Irv said:

What I have a problem with is that we are once again in a position to make excuses for a game that really was not a very good performance.

But we’ll turn on the tv Saturday and see teams - many of them with less overall talent and certainly with lesser aspirations - who are going to come out and look good, ready to play, and even improved from the previous year.

I have been and am a big Rhule fan, but the time has come for the team on the field to start matching the talk.

We shouldn’t still be in the position of trying to explain why the offense coming up with 13 points not aided by a deep turnover is really a lot better than it looked. We shouldn’t be celebrating that the defense played well except for getting gashed by a running qb (again) who had his team in a position to win the game with a minute left.

We constantly have to come up with justifications for why the program isn’t making the progress others are, to convince ourselves that what we saw wasn’t as bad as it looked.

I’m just ready to be done with that phase. It’s the 8th year in a row of this. It’s time to start expecting a team that looks like it can actually be trouble for the opposition - not just a team that if you squint you can convince yourself was maybe better than it seemed.

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"The talk" Who's talk??

BIGSTICK67 said:

"The talk" Who's talk??

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The head guy who says we are playoff worthy.

Seaofred92 said:

A lot of people on here need to know how to feel after winning a close game lmao

This is COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Be happy we won in a scenario we haven’t in a long long time and move on. Yes there is stuff to work on, there is also stuff that is incredibly exciting that we easily forget about. Be happy and move on.

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People will always find a reason to be miserable. I’ll never take a win for granted

I picked less confident because I’m worried about the DL, as a whole though I’m more neutral to unchanged. Let’s set the improvements between now and UM

JerryBones5 said:

Listen, Cincy was way better than what I was expecting.

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Agreed.

For a team that ended last year on a 5-game losing streak, they looked pretty good to me. I think they'll make a bowl this year.

It's an opening day win on a neutral field vs a P4 bowl team. I'll take that every time.

If you're neither underwhelmed nor overwhelmed ... are you simply whelmed? Because I'm pretty neutral on what I saw tonight.

I saw the positives - we all did - but I truly expected us to beat Cincy by a more convincing margin than 3 points. On that basis, I'll vote "less confident" for poll/pole/Paul porpoises.

Irv said:

What I have a problem with is that we are once again in a position to make excuses for a game that really was not a very good performance.

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You have to account for the era we're in.

• We had a bunch of portal transfer guys in key roles
• We basically have 3 new coordinators (OC, DC, STs)
• We are the youngest team in the B1G
• First game was vs a P4 team that'll probably make a bowl game (I think they'll go 6-6)

I think we were expecting way too much from a team in this scenario in their season opener. Also I think this is CFB now - lot of transfers, coaching changes. First game is always going to be ugly.

The huge story is that we actually held on to get the W, where we would have lost this 95% of the time in last 10 yrs.

Seaofred92 said:

A lot of people on here need to know how to feel after winning a close game lmao

This is COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Be happy we won in a scenario we haven’t in a long long time and move on. Yes there is stuff to work on, there is also stuff that is incredibly exciting that we easily forget about. Be happy and move on.

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You’re not wrong, but just being at the game and seeing maybe 5 cincy fans and the whole place going nuts felt disappointing in the sense we would have lost on an actual neutral field to a bottom tier big twelve team which they may end up being a good team. My ears are still ringing, a wins a win and hopefully we grow from it

HerbRedman said:

You have to account for the era we're in.

• We had a bunch of portal transfer guys in key roles
• We basically have 3 new coordinators (OC, DC, STs)
• We are the youngest team in the B1G
• First game was vs a P4 team that'll probably make a bowl game (I think they'll go 6-6)

I think we were expecting way too much from a team in this scenario in their season opener. Also I think this is CFB now - lot of transfers, coaching changes. First game is always going to be ugly.

The huge story is that we actually held on to get the W, where we would have lost this 95% of the time in last 10 yrs.

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1. We won in an opening game against a P4 opponent.
2. Raiola completion percentage almost 80%
3. New offensive players looked solid.
4. Special teams, better.
5. Won a one score game.
6. Won a one score game in the final minutes.
7. Defense holds opponent to under 20pts.
8. We didn’t lose on the turn over margin.
9. D-Line/run defense still needs work.

So many of the things that have lost us games in the past, didn’t in this one.

That’s a step forward and one that improves confidence.

Are we a well oiled perfect team yet? No. Do we have many new contributors? Yes.

A lot to be said for that win. We now have two more games to improve.

I’m confident we are looking at an 8-4 team or better.

Drue629 said:

Trying to be optimistic but our defense minus the db’s is a fucking problem. Idk how you don’t see that. 7-5 best case in my opinion. It doesn’t matter that it was game 1. A problem is a problem. There’s no easy fix.

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7 wins is ceiling. If EJ gets hurt and we aren't already bowl eligible then we won't get there.

We're an okay team, but just a lot closer to being a bad team than we are to being a good one.

