Virginia Redbird
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forget 7-4 and forget the playoffs. Looks like another 6-5 season to me.
Northern Iowa - Quality Win?
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TBS_20
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Doesn't matter. No way they win out
B
BirdGrad2011
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How many years left on Spack’s contract? Time to retire?
Sorry, I was being sarcastic and they don't deserve a bid.
ChiRedbirdfan
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Had the same exact thought....clown show. The female was a master of the obvious and the older sounding male was mumbling everything.
Bird Friend
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UND gets a late FG and then survives in OT
Crap, one of the starting lb's for ISU played at the local Juco and I got to see him play a couple of times here.
TBS_20
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Yup went over my head.lol
Not surprising when u blitz Safety and LB on same side and have CB 1 on 1 with WR then opponent has RB or slot just run to middle of field and other safety is on opposite hash . Also WR/slots coming from opposite side because safety on opposite side blitz easy pickings.
fourthandshort
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Now we need to win out and get some help. Defense once again starts very slow and then settles down.
Love how are pass game has come along, but we need to use whole field .. lot of stretching the field wide, but not enough middling throws by comparison. I was fine with it against SDSU, but we should have not needed to do it as much against UNI. Hard to get UNI, but was very surprised they shut down our run game. Annexstad throws such a clean tight acccurate spiral ... we need to throw forward more. Didn't watch much of game, so can't say much more. We depend to much on YAC yards with our pass play mix.
Bottom line, we are now in negative place for playoffs ... we need help from other bubble teams. So any team ranked 20-28 we need most of them to fall off, or we are out, period. I think we're down to <20% chance, and this is assuming we win out decisively. So we need planets to align.
p.s. though this should put to rest the notion we aren't same level as YSU and UNI. But it looks very bleak at this point.
Love how are pass game has come along, but we need to use whole field .. lot of stretching the field wide, but not enough middling throws by comparison. I was fine with it against SDSU, but we should have not needed to do it as much against UNI. Hard to get UNI, but was very surprised they shut down our run game. Annexstad throws such a clean tight acccurate spiral ... we need to throw forward more. Didn't watch much of game, so can't say much more. We depend to much on YAC yards with our pass play mix.
Bottom line, we are now in negative place for playoffs ... we need help from other bubble teams. So any team ranked 20-28 we need most of them to fall off, or we are out, period. I think we're down to <20% chance, and this is assuming we win out decisively. So we need planets to align.
p.s. though this should put to rest the notion we aren't same level as YSU and UNI. But it looks very bleak at this point.
Manchester Matt
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I don’t even think North Dakota is all that good. They get a lot of love because they beat NDSU. The rest of what they’ve done is pretty meh to me. Should have lost to a winless team at home.
Regardless, ISU’s resume is garbage, and next week isn’t a guaranteed win either. The four teams we beat combined to add another three losses to their records today (Dayton was off).
We should beat Murray State, so 5-6 or 6-5.
ISU is the definition of a mediocre program at this point. The ‘Birds are 42-37 since the magical season of 2015.
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Needed to win out starting yesterday, but it was a big game so of course we start flat and can't win. The YSU loss hurt, but the EIU loss was going to be crippling unless we finished 8-3. Now we're headed for 6-5 at best. It is really time for a change.
Virginia Redbird
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Having let the dust settle overnight, I am looking at this scenario. Even if the Birds can run the rest of the table, and that is not likely, they end up 7-4. The only impact win in those 7 games to me would be North Dakota. I am not sure even North Dakota would be all that impressive of a win. The other wins would be over Dayton, WIU, Lindenwood, Indiana State, MSU, and Murray State. If the selection committee does look at quality wins and losses, I don't see those wins being particularly impressive. There is still a chance of course but realistically that chance is an extremely slim one, even if they win out.
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Another game where the defense got it together and played very well in the 2nd half but unfortunately the game was lost in the 1st half. N. Iowa was able to run the ball early. If you get gashed with the run on 1st down, then N. Iowa has you where they want you. On second down they can throw downfield and if that doesn't work they still have 3rd and maybe 4th down to pick up the first.
We're soft in the middle on defense. Four players have been used at nose tackle - Monrrow, Galloway, Siegal and Zugenbuehler. Galloway might be the best, but nobody is really jamming things up. A John Ridgeway or a Jacob Powell would be very useful right now. The inside LB'ers have to shoot gaps and hope they get to the RB or QB before the secondary gets exposed without help underneath. Again, they got it right in the 2nd half and Jalan Gaines had a monster game. I saw one played where he was double teamed, and he still managed to get to QB Theo Day. Gaines hit him as he released the ball forcing an incompletion.
Our offense couldn't really get the rushing game going against the Panther D. Blakemore has gotten his biggest gains when he starts running towards his tackle and then breaks it to the outside. N. Iowa was tough along the front and they did not let him get outside. They couldn't stop Annexstad, Grandy and Sobkowicz. The Redbirds fought back with the aerial assault and kept the game in doubt until the final minute.
Where do we go from here? All 3 of our remaining opponents are beatable (Mo. St, Murray St. and UND). Beating all 3 will be difficult but not impossible. I'd say we have about a 20% chance of finishing 7-4. That's the best we can do at this point so that's what I'm rooting for.
We're soft in the middle on defense. Four players have been used at nose tackle - Monrrow, Galloway, Siegal and Zugenbuehler. Galloway might be the best, but nobody is really jamming things up. A John Ridgeway or a Jacob Powell would be very useful right now. The inside LB'ers have to shoot gaps and hope they get to the RB or QB before the secondary gets exposed without help underneath. Again, they got it right in the 2nd half and Jalan Gaines had a monster game. I saw one played where he was double teamed, and he still managed to get to QB Theo Day. Gaines hit him as he released the ball forcing an incompletion.
Our offense couldn't really get the rushing game going against the Panther D. Blakemore has gotten his biggest gains when he starts running towards his tackle and then breaks it to the outside. N. Iowa was tough along the front and they did not let him get outside. They couldn't stop Annexstad, Grandy and Sobkowicz. The Redbirds fought back with the aerial assault and kept the game in doubt until the final minute.
Where do we go from here? All 3 of our remaining opponents are beatable (Mo. St, Murray St. and UND). Beating all 3 will be difficult but not impossible. I'd say we have about a 20% chance of finishing 7-4. That's the best we can do at this point so that's what I'm rooting for.
fourthandshort
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Right, except neither does top 10 Incarnate Word and they have several very weak wins. And there will be others on the bubble with similar resumes. And if they have a quality win, they probably also have more than a few weak wins and weak losses.
That said, we are near zero chance. I think we have less than 50/50 chance of running table. And even if we do win out, we still have very little chance anyway.
But while we dwell on our negatives playing in the best conferenceby far, we are ignoring negatives of others playing in weaker conferences.