More or less confident in team after Cincinnati?

[betsch]

I'm in the crowd that is very happy for the win, but less confident than I was before.

 

[mcgradynu]

I just want to state that we'd all feel a lot better and we beaten the piss out of Akron rather than played a tight game with Cincinnati, but this is a really good learning experience early in the season.

I like a test like this and then take the next two lower tier competition games to adjust based on last night versus beating two lower tier teams and then losing this game if it was our third game because we didn’t see what needed to be fixed.

 

[Mavsker]

If you want to spin it the other way, the Sandy Vagina crew wouldn’t shut up before the game about how weak we were at DL and RB. Now they’re using that as a reason to be more negative. Shouldn’t they be neutral?

Personally, I knew that RB and DL were going to be struggles for us, but there were quite a few areas where we’ve obviously made huge strides. I’m neutral at this point.

I don't think it's spin

These are the predictions from the SVC
38-20 Nebraska by @Havoc34
31-21 Nebraska by @doublewing
34-21 Nebraska by @Gman1228

Margin of victory isn't the only factor, but you can understand someone feeling less confident if they predicted a 2-3 score win (as most people did) but it ended being much closer. Even isolating your example, someone can think we'd be weak at DL, and watch the game, and come away thinking we're even weaker than they presumed.

 

[HerbRedman]

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.

Also look at every other B1G team who played Thursday & they managed to look worse than us vs NON-P4 teams. And they all played in their home stadium.

Just a reminder about Cincinnati: they beat a CFP team last year. Granted it was a CFP team w their backup QB and granted that QB was Jeff Sims. But you have to have athletes to beat that ASU team last year. I think people are rating this win like it's a home game vs Bethune Cookman. Cincinnati has some dudes. I think they'll be decent in the Big 12. I think they'll finish middle of the conference. They're certainly better than UCF lol.

 

[stonesak]

Fun fact. In Rhule's last season at Baylor 7 of their games were decided by one possession. Get your heart meds ready!

 

[HughJanus]

What I don't understand is the "neutral" or "positive" comments from people who predicted we'd win 42-13 like two days ago

How is that not irrational? It reads like pure cope

We're huffing vibes here buddy. We're beating Michigan 70-0.

 

[HerbRedman]

I like a test like this and then take the next two lower tier competition games to adjust

I like it IF and only if we win it LOL. But it's risky. Pretty much every B1G team looked like shit yesterday. Boise St looked like shit.


That Thursday night game before week 1 is looking to me like a trap game. Especially when you play away from your home stadium. Just thinking about this and that Thurs opener vs Minnesota. I would advise against scheduling something like this for a while. Too much to manage while you're breaking in all these new portal guys and breaking in new OC/DC/ST coords.


I don't mind a game like this if you have it at Saturday at Memorial Stadium at like 11am. A national TV game at a neutral site where literally EVERY CFB in the world is watching is a lot to do vs a P4 bowl team. That was a bit riskier than I realized.

 

[Gman1228]

I thought our offense would score more points and look more explosive.

The defense was about as I expected. We don’t have any dudes, we are small & we are slow.

ST’s were good outside of kickoff and KOR.

Our Dline & LB’s are so undersized and just not good.

Lindenmeyer was a huge positive at TE but we have absolutely nothing behind him. HH was so bad.

Oline was pretty average, about what they’ve been the last 2 years. Again, we are so weak at the point of attack, we can’t move anyone.

We will be 6-6 or possibly 7-5 if ST’s stay improved.

 

[Cash68847]

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.

I’ll go with 8 as the ceiling partly because we have an easy BIG schedule. I agree on the last part.

 

[Ext. 55]

Also look at every other B1G team who played Thursday & they managed to look worse than us vs NON-P4 teams. And they all played in their home stadium.

Just a reminder about Cincinnati: they beat a CFP team last year. Granted it was a CFP team w their backup QB and granted that QB was Jeff Sims. But you have to have athletes to beat that ASU team last year. I think people are rating this win like it's a home game vs Bethune Cookman. Cincinnati has some dudes. I think they'll be decent in the Big 12. I think they'll finish middle of the conference. They're certainly better than UCF lol.

Agreed the view on this game by many is slanted in ways it shouldn’t be. Bottom line for me is a quality first game win against a P4 team.

One where we’ve look much better than past seasons and better than other ‘ranked’ teams who’ve played as well.

Questions remain and it’s a good first win.

 

[RedSavage]

Fun fact. In Rhule's last season at Baylor 7 of their games were decided by one possession. Get your heart meds ready!