They've beaten a lot of BIG10 teams, good ones............
Was the Northern Illinois win at Nebraska really an Upset ??
- Thread starter IowaNiceHawk
- Start date
No it was not an upset. On paper "Nebraska" should have won because their name is Nebraska but if you have watched them play they are 2 goal line attempts from the 12 yard line away from 0-3. They felt good against Oregon because OR shut it down the 2nd half and made it close. Nebraska is a bad football team with zero defensive identity and a really bad QB. They have a horse for a running back who gets a little more hurt each week and has 0 chance of finishing the schedule without daily trips to the training table. Their O-line is BAD. Like really BAD.
Yes it was. I dislike Huskers as much as anyone, but this isn't a vintage Northern Illinois team. NIU lost to BC, which has since been routed by Notre Dame and Wake Forest. Northern Illinois was playing with a backup QB and got outgained by Nebrasks 384-213. Credit to NIU for two pick-sixes, but the likelihood of that happening in a game is not high.
Nebraska has issues. But Saturday was really about them playing just awful football, not NIU being fantastic.
I am probably in the minority but I almost always root for the Big 10 in OOC and Bowl games. Even Nebraska. Only helps Iowa in terms of SOS and the whole conference. Hell 2 of 5 ESPN pundits have both Oklahoma and OKie st in the playoff and and 3 of 5 have the Big 10 out all together. it is all based on the Oklahoma-OSU game. Now, there is no way the Big 10 ever gets left out for 2 Big 12 teams but want the Big 10 considered the best.
O, I don't think NIU played great. If anything their offense was horrible outside of 2 drives. What I'm saying is I can't justify it as an upset because Nebraska is equally as bad. FWIW. The back up QB, the guy that replaced the one that lost to bc(on a field goal that hit the post) is better than the starter and has some mobility. To me a 5 win team beating possible 6 win team isnt an "upset". The 12 points existed because one team had a recognizable "N" on the helmet. Nebraska is going to be in a rebuild for awhile and I hope our coaches use this to our advantage. 2018 is brutal for nebby with 2019 being thier chance at " the easy schedule" if they don't have their ducks in a row we shoujld be able to use that to our advantage specifically in the st Louis market.
Iowa fans that were alive in 2013 will recall that its possible for a BIG10 team, even at home, to be defeated by Northern Illinois. Northern Illinois may not be a Northern Illinois team of old...but neither is Nebraska.
That, unfortunately, has been the only game I've attended since 2002, and keeps me from crowing too much around my Husker co-workers.
NIU's offense was pretty impotent outside of the go-ahead TD drive to answer Nebraska's only lead but they answered when they had to.
NIU's defense played great - that was a B10 quality secondary. their corners and safeties were mostly spectacular. The early 80 yard Pic6 set the tone for the entire game. The Huskie D-Line pressured Lee all day and caused the wounded duck 2nd Pic6.
To claim that NIU did not play great is simply wrong. Their defense was easily the best unit on the field Saturday.
Not an upset. As bad as the bugeaters are right now, this is not a particularly good northern ill team. Losing to a bad bc team, who themselves lost to wake forest, is a good indicator of where they are.
No, this is more attributable to the downfall of the fuskers.
No, this is more attributable to the downfall of the fuskers.
UN is just plain bad. Poorly coached, undisciplined and at times they looked confused. OL is awful and because of that they can't run the ball and QB has little time. QB isn't a scrambler, has poor vision and even poorer decision making.
Their D looked good against the Huskies but I believe it's because NIU offense just isn't that great. The Pinkskirts gave up 40+ points an 400+ yards against Oregon - IN THE FIRST HALF for god sakes!
Pierson-El won the game against Iowa a few years ago on punt returns and he now seems inept at such a task.
Thank goodness their punter doesn't suck terribly.
Their D looked good against the Huskies but I believe it's because NIU offense just isn't that great. The Pinkskirts gave up 40+ points an 400+ yards against Oregon - IN THE FIRST HALF for god sakes!
Pierson-El won the game against Iowa a few years ago on punt returns and he now seems inept at such a task.
Thank goodness their punter doesn't suck terribly.
