B1G West after two weeks ...

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gopherfield

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IMHO Illinois, Northwestern, and Iowa all look much better than expected. MN could not play these 3 teams right now and win all 3 games. The West truly seems wide open this year.
 

gopherfield said:
IMHO Illinois, Northwestern, and Iowa all look much better than expected. MN could not play these 3 teams right now and win all 3 games. The West truly seems wide open this year.
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Yeah, I was thinking that yesterday. The problem is we still know very little about any of these teams. Illinois has played nobody (and both at home). NW played Stanford extremely well (and looked tough doing it), but how good will Stanford be? It's the same with CSU. Iowa played a nobody and Iowa State, who was a terrible team last year. I'm not downplaying any of them, but we won't know much until conference play. But for the record, I expect every game we play this year to be close and down to this wire -- including against the teams you named.
 

I believe Iowa will play PITT in the non con, we should learn a little more about them that game. Wouldn't be shocked if Northwestern is ranked when we play them, think their overrated, but Stanford was ranked when they played, can't take that away from them. Illinois, will see when they actually play someone that can actually field a competent FBS squad. Purdue is trash and I think Nebraska and Michigan have the same issues they had last year.
 

I think we will find out more about some of these teams next weekend. Illinois goes to North Carolina, Northwestern plays at Duke, Nebraska is at Miami, and Iowa plays Pittsburgh at home.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I think we will find out more about some of these teams next weekend. Illinois goes to North Carolina, Northwestern plays at Duke, Nebraska is at Miami, and Iowa plays Pittsburgh at home.
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With a win next week, Northwestern can say they've beaten Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt all in the past 4 years. Big time potential bragging rights.
 


I think Purdue is the only team with no shot to finish in Top 3 of division. At the end of the day, this is Wisconsin's division to lose.


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MaxyJR1 said:
I think Purdue is the only team with no shot to finish in Top 3 of division. At the end of the day, this is Wisconsin's division to lose.


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Really? I think Wisconsin's OL isn't nearly as good as normal. All the teams in the West -- even Purdue -- are capable of beating each other. It's going to come down to who doesn't beat themselves. That means it's UM, Iowa or Wisconsin because of their ball-control offense.

1. UM- defense wins championships, but can they overcome the challenging crossover schedule?
2. Iowa- even though Ferentz gave up on recruiting a few years ago, he's still an elite coach
3. Badger- not dominant enough at the LOS on offense
4. UNL- I honestly don't know what to make these guys
5. Illinois, Purdue or IU... none of these teams have looked like auto-wins like we've seen in recent years....yet
 

SpartyOn said:
Really? I think Wisconsin's OL isn't nearly as good as normal. All the teams in the West -- even Purdue -- are capable of beating each other. It's going to come down to who doesn't beat themselves. That means it's UM, Iowa or Wisconsin because of their ball-control offense.

1. UM- defense wins championships, but can they overcome the challenging crossover schedule?
2. Iowa- even though Ferentz gave up on recruiting a few years ago, he's still an elite coach
3. Badger- not dominant enough at the LOS on offense
4. UNL- I honestly don't know what to make these guys
5. Illinois, Purdue or IU... none of these teams have looked like auto-wins like we've seen in recent years....yet
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It's theirs to lose because of how the crossover schedule worked out. Nothing more, nothing less.
 

SpartyOn said:
Really? I think Wisconsin's OL isn't nearly as good as normal. All the teams in the West -- even Purdue -- are capable of beating each other. It's going to come down to who doesn't beat themselves. That means it's UM, Iowa or Wisconsin because of their ball-control offense.

1. UM- defense wins championships, but can they overcome the challenging crossover schedule?
2. Iowa- even though Ferentz gave up on recruiting a few years ago, he's still an elite coach
3. Badger- not dominant enough at the LOS on offense
4. UNL- I honestly don't know what to make these guys
5. Illinois, Purdue or NU... none of these teams have looked like auto-wins like we've seen in recent years....yet
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First of all FIFY. Secondly, Northwestern is the team that makes me the most nervous because I think Fitz is a hell of a coach. If they keep gaining more confidence, they will sneak up on the rest of the division.
 



GophersInIowa said:
I think we will find out more about some of these teams next weekend. Illinois goes to North Carolina, Northwestern plays at Duke, Nebraska is at Miami, and Iowa plays Pittsburgh at home.
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Agreed.
 

gopherfield said:
IMHO Illinois, Northwestern, and Iowa all look much better than expected. MN could not play these 3 teams right now and win all 3 games. The West truly seems wide open this year.
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I would not say "could not" win all 3 games, but I generally agree that based on 2 weeks of evidence, we wouldn't be favored in all 3 games. Like the other poster said, we'll know quite a bit more after this week's games about these teams.

