Youngstown St. - (Be Like Bouman)

[Total Red]

Now we turn our attention to UNI at home this week. Suddenly, they are in the mix as they are 3-1 in MVFC. So we'll get a good measure of where we are at

It's funny that we're headed to Game 8 and we're still saying that the next game will tell us where we are at.
Ok I get it. We know we're somewhere in the middle and N. Iowa is close by, so this game does provide insight as to where we stand in the pecking order. Even so, it only to tells us where we are that day. Most of us would consider UNI better than Mo. St., but does a victory over UNI mean that we will win down at Mo. St.? Nobody can guarantee that. Every week is a new season.

Also, it's getting fashionable to say that our defense has now been exposed and it isn't any good. The defense has played well in 5 of 7 games. I know that those efforts came against weaker teams but 5 games in not an insignificant portion of the schedule. We've stopped weaker offenses and failed to stop the potent offenses. That's what most teams do.

 

[StLRedbird]

I would love to hear your reasonable argument ?

Not is same tier as YSU ? We just took YSU down to the very last second at their place with a chance to win. How are we not in same tier ?

We'll see about UNI when we play. They very recently beat ISUb by just 7. A week later, we beat ISUb 44-7. so it's not like we beat them by 14 and they beat them by 7. We destroyed them a week after UNI barely won. How are we not in the same tier right now ?

I think like some others chiming in, you like to see the worst and hold us to a higher standard in comparison to others. With zero consideration for the problems and inconsistencies most teams struggle with playing in the same dominant conference, where everyone is basically competing for 3rd place before the season in starts. And this includes the rest of FCS as NDSU and more recently SDSU are regularly in the finals or final 4 most seasons. That is our reality along with every other team not NDSU or SDSU. And there are objectively 5 more MVFC teams who could very realistically be playoff caliber.

Yes, our defense sucks right now. But it is usually good to very good most years, playing in the top conference in MVFC. Yet we played SDSU as tough as most teams. Yes, our defense failed us against YSU .. but so did theirs fail them. But you seem to infer it doesn't count when our offense does really well and makes their defense look really bad .. a week after they held top 8 SIU to just 3 pts .. while we scored 38 points after slow start. And USD, another top 8 team potentially, just beat same ISUb 17-3.

So again, I would love to hear your or anyone's objective argument that we aren't in the same tier as YSU or even comparatively with common opponents of UNI ?

I watched the first quarter of the UNI-USD game. UNI started a linebacker @ RB. Their RB corps is riddled with injuries - I definitely heard that, but was distracted. The converted LB, #40, did a pretty good job, from what I saw. UND did not look sharp.

 

[fourthandshort]

Using your tiers, at this point in time we are:
Tier 1. 0-1
tier 2 DNP
tier 3. 0-1 and likely a 7 or so (?) point underdog this week vs the only other tier 3 team UNI
tier 4 2-0 but that wiu team we beat has not won a game in nearly 2 years. further we did not have a convincing win vs wiu as i believe it was a one score game in the 4th qrtr before we made a couple of big plays

beyond that our body of work is weak as we lost to what now appears to be a marginal OVC team (EIU) and the rest of our competitors have no substance. So at this point in time it to state the Redbirds are in the same tier as uni and ysu based upon accomplishments seems a bit homerish, IMO. we beat uni then yes isu has earned a tier 3 placement.

so I'll work the arguement from bottom up .. since youre now inferring we are closer to tier 4 than tier 3 ... tier 3 in MVFC being a FCS playoff bubble level team .. using my tiers.

So how did we do playing against all tier 4 teams .. and even add EIU, Dayton, Lindenwood to WIU and ISUb. PLaying against those teams, our defense was top 1 - 5 in all of FCS in almost every meaning team stat. Offensively, we were top 5 to 10 in every meaningful stat.

So how are even remotely close to a tier 4 team. Our results reflected us as a Tier 3 or Tier 2 team ... playing against tier 4 like teams .. except for EIU .. we layed an egg. As for the WIU game .. total offense was 461 to 200. So while the score wasn't a blow out. Games like WIU happen and even like EIU ... just ask USD or UND or SIU or UNI or NDSU.