That NIU team probably beats Nebraska by 3 TDs
I cannot say a team played great when 1 aspect of the team was bad(O), one was ok (ST) and one was good (D). Also it's easy to look good on D when the offense you are going against is so bad. It's semantics at this point though.
Edit: NIU special teams don't deserve an "ok" if it were not for the guys boneheaded punt misque Nebraska would have gotten trucked.
Edit: NIU special teams don't deserve an "ok" if it were not for the guys boneheaded punt misque Nebraska would have gotten trucked.
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If Rutgers beats NU this Saturday it will get ugly in Lincoln. I said I would never go to their board but I would have to then.
This is a bad NIU team that also just happened to play bad as well.
I started a thread on this during their game.
This should tell everybody how horrible Neb is!
I started a thread on this during their game.
This should tell everybody how horrible Neb is!
If I were the Rutgers staff/team. I would circle the heck out of this game this year. It is a VERY winnable and a chance to beat a nationally recognized program. If Nebby doesn't come out put 14-21 on them this could be another nail bitter. I have 0 confidence in Nebraska ability to close games or.protect Lee over an extended period.
In a few years, people will be wondering why you would ever include Nebraska in that comparison, and not for the reason Fusker fans would want and expect...Arkansas Pine Bluff gave up fewer yards to Arkansas State than Nebraska. I know that doesn't mean very much except we are now comparing Arkansas State, Arkansas Pine Bluff, and Nebraska in football.
Ordinarily I follow the same tack ... but given how often Iowa has been going up against Nebraska in recruiting battles ... I'm perfectly okay with the Husker program imploding. Their suffering is our recruiting gain. Michigan State was able to exploit the same scenario, when Michigan was down, to lift itself up to a higher level of play (and prestige).
Meanwhile, Nebraska is ranked #1 in the USA Today College Football Misery Index.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...x-week-3-trying-times-nebraska-lsu/675144001/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...x-week-3-trying-times-nebraska-lsu/675144001/
Good point Ghost and I generally agree. Except it seems certain programs survive multiple crappy years and still recruit. See ND, Texas, USC, Maimi, Michigan, OSU, etc. as much as I hate to say it Nebraska is at that historical level. I don't think they can evaluate kids or coach so would prefer they beat an Oregon and we curb stomp 40-10 the same year. And then thy win their bowl game after we throttle them.
Just like with Iowa struggling against North Texas. It's more on what we're doing to help facilitate our opponent's success against us than what they're doing........
Its not semantics, Northern Illinois played very good, sometimes excellent, defense on the road in Lincoln. Your original claim is that NIU did not play well. They did. If Iowa's defense matches their performance in November, the game will never be in question.
You are saying the team as a whole played well because one aspect of it played well. I'm not willing to give that much credit to the team because 1/3 of them played well. "Well" being a relative term because the judge is still out on nebby's offense being worth a lick with the wounded warriors that fielded their team last sat.
Did you watch that game? Is there anything that niu offense did that was done "well". They were hot trash 90% of the time. Special teams was ok at best they did what theybwwre expected to do. They didn't give up a huge 3rd but they also muffed a punt and gave Nebraska 7 points. Hardly doing things "well".
Yes I did watch the game. I saw Nebraska go up 17-14 with about 11 minutes remaining in the game, Nebraska's first lead in the contest.
Then I watched as NIU, a double digit road underdog, took the ensuing kick-off and drove 75 yards in 6 plays to score a TD and retake the lead (which turned out to be the deciding score) in a major upset of a B10 team.
Not only was that NIU drive done "well", it was superb given the venue and the circumstances they were facing.
Jesus man its OK to give credit where it is clearly due.
Dude, they went up 17-14 because their defense scored 2 pick 6's and I have said the defense played well I have no problem giving The NIU defense props. The offense played very poorly. As reference by there 0 points up to that point. I then watched their qb chuck a 47 yard bomb that was the equivalent of "blind squirrel found a nut" as they had done nothing offensively, prior or post, and grind it in from the 25ish from there. 1 offensive drive. Special teams that cost them 7 points. A w is a w and any L for Nebraska makes me feel good. To say N.ill played "well." Isn't accurate. They played well enough to beat a bad team.
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