CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: betarhoalphadelta on November 16, 2020, 02:24:01 PM
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Obviously halfway doesn't mean we've all completed 4 of 8 regular season games. But everyone outside of Wisconsin has at least three... So probably time to check in.
For me, Purdue is a weird one. I never know what to expect. Our team is inconsistent on both sides of the ball, and I'm not sure we'll get better.
Offensively, we are... not great. 24 points against Iowa, 31 against Illinois, and 20 against Northwestern is not what you expect out of Jeff Brohm. We're 11th in the conference in points/game, 10th in yards/play, last in rushing yards/game and 13th in rushing yards/play, and while we're leading the conference in passing yards/game, we're 9th in rushing yards/play.
The eye test backs up the stats. We can put together drives and get big chunk plays, but we have way too many stalled drives because of poor 3rd down conversion percentage. Which has a lot to do with a poor running game causing us to regularly be behind the chains down/distance wise. With all our weapons, we're just not consistent enough to regularly get down the field and get points. Without Rondale Moore, Aidan O'Connell just seems to be force-feeding David Bell and Northwestern was ready for that. With our top [only?] RB being Zander Horvath, we have no outside running game. Our OL is passable, which is a great improvement from recent years, but we don't have the QB or the RB IMHO who can excel behind that sort of line.
Defensively, we're all over the place. We're middle of the pack in scoring defense, but we've given up big yardage to both Iowa and Illinois. But we're a bend / don't break defense, only giving up 20 and 24 points, respectively. Then we hold Northwestern under 300 yards while not bending on most drives, but breaking badly to give up 27.
I said after the Purdue/Iowa game that both teams were trying to lose that game, but Iowa tried harder. After the Illinois game, I think the score wasn't as close as the outcome (Purdue led 31-10 late and gave up two late drives), but thought our defense was utter trash all day against a depleted Illini offense and we gave up WAY too many yards. The the team that I thought would be our biggest defensive test, we hold under 300 yards despite doing ABSOLUTELY nothing offensively all game and having our defense on the field for over 35 minutes of game time, but can't do anything offensively.
I think our schedule lightens up the rest of the way, with the potential exception of--I can't believe I'm saying this--the Old Oaken Bucket game. MN/RU/UNL are... also not good. But I'll be VERY surprised if we do better than 2-1 against those teams, and Indiana's success actually looks to NOT be fool's gold for once, so I don't know if we can beat them.
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For UGA ... disappointing offense again, good defense, a second tier team at best, able to beat mediocre teams usually, not competitive with elite teams, again.
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This season has sort of elevated Dan Mullen as an offensive guru, from an already-lofty status. We lost our starting RB and top 4 WRs and the offense has gotten better.
The OL can still pass block, but I'm not sure if it's improved its run-blocking much. Maybe a little.
The defense is crap. Whether it's never having all starting 11 guys playing simultaneously or what, they've stunk. Now I will say that if they improve as much from game 6 to game 10 as they did from games 1&2 to now, it might be an actual Florida defense. Big IF, though.
Florida's defensive personnel in 2020 is odd.
We have one good interior d-lineman and one good strong-side DE. We only have 2 actual LBs. And we only have 1 good CB.
The rest of the defense is 1 big, giant DT who stinks, 2 DEs who are about 205 lbs each, 1 UGA transfer who looks the part and is active, but doesn't actually produce much, 2 safeties who think they're LBs and 1 safety who plays centerfield well.
They're like an island of misfit toys. If we ever got our best 11 on the field for more than 3 snaps, they could actually be good.
AS for the season itself, this record is about right for this stage of the season. There's no reason to lose another game until the SECCG. We probably have the offense to go 12ing with Bama, but for every 6 we score, they'll score 7.
It's been crazy....in a year where we spank UGA and LSU and FSU are pansies, it feels like we can't take full advantage.
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I liked Mullen ever since hearing him in that Coach's Room or sumsuch critiquing the National Championship Game live
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(https://i.imgur.com/WzCJbao.png)
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Seems pretty OK.
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Elbows too pointy.
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Well, UW has looked fantastic in the first two games it played.
Mertz looked that part so far, able to shake off the early rust last weekend.
I knew true freshmen would play. Jalen Berger would get on the field, and that was a pretty nice debut. Chimre Dike is a stud WR. Nick Herbig is a beast at OLB.
They were missing 5 starters last weekend, and still rolled. This is a very good/great Wisconsin football team.
Coming off two weeks with no game, and only one penalty (illegal shift on play #2)?
Great coaching staff. They really have the kids snapped in.
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Well, WVU is 80% through its season and I’m fairly pleased overall. This is definitely a better team than last year. The offense, while still not great, is much improved from last year. They went from barely averaging 2 ypc to having a back in the top 10 in the country in rushing yards. Doege has been solid at QB. Not elite, but solid. The WR corps has been a disappointment. Tons of drops. It has probably cost us two games. The OL is very young but has improved by leaps and bounds.
The D is legitimately very good. The best in Morgantown in probably a decade. I‘M disappointed the record isn’t better because it feels like a waste of their efforts somewhat.
All that being said, if WVU loses the final two to Oklahoma and Iowa St it will leave a sour taste in my mouth. If they can at least split those then it ensures a winning overall record and winning record in conference. I’ll be happy with that. Honestly, if they can just beat Oklahoma it will make my season. Gotta get that monkey off our backs.
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Well, WVU is 80% through its season and I’m fairly pleased overall. This is definitely a better team than last year. The offense, while still not great, is much improved from last year. They went from barely averaging 2 ypc to having a back in the top 10 in the country in rushing yards. Doege has been solid at QB. Not elite, but solid. The WR corps has been a disappointment. Tons of drops. It has probably cost us two games. The OL is very young but has improved by leaps and bounds.
The D is legitimately very good. The best in Morgantown in probably a decade. I‘M disappointed the record isn’t better because it feels like a waste of their efforts somewhat.
All that being said, if WVU loses the final two to Oklahoma and Iowa St it will leave a sour taste in my mouth. If they can at least split those then it ensures a winning overall record and winning record in conference. I’ll be happy with that. Honestly, if they can just beat Oklahoma it will make my season. Gotta get that monkey off our backs.
I'm all for this. Go 'eers! :)
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Elbows too pointy.
+1
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offense is as lethal as it gets, or was before waddle injury. now it's just ho-hum barely top 5 in country.
defense is oklahoma level. probably still top 2-3 in bigxii... er, sec, but is that really saying much? this year anyway. made some strides last couple games, but that's also vs teams that are just theoretically playing offense, in practice not so much.
i really just want to beat this shit out of lsu, au and whoever makes it to seccg. anything after that is cake.
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offense is as lethal as it gets, or was before waddle injury. now it's just ho-hum barely top 5 in country.
defense is oklahoma level. probably still top 2-3 in bigxii... er, sec, but is that really saying much? this year anyway. made some strides last couple games, but that's also vs teams that are just theoretically playing offense, in practice not so much.
i really just want to beat this shit out of lsu, au and whoever makes it to seccg. anything after that is cake.
So you really just want an undefeated conference championship? And, anything else is just cake? Gotcha.
:)
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(https://i.redd.it/h0f6pas019sz.png)
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So you really just want an undefeated conference championship? And, anything else is just cake? Gotcha.
:)
Yes?
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(https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/68981168.jpg)