Again .. this is that always see the negative mindset, especially after a loss. This was a close tough loss to a strong team on the road. We needed the win, yes. The defense played bad, yes. Just like their defense played bad. And despite a slow start, we took the lead in Q4, only to loss in walkoff. It wasn't even like the defense collapsed that last drive .. they needed 13 plays to get 44 yards, plus 2 fourth down conversions in order to get in position for the FG. Yes, they didn't get the stop we needed, but they were suddenly pretty stout after getting steam rolled most of the game.

I get the frustration, as that was game we needed and our defense is nowhere near we hoped at this point. But IMO youre holding your own team to a much higher standard than our opponents in evaluating how good/bad we are .. which as a fan doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Manchester Matt]

Maybe we just need to create a fifth tier. ISU can be in the fourth one alone. The Redbirds are not a bubble team while YSU and UNI clearly are in the playoff picture.

ISU has literally beat nobody of significance and lost to every decent to good team. The combined record of the four teams we’ve beat is 5-24. And it’s nothing new. Same shit last year. This program is a broken record.

When this season concludes, ISU will have been to the playoffs once since 2016. In an era where several programs have made the jump to FBS. Trending toward another 6-5 season.

Sorry, but that’s not good enough for me.

 

[CaliRdBrd]

Maybe the Birds make the playoffs and maybe they don't. We will find out in the not too distant future. I thought they needed to win this game to be in the driver's seat. The game was evenly matched from what I saw. Nether team had very much defense in the first half. Both offenses put points on the board and gained a lot of yardage. Not as much offense in the second half but still very close game. I think the big mistake was in not using their time outs at the end of the game. YSU was in field goal range and ISU only needed a field goal to tie it up and send it to over time. I get they did not want to help YSU by calling time outs but did it make more sense to just watch the time click off as the Penguins got closer and closer to a winning field goal. Kick the ball...game over and no chance at all for the Birds to attempt a tie or a win. I don't get it. I really don't get it. YSU was not the better team and ISU did deserve to win. Two evenly matched team slugging it out and one won by 3 points. The Eastern game is what will kill their playoff chances I think and the end of that game still makes me mad as hell. Kind of a pattern with coaching decisions at the end of the game, huh?

Yet we didn’t (and this has become a prevalent theme). Exactly why it may be time for a change.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

Also, it's getting fashionable to say that our defense has now been exposed and it isn't any good. The defense has played well in 5 of 7 games. I know that those efforts came against weaker teams but 5 games in not an insignificant portion of the schedule. We've stopped weaker offenses and failed to stop the potent offenses. That's what most teams do.

Teams with powerful defenses stop potent offenses. At a minimum they slow them down significantly. In my view that is what has kept ISU at a mid level MVFC team for the past several years. Not much offense be powerful defenses no matter who they were playing. I don't think this defense is bad, it does well against teams that are not that powerful offensively. Against the good offenses they give up lots of points and yards. I am not saying the defense is not any good, that is over stating things. They are not elite for certain and probably not upper level. Strange year in the MVFC.

BTW, the O-line played very well against YSU I thought. Kudos to them!

 

[Virginia Redbird]

Yet we didn’t (and this has become a prevalent theme). Exactly why it may be time for a change.

I thought the Redbirds did deserve to win but the Penguins played well too. In very tight games like this one it usually comes down to mistakes and missing opportunities. I really wish the Birds had called time outs and got the ball back with at least a few seconds on the clock to try to move down the field for a field goal or TD. They intentionally let the clock run out so they lost any opportunity. I don't get it.

 

[fourthandshort]

Maybe we just need to create a fifth tier. ISU can be in the fourth one alone. The Redbirds are not a bubble team while YSU and UNI clearly are in the playoff picture.

ISU has literally beat nobody of significance and lost to every decent to good team. The combined record of the four teams we’ve beat is 5-24. And it’s nothing new. Same shit last year. This program is a broken record.

When this season concludes, ISU will have been to the playoffs once since 2016. In an era where several programs have made the jump to FBS. Trending toward another 6-5 season.

Sorry, but that’s not good enough for me.

Well played !!

Except one week ago, UNI was out of the playoff picture and all polls had us ahead UNI. Several had us in the playoffs, one even the first of last 4 in .. that is, the 21st best playoff eligible team. Some polls also had us ahead of YSU, which I didn't agree with at the time.

So it's only on Redbird Forum that the view is we aren't even in the hunt. That alone should paint the picture more objectivity.

Again, we definitely needed this win and came very close to beating a likely playoff team on their field. So now we're rightly back off the bubble. If we beat UNI, we'll probably be back on the bubble, but admittedly the first 4 out, not the last 4 in.

