Down goes Iowa
October 16th, 2021 at 7:02 PM ^
Something tells me they will fall more than 4 spots like Bama
October 16th, 2021 at 7:11 PM ^
Well if Iowa had a 10+ year stretch of being the best team in the country they’d probably get that benefit as well.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:33 PM ^
Past seasons are no excuse for bias. A better is to compare the wins & losses *this* season - Alabama's were mostly better.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:02 PM ^
Why is what you say to be taken as true? 10+ years of dominance with the same coach still there, and a 5-year tail of the best recruiting in the nation should certainly bear on where a team is perceived. Of course the recent past matters. Polls are human subjectivity, not the laws of physics. The frame of reference matters.
October 17th, 2021 at 7:31 PM ^
The frame of reference becomes invalid after each off-season; the program *might* be some of the same people, but typically goes through high turnover of both student-athletes & coaches/staff (especially at highly successful programs, where the players go pro early and the staff get poached). There might be an *expectation* of a program doing well again, but that is not justification for putting them above what they have done to date *this season* - especially when others have accomplished more at this point *in just this season only.*
October 17th, 2021 at 10:07 PM ^
Yep. They're polls: as in opinions based on whatever logic, reason, or emotion the respondent wants to apply. For instance, let's say Michigan makes it all the way the playoff, along with Alabama and, somehow, Iowa. Which team would most Michigan fans rather face (assuming it's not played at Kinnick, lol)?
October 16th, 2021 at 8:06 PM ^
This rational is why the 4-team playoff created a system where the rich got richer and it became impossible to compete with them.
We need a system that doesn’t depend on human judgement. What makes the NFL fair is that you make the playoffs or fail make them purely based on the rules.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:22 PM ^
You also play half the league in the NFL. To apply the same logic, FBS teams would have to schedule 60+ games every season
October 16th, 2021 at 10:03 PM ^
You also play half the league in the NFL. To apply the same logic, FBS teams would have to schedule 60+ games every season
I didn't apply the logic that you need to play half the league for the rules to be fair, I just applied the logic that there should be rules that take human judgement out of the equation as much as possible. This is why boxing matches that end in split decisions are so unsatisfying.
There's no reason that the P5 teams shouldn't be their own division. We don't treat non-P5 teams like they're in the same division. They are conveniently FBS when P5 teams need early season body bags but then are conveniently not treated as FBS when they end the season with a perfect record.
At the very least, we need to separate from non-competitive conferences and expand the playoffs to 12 teams and give conference champions an automatic bid. Ideally, we would separate from the non-competitive conferences, realign to have 6 smaller conferences. This would force Notre Dame to join a conference so we'd have 66 teams. 3 12 team conferences + 3 10 team conferences would make it work (we can actually be the Big 10 again). The playoff would consist of 6 conference champions and 6 wildcards based purely on record. So the teams can't game the system scheduling would be done by the NCAA and there would be a system to that (to reinforce parity, the top finishing teams from one year would play the most difficult schedule for their non-conference games).
If we did that fans of all the schools involved would watch more games, attend more games, and buy more apparel. They would give a shit because it would actually be a competitive league. There's much to criticize about the NFL—just watch Any Given Sunday—but what makes the NFL so great and so loved is its parity—hence the name of Any Given Sunday. The NCAA is run by a bunch of idiots who don't even know how to get greed right.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:25 PM ^
Meh, we all know Bama >>>>> Iowa. Not just the past decade, but this year as well.
Iowa is a middling program having a good year. Good defense, shit offense and not much NFL talent- they weren't going to win the turnover battle 5-0 every week. PSU had them done last week until Clifford went down, and PSU is no BAMA.
Vegas would have had Bama as a min 14+ favorite this week over Iowa and for good reason. Iowa never passed the eyed test and has nowhere near the talent of Bama, UGA, OSU.
