For those that keep saying NIU is good

S

serbhawk

Banned
I keep seeing people talking about how great NIU are and how they were last year. It's simply not true. Let's take a look at there 11-3 run last year.

Army Win 49-26
@ Kansas Loss 45-24
Wisconsin Loss 49-7
Cal Poly Win 47-30
@C. Michigan Loss 48-41
Kent St. Win 40-10
W. Michigan Win 51-22
@Buffalo Win 31-30
@Toledo Win 63-60
@Bowling Green Win 45-14
Ball State Win 41-38
E. Michigan Win 18-12
Ohio Win 23-20 (MAC Championship @Detroit)
Arkansas St Win 38-20 (Go Daddy Bowl @Alabama)

This should be a reality check for those of you who keep talking about NIU as a powerhouse defense. They lost to C. Michigan and I'm pretty sure Toledo wouldn't put up 60 on the Hawks. There is one quality win against an average Ohio team, other than that they lost to the only 3 decent teams that they played. And calling Kansas and C. Michigan decent is a stretch.

We did win a game that in years past we would've let get away, and our Defense played with intensity when it mattered. Bullock showed great promise but our Pass protection was horrible and our QB looked scared and confused the whole game. We have lots of work to do before State next week or it will be a rout.
 
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serbhawk said:
I keep seeing people talking about how great NIU are and how they were last year. It's simply not true. Let's take a look at there 11-3 run last year.

Army Win 49-26
@ Kansas Loss 45-24
Wisconsin Loss 49-7
Cal Poly Win 47-30
@C. Michigan Loss 48-41
Kent St. Win 40-10
W. Michigan Win 51-22
@Buffalo Win 31-30
@Toledo Win 63-60
@Bowling Green Win 45-14
Ball State Win 41-38
E. Michigan Win 18-12
Ohio Win 23-20 (MAC Championship @Detroit)
Arkansas St Win 38-20 (Go Daddy Bowl @Alabama)

This should be a reality check for those of you who keep talking about NIU as a powerhouse defense. They lost to C. Michigan and I'm pretty sure Toledo wouldn't put up 60 on the Hawks. There is one quality win against an average Ohio team, other than that they lost to the only 3 decent teams that they played. And calling Kansas and C. Michigan decent is a stretch.

We did win a game that in years past we would've let get away, and our Defense played with intensity when it mattered. Bullock showed great promise but our Pass protection was horrible and our QB looked scared and confused the whole game. We have lots of work to do before State next week or it will be a rout.
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That was last year, how does that tell us how good they are this year on D? Teams with 9 returning starters are usually better than the prior year. How much better is yet to be seen, but last year is pretty irrelevant at this point.
 
I'm not going to say that NIUs defense was the best or one of the best we will face...it was one game. I will say, however, they gave up 12, 20, and 20 and two of those teams were Ohio and Arkansas state. Ohio beat Penn State in "not" so Happy Valley yesterday and Ark State didn't embarrass themselves against Oregon last night.

Now, couple that fact that 9 of those guys came back from last year...got another year stronger and bigger. I think they are much better and had a long time to scheme Iowa.
My problem is that you just saw the blueprint to beat us. Load up for the run on first down, get them in 2nd and 3rd and long, and send multiple blitz packages...we haven't shown we can pick it up...and our QB will eat everything in site and take the sack.
 
That was a good defense..maybe not a big ten defense but they were experienced, comfortable and covered well...settle down. Add in JVB was pretty awful.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
I'm not going to say that NIUs defense was the best or one of the best we will face...it was one game. I will say, however, they gave up 12, 20, and 20 and two of those teams were Ohio and Arkansas state. Ohio beat Penn State in "not" so Happy Valley yesterday and Ark State didn't embarrass themselves against Oregon last night.Now, couple that fact that 9 of those guys came back from last year...got another year stronger and bigger. I think they are much better and had a long time to scheme Iowa. My problem is that you just saw the blueprint to beat us. Load up for the run on first down, get them in 2nd and 3rd and long, and send multiple blitz packages...we haven't shown we can pick it up...and our
QB will eat everything in site and
take the sack.
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I don't dispute what you said other than the ark st example. Oregon was up 50-3 with 7 minutes to go in 1st half...it was pretty embarrasing; as Oregon coasted after that.
 
we beat a decent NIU team...If they're going to be as good as last years team who knows, but IMO its better than opening up against a poor FCS team. That wasn't a shot a UNI, all I'm saying is that the skill level of the opponent could have been much worse and we won. More importantly it means September's finally here.
 
deanvogs said:
That was last year, how does that tell us how good they are this year on D? Teams with 9 returning starters are usually better than the prior year. How much better is yet to be seen, but last year is pretty irrelevant at this point.
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Last year is totally relevant regardless of games played and players graduated how else do they get the rankings for this year?!
 
I swear. You would think we lost that game with all the people on here talkin this team down. It was the first week and if you couldn't see anything positive from this game, quit watching. We WILL see more improvement by next week and even more by the time B1G starts.
 
This NIU team is not great but they came out and stuck it to the Hawks and damn near won it. My hats off to them. On the other side of the coin this is not one of our better Hawkeye teams and NIU exposed some weaknesses that I am sure will get ironed out. Vandy is a much better QB than what we seen yesterday and so is the OLine. It was great to see the defense make adjustments and shut down Lowery but I will be interested to see how they do against a QB that can actually throw the ball. Iowa's bell got rung a little bit and I bet the coaches will have the players attention this week in practice.
 
