does not impress me. Both teams averaged the same per carry (4.8 & 4.9).

The NIU coaching staff impressed me with their preparation. They recognized, and attacked our weakness early...the secondary.

If Spann impressed you, then Alex Allen must have really impressed you since he had more yards on less carries?!?!

Stopping the run, and running the ball effectively is football 101, and seems to be Rob's Modus operandi. But if you get a team to third and long and they can simple run a go route with a high rate of success, your plan is out the window. We need to fix that ASAP.

[niufan99]

The challenge when you play a team with a stud RB is that you have to try to stop him. And when you try to stop him, are you becoming incredibly exposed in the secondary? The Syracuse game was a good example of some of this. And I don't think any of us are confident that our secondary can pick up guys consistently while our front 7 tries to stop their running game.

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Interesting historical note: Garrett Wolf ran for around 200yards against us twice in 2005, and we beat Northern both times (going off memory, but I believe it is true).

Gosh that QB was crappy wasn't he?

[Captain Kangaroo]

The challenge when you play a team with a stud RB is that you have to try to stop him. And when you try to stop him, are you becoming incredibly exposed in the secondary? The Syracuse game was a good example of some of this. And I don't think any of us are confident that our secondary can pick up guys consistently while our front 7 tries to stop their running game.

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Interesting historical note: Garrett Wolf ran for around 200yards against us twice in 2005, and we beat Northern both times (going off memory, but I believe it is true).

Gosh that QB was crappy wasn't he?

That would be a good point, if I had stated the NIU had a crappy QB. But I didn't. And it isn't.

But congrats on your win anyhow.

[Lee Adams]

The challenge when you play a team with a stud RB is that you have to try to stop him. And when you try to stop him, are you becoming incredibly exposed in the secondary? The Syracuse game was a good example of some of this. And I don't think any of us are confident that our secondary can pick up guys consistently while our front 7 tries to stop their running game.

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Interesting historical note: Garrett Wolf ran for around 200yards against us twice in 2005, and we beat Northern both times (going off memory, but I believe it is true).

Gosh that QB was crappy wasn't he?

I'm an Akron fan but not exactly a zealot. The NIU staff knew exactly what they could do against Akron and did it. Thats good coaching. Pass to set up the run when you know the opposing defense has linebackers and secondary that can't cover. When they start dropping off coverages 15 yards then you can run. Hopefully somewhere on down the road Akron can return the favor.