Are we in trouble at UNI?

[TrackPoke]

NIU did not win, Georgia Tech lost.

1.) Georgia Tech's starting QB left the game with an arm injury. (Huskie73) He couldn't hit the side of a barn and was down 14-0 when he left. The back-up came in and was far more effective. Our entire gameplan was to stop the run for the hurt QB and we were not prepared for the back-up who was a superior thrower.
2.) GT missed three FGs, two in the first half. (Huskie73) One of the FGs was 61 yds on the last play of the game. 2 missed FGs legitimate unable to execute.
3.) GT had 128 more total yards than NIU (20 passing and 108 rushing). (Huskie73) NIU had the lead the entire game until 6 minutes remaining. The goal is to score more points than the opponent, not gain the most yards or score the most points possible. NIUs offense went very conservative for over 2 quarters until the last drive of the game when they needed to score.-
4.) GT lost a fumble on a 1st and 10, giving NIU the ball on the 43. (note: NIU also lost a fumble on their own 25). (Huskie73) 1 fumble lost each, GT got the yardage benefit.
5.) During their first possession, GT had an incomplete pass on 4th and 3 instead of punting. (Huskie73) Yeah, it's called good defense.
6.) GT had an incomplete pass on 4th and goal instead of settling for a FG. (Huskie73) Again, bend don't break worked. Their QB was rushed and the play failed.
7.) GT had 25 first downs vs NIU's 15 (Huskie73) See #3. Also, GT's defense was extremely athletic and played well for the most part.
8.) NIU had 11 penalties for 82 yards vs GT's 2 for 5 yards. (Huskies73) Refs had a couple phantom calls to return a scoop 6 for NIU and a fumbled punt that NIU recovered inside GTs 20 so 14 points taken away for a bogus procedural call and a review that could have gone either way.

GT wins this game 9 out of 10 times. NIU plays Michigan the week after they play Wyoming. Maybe the confidence they gained has them looking past us.

These are all true but to be fair I've added context for anyone who might care. Not saying GT didn't have more talent. What I'm saying is NIU stepped up and GT did not execute. That doesn't mean NIU got "lucky".

Kudos to NIU. I love it when Group of Five teams beat those from the Power Five.

I'll agree with your comment that, "NIU stepped up and GT did not execute." The question remains. Will NIU step high enough when they have an opponent that does execute?

Off subject, but I predict strong performances from RB Xazavian Valladay, N/LB Keyon Blankenbaker, CB CJ Coldon, and DE Jaylen Pate. They will be motivated playing in their home state.

 

[bullbugle307]

I picked this game as a loss pre season. That was based heavily on our past road performance. After last week I see no reason to change that pick. I just hope we don't suffer any season altering injuries. Running our QBs and RBs into a stacked box over and over again, exposing them to being hit by two and sometimes 3 different bodies, some of which come from the sides to the legs is a recipe for injury.

 

[NIU007]

Hey - another NIU fan here.

First of all, my prediction of who will win: No freakin' idea.

I don't think the team will be looking past anybody after being 0-6 last year plus they're playing at home in front of a home crowd for the first time in what seems like forever.

Our QB will have to throw more, almost certainly, and hopefully he can hit guys that aren't necessarily wide open. Our starting RB will have to make a few people miss and make some big plays. I don't know how often we can sustain a long drive on 4 yards a pop and short throws.

Defense concerns me a lot. GT had almost 300 rushing yards. If they ran more, they probably win. Usually our run defense is better than our pass defense. When we had a chance to tackle we did a pretty good job against GT, IIRC, so hopefully that continues. The bend but don't break pass defense is hard to watch at times, we have to get some pressure on QB or our pass defense will be picked apart, and recent years we haven't had a good pass rush, though we had 4 sacks against GT.

It should be a good game so I need to get my Tums inhaled ahead of time, and bring my defibrillator with me. Here's to a game with no injuries.

And yea, it's NIU, not UNI. A lot of people mix that up. We even had a referee at one of our home games accidently call us Northern Iowa. That didn't go over well.

 

[cowpoke pride]

I still have Eastern Michigan nightmares.
All non-conference road games scare me for good reason (Tulsa, App St before they were App St).

 

[LanderPoke]

Hey - another NIU fan here.

First of all, my prediction of who will win: No freakin' idea.

I don't think the team will be looking past anybody after being 0-6 last year plus they're playing at home in front of a home crowd for the first time in what seems like forever.

Our QB will have to throw more, almost certainly, and hopefully he can hit guys that aren't necessarily wide open. Our starting RB will have to make a few people miss and make some big plays. I don't know how often we can sustain a long drive on 4 yards a pop and short throws.

Defense concerns me a lot. GT had almost 300 rushing yards. If they ran more, they probably win. Usually our run defense is better than our pass defense. When we had a chance to tackle we did a pretty good job against GT, IIRC, so hopefully that continues. The bend but don't break pass defense is hard to watch at times, we have to get some pressure on QB or our pass defense will be picked apart, and recent years we haven't had a good pass rush, though we had 4 sacks against GT.

It should be a good game so I need to get my Tums inhaled ahead of time, and bring my defibrillator with me. Here's to a game with no injuries.

And yea, it's NIU, not UNI. A lot of people mix that up. We even had a referee at one of our home games accidently call us Northern Iowa. That didn't go over well.

