I'd love to play Baylor

[Psyclone]

TCU has looked pretty pedestrian a few times this year and really could/should have lost to Texas Tech. Of course, you could say the same thing about Ohio State. So I guess if Indiana can give Ohio St a scare and if Tech can give TCU a scare, then we could theoretically do the same to Baylor. But to say you would expect to beat them requires some pretty thick black&gold colored glasses. Remember last year Wisconsin lost 59-0 to OSU and then turned around and beat Auburn in the bowl game so sometimes the spread between good teams (like Iowa and Wisconsin) and top-5 teams (like Baylor and Ohio St) can be really big.

TCU did look ordinary in their first games. They looked impressive against Texas. They have had a number of players sidelined to start the season. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing they are getting some of them back after seeing what they did to Texas. I said they were rated too high last week. I'm keeping my mouth shut this week.

 

[Slappy Pappy]

http://cfbanalytics.com/ratings.php

TCU and BU have a better defensive points per possession than every team in the big 10 but NW.

Who cares about ppp? They have a crazy amount of possessions because of their high speed O, which gives the other guys lots of extra chances. It's points per game that counts!

And Baylor hasn't played anybody yet, as usual.

 

[MadDogC]

http://cfbanalytics.com/ratings.php

TCU and BU have a better defensive points per possession than every team in the big 10 but NW.

Good point, but Baylor's schedule was SMU, Lamar, Rice and Tex Tec so far. TCU has had Minny, Stephen F Austin, SMU, Tex Tec and Texas. Those numbers should look amazing. And how did Northwestern score more against Minny than TCU did???

 

[5Fan5]

http://cfbanalytics.com/ratings.php

TCU and BU have a better defensive points per possession than every team in the big 10 but NW.

C'mon Bryce... you are better/smarter than that.

As has been aptly pointed out, neither TCU nor Baylor have amassed enough relevant data to make any definitive conclusion about how good/not so good they are defensively. Playing a non-con schedule that has one Power 5 school between the both of TCU and Baylor does nothing but skew statistics in their favor. Stephen F. Austin, Lamar, SMU, Rice are hardly any teams on which to base relative categorical standings upon. Even Tech is recognized by most objective observers as the poster child for football on roller skates (not featuring defense in the hopes of getting the ball back into the hands of the Tech QB so he can sling it all over the yard).

Even Sagarin cannot justify anything greater than a SOS of 93rd best for TCU and 122nd for Baylor at this point. I do not think you want to start comparing those data points with teams from other Power 5 Conferences.

 

[TS568]

Stanford is still ranked, Vols have lost two other times by a similar margin...don't see how Ya compare that...NW is shutting teams down.

Yeah, they did lose by 4 to Arkansas and by 1 to Florida. This week they play Georgia so they do have a pretty solid schedule- I think we all recall how good they were with a 6-6 record last year. But I'm not saying Tennessee is better than Stanford. I'm saying I think a winning a road night game in Knoxville is just as tough as winning an 11:00 home game against Stanford. It was 9:00 a.m. in Palo Alto when they kicked off. Hopefully I'm right and Northwestern isn't that good or they will give the Hawks a hell of a fight. We'll know more by 6:00 Saturday.

 

[pocha444444]

Who cares about ppp? They have a crazy amount of possessions because of their high speed O, which gives the other guys lots of extra chances. It's points per game that counts!

And Baylor hasn't played anybody yet, as usual.

When comparing two defenses that are on the field a disproportionate amount of times, points per possession is what you want to use and not points per game.

 

[Slappy Pappy]

When comparing two defenses that are on the field a disproportionate amount of times, points per possession is what you want to use and not points per game.

That sounds right, but it never seems to play out that way when one of the high speed, bball on grass offenses like TCU or Oregon play a top strong D, pro-set offense. I think it is mostly because while fast no huddle O doesn't translate against a team with top-10 D that can hold on to the ball, the numbers still get so skewed by the avalanche-effect that occurs when they overwhelm weak competition like what Baylor & TCU have played so far.

TCU 24, Minn 17
NU 27, Minn 0

says it all.

 

[CFBFanatic2]

Well love might be too strong a word, but I think if our defense stays healthy we could give them a run for their money. Probably won't happen but it would be interesting to see.

 

[ft254]

That sounds right, but it never seems to play out that way when one of the high speed, bball on grass offenses like TCU or Oregon play a top strong D, pro-set offense. I think it is mostly because while fast no huddle O doesn't translate against a team with top-10 D that can hold on to the ball, the numbers still get so skewed by the avalanche-effect that occurs when they overwhelm weak competition like what Baylor & TCU have played so far.

TCU 24, Minn 17
NU 27, Minn 0

says it all.

1st game of the year. TCU would at least double that total at this point.

 

[Txcountrylawyer]

I think we could beat them. They have no defense.

Baylor's skill players are amazing!! Who is going to stop them? And where would the Hawks get the points to match?

 

[MadDogC]

1st game of the year. TCU would at least double that total at this point.

And win by 12?