People forget/underestimate Northwestern habitually, but even though they were 5-7 the last 2 years, neither team was bad and both those years they were a few plays away from having good seasons.

We play Northwestern first, and we better get our offense straightened out a bit, or we'll be in a real battle and very well could lose. We don't play Iowa and Illinois til mid-November, so we'll find out a lot more about how good or bad they are before then. Purdue does look bad this year, though.
 

2 weeks in, I'd have the West ordered as:

7. Purdue
6. Iowa
5. Nebraska
4. Illinois (canning Beckman provided the spark this program needed)
3. Northwestern
2. Minnesota
1. Wisconsin (basically equal with the Gophers but edge goes to team with the better QB; Stave looks improved)

Purdue is the only one I'd completely discount as a West contender.
 

I wish we played Northwestern later in the season after they hit the wall again like the last couple seasons. Right now that game scares me.
 



bottlebass said:
I wish we played Northwestern later in the season after they hit the wall again like the last couple seasons. Right now that game scares me.
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I'd like to trade dates for Northwestern and Wisconsin. NU after they hit the wall as you mentioned, and the weasels before they get a chance to get their OL issues figued out.
 

SelectionSunday said:
2 weeks in, I'd have the West ordered as:

7. Purdue
6. Iowa
5. Nebraska
4. Illinois (canning Beckman provided the spark this program needed)
3. Northwestern
2. Minnesota
1. Wisconsin (basically equal with the Gophers but edge goes to team with the better QB; Stave looks improved)

Purdue is the only one I'd completely discount as a West contender.
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I would listen to debate as to why NU is ahead of Nebraska and Iowa but can't see how bashing two terrible teams puts Illinois ahead of Nebraska losing on a hail Mary to a good team and Iowa beating a Big12 team. Illinois is a stronger 6 than we expected but let's not go overboard.
 

The Northwestern game scares me as well. Hopefully we can really recover on the injury front the next couple weeks and NW gets dinged up a little in the Duke and Ball State games.
 

bottlebass said:
I wish we played Northwestern later in the season after they hit the wall again like the last couple seasons. Right now that game scares me.
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Disagree somewhat. I only caught parts of their game w/ Stanford. I'd say Stanford looked bad moreso than Northwestern looked good. Both teams didn't play well, IMO, NW just less bad. Open B1G at home against MN, and they may be overly confident. Go in & punch 'em in the teeth.
 

Northwestern's offense doesn't really scare me assuming we're healthy on D (Travis is back), but they have a good D and that game will almost certainly be low-scoring and a close game throughout. Plus, they'll be hungry for revenge since we've beat them twice in a row. Should be a good one.
 

My prediction is that the West champ will have two conference losses. Take care of business at home. OSU is a likely loss. Drop one of NU & IA, and Gophers win the West. Tough task, no doubt, but plausible. My other guess is that we beat WI but finish second in the division.
 

jaymil said:
Northwestern's offense doesn't really scare me assuming we're healthy on D (Travis is back), but they have a good D and that game will almost certainly be low-scoring and a close game throughout. Plus, they'll be hungry for revenge since we've beat them twice in a row. Should be a good one.
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I thought the secondary looked good even with Travis out. More concerned that CSU, a non running team, was racking up running yards because it seems like our LB's make fewer tackles than our secondary on run plays. I don't know if this is scheme, or someone not playing well, but it looks to me like Dline is pulling their weight on run stoppage but LB's doing average to below average job so far.
 

LakerFan said:
LB's doing average to below average job so far.
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I'm not smart enough to know that, but Kill disagrees. He said today, "From linebacker standpoint, I thought it was our best game at linebacker since we've been here."


AT CSU:

MLB (Poock and Williams) - 12 tackles combined
OLB (Huff, Celestin and Campbell) - 11 tackles combined
OLB (Lynn) - 3 tackles

26 tackles from the LB spot is pretty good
 

tjgopher said:
I'm not smart enough to know that, but Kill disagrees. He said today, "From linebacker standpoint, I thought it was our best game at linebacker since we've been here."


AT CSU:

MLB (Poock and Williams) - 12 tackles combined
OLB (Huff, Celestin and Campbell) - 11 tackles combined
OLB (Lynn) - 3 tackles

26 tackles from the LB spot is pretty good
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CSU averaged 105 rushing yards last year, we gave up 172. From an eye test watching the first half it seemed like every LB tackle was made from the side or behind rather than filling a hole and stuffing a guy. That let them move the chains pretty easily.
 

Guess I am not the only one who saw those struggles

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