This game is a toss up to me. Sounds like NIU and Wyoming have similar, anemic offenses

 

[McPeachy]

Hey - another NIU fan here.

First of all, my prediction of who will win: No freakin' idea.

I don't think the team will be looking past anybody after being 0-6 last year plus they're playing at home in front of a home crowd for the first time in what seems like forever.

Our QB will have to throw more, almost certainly, and hopefully he can hit guys that aren't necessarily wide open. Our starting RB will have to make a few people miss and make some big plays. I don't know how often we can sustain a long drive on 4 yards a pop and short throws.

Defense concerns me a lot. GT had almost 300 rushing yards. If they ran more, they probably win. Usually our run defense is better than our pass defense. When we had a chance to tackle we did a pretty good job against GT, IIRC, so hopefully that continues. The bend but don't break pass defense is hard to watch at times, we have to get some pressure on QB or our pass defense will be picked apart, and recent years we haven't had a good pass rush, though we had 4 sacks against GT.

It should be a good game so I need to get my Tums inhaled ahead of time, and bring my defibrillator with me. Here's to a game with no injuries.

And yea, it's NIU, not UNI. A lot of people mix that up. We even had a referee at one of our home games accidently call us Northern Iowa. That didn't go over well.

Should be a solid game, and agree - who knows who will show up on gameday! WYO is typically shit on the road, so we have that going for us. Which isn't nice.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

Hey - another NIU fan here.

First of all, my prediction of who will win: No freakin' idea.

I don't think the team will be looking past anybody after being 0-6 last year plus they're playing at home in front of a home crowd for the first time in what seems like forever.

Our QB will have to throw more, almost certainly, and hopefully he can hit guys that aren't necessarily wide open. Our starting RB will have to make a few people miss and make some big plays. I don't know how often we can sustain a long drive on 4 yards a pop and short throws.

Defense concerns me a lot. GT had almost 300 rushing yards. If they ran more, they probably win. Usually our run defense is better than our pass defense. When we had a chance to tackle we did a pretty good job against GT, IIRC, so hopefully that continues. The bend but don't break pass defense is hard to watch at times, we have to get some pressure on QB or our pass defense will be picked apart, and recent years we haven't had a good pass rush, though we had 4 sacks against GT.

It should be a good game so I need to get my Tums inhaled ahead of time, and bring my defibrillator with me. Here's to a game with no injuries.

And yea, it's NIU, not UNI. A lot of people mix that up. We even had a referee at one of our home games accidently call us Northern Iowa. That didn't go over well.

I used the term in another post, but after reading yours, it seems that both fan bases are looking to this game as a litmus test. For us, past would indicate that the offense remains really stagnant which doesn't bode well for a team that traditionally struggles on the road. We are hoping the past is not precedence in this year and that we'll see significant advancement in this game. Will it happen? Who knows.

Will be an interesting game. Regardless, I'd sure feel better coming off a P5 win than squeaking by a FCS team.

 

[Old-Bull]

Bohl ball is similar to Larry Shyatt basketball. They're both old school and depend on defensive principles to win. The result is that you're rarely involved in a blow out. The games are always close.

So are we in trouble? We're always in trouble because the games almost always come down to the wire. The important thing is to see if our team develops a winning mentality and comes out on top in the majority of the close games we're in.

 

[cowpoke pride]

Still too early to tell. Its easy to feel concerned going into this game after squeaking out another FCS win in the final minutes.

 

[calpoke25]

Bohl ball is similar to Larry Shyatt basketball. They're both old school and depend on defensive principles to win. The result is that you're rarely involved in a blow out. The games are always close.

So are we in trouble? We're always in trouble because the games almost always come down to the wire. The important thing is to see if our team develops a winning mentality and comes out on top in the majority of the close games we're in.

This is a really bad take. Go look up his scores at NDSU. He has no problem winning 52-0. The problem is he just hasn’t been good enough to do it at Wyoming. Make no mistake about it, Craig Bohl would win every game 52-0 if he could, he just can’t at this level.

 

[Old-Bull]

Bohl ball is similar to Larry Shyatt basketball. They're both old school and depend on defensive principles to win. The result is that you're rarely involved in a blow out. The games are always close.

So are we in trouble? We're always in trouble because the games almost always come down to the wire. The important thing is to see if our team develops a winning mentality and comes out on top in the majority of the close games we're in.

This is a really bad take. Go look up his scores at NDSU. He has no problem winning 52-0. The problem is he just hasn’t been good enough to do it at Wyoming. Make no mistake about it, Craig Bohl would win every game 52-0 if he could, he just can’t at this level.

Honestly, I don't give a shit what Bohl did in FCS, certainly not enough to do research. You look up his scores and then tell me the good teams that Bohl was blowing out. Wyoming doesn't have many Delaware States, Ferris States, or Indiana State's on our schedule. If we did, we would be blowing people out too. Bohl won three national titles in a row at that level.

If you want to compare our schedule to the cupcakes they play in FCS be my guest. I'm basing my opinion on watching Bohl and Shyatt the entire time they're here and realizing that we rarely get blown out nor do we blow anyone out with either of their programs.

It's not rocket science. It's sports. When your program is built around defense games are usually closer.