It's worth noting, we heard all the same negative arguments near end of 2019 regular season .. admittedly both on Redbird Forum and across other polls, media sites. etc. But we made playoff, and dominated 2 higher ranked teams on road. Before giving NDSU their toughest game of playoff .. all on road.

So there are still 4 games to be played ... we can talk about firing Spack after the season when the results are all in. Admittedly been a rough 3+ years since .. but let's finish this season and see where we're at. Then decide if it is time to fire the best coach in Redbird Football history. Then hope we find a better one, who might stay more than 2 or 3 years.

 

[Dmills]

I watched the first quarter of the UNI-USD game. UNI started a linebacker @ RB. Their RB corps is riddled with injuries - I definitely heard that, but was distracted. The converted LB, #40, did a pretty good job, from what I saw. UND did not look sharp.

Unbelievable

 

[fourthandshort]

Teams with powerful defenses stop potent offenses. At a minimum they slow them down significantly. In my view that is what has kept ISU at a mid level MVFC team for the past several years. Not much offense be powerful defenses no matter who they were playing. I don't think this defense is bad, it does well against teams that are not that powerful offensively. Against the good offenses they give up lots of points and yards. I am not saying the defense is not any good, that is over stating things. They are not elite for certain and probably not upper level. Strange year in the MVFC.

BTW, the O-line played very well against YSU I thought. Kudos to them!

Good post ... but we did have a very strong defense last year, clearly 3rd best in MVFC right behind the 2 Natty teams, and even with a very inconsistent offense. Meaning, the defense would have been better if we had a decent offense a year ago. I know we had lot of injuries, but other teams have injuries .. we just weren't as deep at RB as we thought and we never have a #2 QB ready to come in ans take the reins without tossing over half the playbook. Plus our OL was very unproven to start the seson, which made their and the other injuries more detrimental.

Even 2021 was a good year defensively, but the offense was even worse that year .. left our defense on the field way too long. So theyeventually tired and gave up yards and pts, but still very solid.

As to the frustrated posters, I get it ... we finally have a potent offense, and now our defense sucks against legit offenses.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

so I'll work the arguement from bottom up .. since youre now inferring we are closer to tier 4 than tier 3 ... tier 3 in MVFC being a FCS playoff bubble level team .. using my tiers.

So how did we do playing against all tier 4 teams .. and even add EIU, Dayton, Lindenwood to WIU and ISUb. PLaying against those teams, our defense was top 1 - 5 in all of FCS in almost every meaning team stat. Offensively, we were top 5 to 10 in every meaningful stat.

So how are even remotely close to a tier 4 team. Our results reflected us as a Tier 3 or Tier 2 team ... playing against tier 4 like teams .. except for EIU .. we layed an egg. As for the WIU game .. total offense was 461 to 200. So while the score wasn't a blow out. Games like WIU happen and even like EIU ... just ask USD or UND or SIU or UNI or NDSU.

Again .. this is that always see the negative mindset, especially after a loss. This was a close tough loss to a strong team on the road. We needed the win, yes. The defense played bad, yes. Just like their defense played bad. And despite a slow start, we took the lead in Q4, only to loss in walkoff. It wasn't even like the defense collapsed that last drive .. they needed 13 plays to get 44 yards, plus 2 fourth down conversions in order to get in position for the FG. Yes, they didn't get the stop we needed, but they were suddenly pretty stout after getting steam rolled most of the game.

I get the frustration, as that was game we needed and our defense is nowhere near we hoped at this point. But IMO youre holding your own team to a much higher standard than our opponents in evaluating how good/bad we are .. which as a fan doesn't make sense to me.

I have no idea where I inferred, said or did whatever for you to draw the conclusion that I believe Isu should be lumped in a tier with wiu/ISUb..etc. I do not believe that at all. What I said or inferred is that it is a stretch to put isu, based upon this season’s results, in the same tier as uni/ ysu. That is all.

You stated in a prior post that I said ISU’s defense or offense stinks. You must be confusing me with someone else as I have not posted anything along those lines.

 

[Birdswin]

I do not know whether I am more disappointed in the front 7 not being to stop the run or the defensive backs giving numerous long TD passes where the receiver was ALL Alone?? On the other hand - a good day by the offense, but not enough in the end to make up for the lapses on defense.