•+2 TO margin
•Clutch catches by new WRs that looked good
•Clutch pick by a DB that had just been abused
•Very clean ST play
•Pretty clean pocket overall aside from when Coreleone got through who is their best player next to Sorsby

My main concern is whether we can contain when the play breaks down against a mobile QB. But Sorsby is also a very experienced guy.

The common adage is that the most improvement is made over the first few weeks. We have a long week between games and the next two are perfect for making some adjustments.

All we talked about all offseason was how many new pieces there were and how that could be a limiting factor. It was in Game 1. I’m not convinced they’ll be issues all year. And we did answer some questions in the affirmative. Still some more to answer.

I said it in the week leading up to it, this was always going to be this way.

A lot of fans let their imaginations run wild and build this team into some national champion super team before week 1.

There’s like 4 teams that can roll into a week 1 game against a P4 opponent and just roll them. As my son would say, “Nebraska, you’re not him”.

We should have accepted a likely close game and been looking for signs that were capable of winning close games instead of being the same dick tripping losers we’ve been for a decade;
Turnovers
Special Teams
3rd Down Stops (concerned)
3rd Down Conversions (Not concerned)
Keeping our shit together in crunch time

I saw a team that’s fairly well built for close games. Michigan will tell us a big story - if we take a big step forward and make it challenging for them to run the ball - we’re a double digit win team. If not - probably a 7-8 win team

Less, but only because ‘The same’ wasn’t an option. It was game one and we won.

Nothing about last night made me more confident, except maybe how well the secondary and special teams played for the bulk of the game. The defense is likely better than I thought it would be, but that was partially disguised by lapses in gap integrity and a general lack of impact along the front in the run game.

On the ‘Less side’, Cincinnati did some things defensively that limited our medium and long range passing game, but I still saw some things open we didn’t throw. The line did a decent job against a good nose, but we’ll definitely see better pass rushes. Don’t care for the rotation at LT, but Prichett obviously lacks situational awareness. Sitting a player who can’t get his shit together rarely helps him get his shit together, but he’ll cost us games if he’s in there. EJ can’t be the focal point of the offense in every game or we’ll need a couple more EJ’s. Can we please shit can the jet sweep? Now. I know opponents have made us look like we’ve never seen it on tape, but we’ve always sucked at it.

We won. We’re still learning how to finish. That was plainly obvious. Up 13-3 and 20-10 and we still find ways to keep it close. Some of that was coaching decisions some players. Very reminiscent of 2024.

Blow out Akron and Houston Christian High, clean up some of the lapses in gap integrity on defense, open up the passing game a bit more and see what we can do against Michigan.

Drue629 said:

Trying to be optimistic but our defense minus the db’s is a fucking problem. Idk how you don’t see that. 7-5 best case in my opinion. It doesn’t matter that it was game 1. A problem is a problem. There’s no easy fix.

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Allowed 270 total yards, 17 points, and 3 of 10 on 3rd down to the 39th most efficient offense in the country last season. And while its no longer "last season," that group is actually improved this year.

No clue how good or bad Cincinnati is going to be this year. But I dowry about the defense more so in particular the dl. If you can’t stop the run you’re in for a long season and very frustrating season.

The morning after. I feel the same. Sharpe said it the other day on 1620, a win is a win. All it is. CINCY was better than I personally expected. Something I don’t see discussed much that I’ve heard on sports talk is common practice at the beginning of each season for non con across football, I’m willing to bet they tried to keep the offense pretty vanilla, and will continue to do that, as to be ready for Michigan.

Something that’s taken some time for me to accept and it seems it’ll take some more time for others, doesn’t seem like Rhule cares how we win or what it looks like against whoever. Just win.

BluesBucksNHuskers said:

I said it in the week leading up to it, this was always going to be this way.

A lot of fans let their imaginations run wild and build this team into some national champion super team before week 1.

There’s like 4 teams that can roll into a week 1 game against a P4 opponent and just roll them. As my son would say, “Nebraska, you’re not him”.

We should have accepted a likely close game and been looking for signs that were capable of winning close games instead of being the same dick tripping losers we’ve been for a decade;
Turnovers
Special Teams
3rd Down Stops (concerned)
3rd Down Conversions (Not concerned)
Keeping our shit together in crunch time

I saw a team that’s fairly well built for close games. Michigan will tell us a big story - if we take a big step forward and make it challenging for them to run the ball - we’re a double digit win team. If not - probably a 7-8 win team

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It could’ve easily been a double digit win. Nebraska coming up with an end of game clutch play is something that shouldn’t be discounted, but rolling them was right there.

cwessel76 said:

…against a team that couldn’t complete the forward pass for most of the game.

I know we had a lot of youth in both sides of the ball but we need to nut up in a hurry on defense.

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Do you think the quality of our defense might have something to do with their lack of success in the passing game?