When Bama loses, it's generally due to crazy low probability events and takes a near perfect game and luck from the opposing team. Iowa losing by 17 to a bad B1G team at home is frankly not even that surprising.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:29 PM ^
They looked like dogshit in their own stadium. Ok, the offense self-destructs on a whim but that 'vaunted' Iowa defense played like it was facing the Drew Brees led New Orleans Saints. Just by eye test alone, after witnessing them fall ass backward into the finish line after PSU's backup QB played worse than a peewee football player, I think they should be in the 20's If not unranked.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:39 PM ^
And since Brees played at Purdue, I see your connection.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:02 PM ^
Oh no that's terrible.....so anyways.
October 17th, 2021 at 12:41 AM ^
I was hoping Iowa would win out so that the East Division champ had an undefeated and highly-ranked opponent in the B1G Championship Game.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:03 PM ^
And suddenly Purdue, Minnesota, and Wisconsin all have plausible paths to the Big Ten Championship Game
October 16th, 2021 at 7:37 PM ^
Even Nebraska has a chance.
October 16th, 2021 at 10:14 PM ^
Big Ten West aleays sucks.
October 16th, 2021 at 10:52 PM ^
That sound you hear is oars in the water.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:04 PM ^
I think they drop behind MSU who basically won with a defensive score today.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:04 PM ^
They Pur-did it!
October 16th, 2021 at 7:04 PM ^
Man.. Petras is straight up terrible. Iowa's defense is excellent, but their offense is so goddamn bad that if they don't play a great game defensively they could pretty much loose to anyone in the West not named Illinois or Northwestern.
Goodson is a solid player, then... they got nothing. Their offensive play calling or "Iowa-ness" I will call it is going to lose them a few more games this year most likely. Shame because they legit might have the second best defense in the country outside of Georgia this year.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:37 PM ^
Petras is not the greatest QB around, agree, but he is what he is and no one has ever claimed him to be a world beater.
Graham Mertz of Wisconsin - on the other hand - has to be the most over-rated player in the conference. Well, maybe not anymore as people are starting to realize how bad he is..
October 16th, 2021 at 8:27 PM ^
Is their defense that great? They gave 240 yards to 1 wr. Purdue's 3rd QB was 9-10 for 150 yards and 9 first downs on 3rd down conversations.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:33 PM ^
Right? If Iowa's defense is as great as they say, is Purdue's offense secretly one of the best in the country? They were *zipping* the ball around the field, their QBs were dropping dimes at will. Iowa's defense made Sean Clifford look like a true valuable player, they can't be that good.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:49 PM ^
Yeah I would say they are good. They are leading the nation in forced turnovers, and giving up only 270 yards per game (180 passing, 90 rushing). Purdue obviously schemed them a little bit, but the offense not being able to stay on the field at all exasperated the problem quite a bit as well.
They are excellent at forcing turnovers and they are very stout against the run. I would consider those to be the most impactful metrics to describe a good defense.
October 17th, 2021 at 12:41 AM ^
But everyone they’ve played is awful, with the exception of psu who were on their way to a comfortable win when clifford got hurt. Their defense is solid at best.
October 17th, 2021 at 1:32 AM ^
To be fair, they did pick Clifford twice before the knocked him out. That does tell you just how terrible their offense is because they had forced 3 turnovers on Penn State while Clifford was in and were losing 17-3.
That offense is truly atrocious. If they were even just decent (i.e. Minnesota level good) they would be the run away favorite in the West. More likely, they'll just rock fight it out with Wisconsin for the division.
October 17th, 2021 at 11:46 AM ^
Yeah, that’s a fair point. When an offense sucks as bad as theirs, it usually does seem to bring the defense down with it.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:04 PM ^
I nominate Wisconsin to launch a comeback.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:56 PM ^
Good. Will give Dax another shot at Mertz.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:06 PM ^
and we will move up one in the polls. iowa was very overrated.
next up for a loss is sparty. credit to them for what they've done, but today was another example of a team (see, nebraska v. sparty) giving them a game. see you in two weeks.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:14 PM ^
I agree. Both Walker and Thorne looked very pedestrian today. It will be a revealing film study for the UM coaches. Indiana exposed some things with them today, they just didn't have the players to get it done.