Yes NIU isn't that good but they will be a bowl team. Anyway I don't understand some people and never will on here. If Iowa punches in a couple of those drives instead of settling for FG's this game could have been about 31-17. And of that 17 for NIU 7 of them came on that 73 yard run that the D won't give up every week. The red zone issues will get ironed out and will turn into TD's instead of FG's so some of you need to step back from the ledge.
 
Comment from Capt. Obvious (me): NIU had everyone returning on the defensive side of the ball. They let it all hang out with blitzes, great effort, changes in coverage. Iowa has a new offensive line.

Capt. Obvious 2: NIU, other than the big play we gave up on a blown assignment, did nothing against a pretty young Iowa defense that most have already sold down the river. Take a look at their total yards, especially if you take away one big play. They returned no one in the offensive line.

Iowa won.
 
If you notice, that NIU team got better as the year went on, which is usually an indication of a group of players getting better. I would imagine that improvement would carry on to the next (this) year.

That said:

1. Iowa probably isn't that great of a team right now. Not a huge surprise.

2. NIU's defense is probably its strength at the moment with all of the returning starters. NIU's offense with a new quarterback and all new OL is probably its weakest point. So Iowa's offense is probably better than it looked yesterday and its defense may be worse. I'm not sure if that is a comforting thought or not.

3. Even without considering the quality of NIU's players, that was a well coached opposing team yesterday with very few penalties (the center quarterback exchange could use some work for them). They also played pretty much exactly into the blueprint for exploiting Iowa's weaknesses: blitzing from every direction, using speed to knife through the gaps in zone blocking, and utilizing a running quarterback on offense.

4. If Iowa executed better in the red zone (no 100 mph fastballs to Martin-Manley) they would have at least two more touchdowns. They also dominated in terms of time of possession and red zone chances (i.e. like shots on goal in soccer), which would have made a loss even more frustrating.

They just need to work on converting those chances and clean up everything on offense really.

5. Yesterday's game reminded me a lot of both of the last two Minnesota games, especially last year's, except Iowa won this one. I'm not complaining.
 
Hawksel said:
2. NIU's defense is probably its strength at the moment with all of the returning starters. NIU's offense with a new quarterback and all new OL is probably its weakest point. So Iowa's offense is probably better than it looked yesterday and its defense may be worse. I'm not sure if that is a comforting thought or not.
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This^ pretty much sums it up.
 
From seeing some of it, it seems like it was a game with 2 teams that lost very important players off last years teams NIU (QB and entire Oline) and Iowa (McNutt, Coker, some nice OL)

Both defenses played against some pretty average and inexperienced offenses. So I would agree that Iowa's O will not be near as bad as it looked and Iowa's D may not be quite as good.
 
Generally players improve from year to year. So if they had 9 starters on defense that all improved, that is a huge improvement for a unit.
 
In all honesty, had you played UNI yesterday you would have lost. UNI is a pretty darn good team on any day, ask Wisconsin. Basically that same defense gave up 45 PTs to one of the worst offenses in the history of cfball, Kansas. Also dropped 60 to Toledo and I regress. Now, what I will say is that teams with smaller, quicker, D line's tend to give bigger olines fits, See Isu vs. UNI etc..

What is more concerning is that Northern Illinois put up 17 PTs and had an awful first year QB and lost all 5 Olineman from last year. Spin it how you want but this was a NIU team that will likely be ranked 70-80 at year end. I'm not talking smack just my opinion. It's going to take a while for Iowa to be "on" with their new system, you can't just change offensive philosophy's and expect great results. What I see as hurting Iowa offensively is a lack of a serious WR threat to stretch the field. Teams won't fear Keenan or the other guy, and after those two there isn't much.
 
I already posted a rebutal to your irrational thinking in a different thread that you were spreading the same faulty argument. NIU will again have a good season with more veteran players.

The MAC conference puts out some good teams that should be a step or two below AQ conference's lower/mid tiered teams, which if I recall, is what we are expected to be this year.
 
Yesterdays win was important because it counts in the win column, by the end of the season the hawks will need every win they can get if they plan on going to a decent bowl. Secondly the Hawks showed some much needed toughness in pulling out a close hard fought win. A sweep on 3rd and long took some real guts and obviously someone came up with the call. Can you imagine this board if it didnt work. Long season hopefully Kirk's boys will play their best in Nov. Right now we are not a top 25 team, a win over ISU would be great, who knows where we will be by Dec 1st.
 
ColoradoHAWKEYE said:
I already posted a rebutal to your irrational thinking in a different thread that you were spreading the same faulty argument. NIU will again have a good season with more veteran players.

The MAC conference puts out some good teams that should be a step or two below AQ conference's lower/mid tiered teams, which if I recall, is what we are expected to be this year.
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You don't even make sense. Are you saying that it's irrational to say NIU isn't very good? Even if they win out they still aren't good. They play Kansas and Central Michigan both were losses last year so we'll see. At least give some stats or something to back up what you are saying. Maybe NIU is very improved over last year and they'll only give up 50 to Toledo.
 
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