Perhaps MSU was looking past this game as well, but I think that's less likely with their bye week coming up. The MSU offensive line does look exploitable.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:41 PM ^
Ya think? Sparty looked awfully flat on offense today and northwestern beats Rutgers. Guess we don’t want to look past the Wildcats ourselves.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:01 PM ^
That was my impression of their game today. I still believe Sparty has a good squad this year, and their offensive play makers are legit. But IU did hold Walker to 3.7 YPC, and Thorne completed just over 50% of his passes for 4.8 ypc and 2 turnovers.
I am sure we'll see a better version on of their team on 10/30, but Indiana obviously found a recipe to slow down their offense (as did Nebraska to be fair).
October 16th, 2021 at 7:43 PM ^
MSU scored 13 offensive points against Nebraska in regulation (the other seven came on a punt return).
They scored 13 offensive points today (the other seven came on an INT return).
Against Rutgers they had four TDs of 60+ yards - but finished with 31 points.
Don’t give up big plays and force them to drive down the field methodically, and they probably won’t be able to. Their one offensive TD today came off a short field after an INT.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:03 PM ^
If teams keep giving up pick 6s and Sparty keeps scoring special teams points (as they have been) then eventually you just have to either give them actual credit or simply chalk it up to "they find a way to win".
The results are the same.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:10 PM ^
I think you do have to give them credit, and they deserve it. However, some results are far more likely to be repeatable than others. Turnovers, for instance, are far more random. Us running it down the throat of good teams is not a random event.
October 16th, 2021 at 8:23 PM ^
Sure, 7-0 is 7-0. But making big plays against Indiana’s backup QB and Scott Frost’s clownshow isn’t necessarily indicative of how they’ll do against us. They’ve been reliant on big, momentum-changing plays as they haven’t been that good on a down-to-down basis. Maybe that will continue, but I would tend to doubt it.
October 16th, 2021 at 9:20 PM ^
You aren't worried about big plays? I just read the UFR on our corners and have not completely scrubbed the 2020 game from my memory.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:18 PM ^
Now you're gettin' it
October 16th, 2021 at 7:19 PM ^
i get it, but those wins were hugely qualitatively different. we weren't gifted with jack squat last week and nebraska's big plays were refs -3 again and again. further, a muffed punt (it was punt right and the guy hit it to the uncovered left) was the only reason sparty tied it at the end of regulation. and they played that game in EL. being on the road is a big deal. sparty isn't trash, give credit to their coach, etc, but i still think they aren't a top 10 team. we'll all find out in 2 weeks.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:26 PM ^
IIRC we were fortunate to come up with a Henning Muffed putt and a very lucky touch back. I think we beat Sparty BUT I was certain we would beat them last year.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:31 PM ^
So, what do you think about the punt return TD by Sparty against NEB.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:41 PM ^
It was a thing that happened in their narrow victory.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:46 PM ^
Our punt returner falling on his own muff isn’t some huge break. You expect him to not fumble. That’s not comparable to Nebraska punting to a side of the field with literally no coverage.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:26 PM ^
I think there is truth to this, even though some people won't buy it because it's not a tangible thing you can measure. You can bet Scott had the Michigan game circled before fall camp, and they were going to throw the kitchen sink at Michigan.
I'm not trying to discredit [disrespekt] Michigan State, because I do believe they are good and their play makers on offense are legit. That said Michigan State eeking out a win at home on busted punt coverage, and Michigan winning at their place, on primetime, with the Nebraska players trying to defend their home field like it was the Alamo are two different kind of wins against the same team.
I don't believe in the transitive property when it comes to football, but I'm also not convinced if you supplanted MSU's players and coaches in Michigan jerseys and on the sideline that they would have won by 3 in regulation.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:24 PM ^
On the road in the night? Same?
October 16th, 2021 at 7:28 PM ^
Not saying it is the same but acting if MSU is bad because it took OT to beat Nebraska when we needed a comeback to win by three is straight up hubris.
October 16th, 2021 at 7:35 PM ^
I like the Sabra Hubris but i'm open to try this Straight Up stuff