Quick thoughts on future opponents after week 1

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MNVCGUY

MNVCGUY

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Western Illinois - Haven't seen them play but not expecting them to put up much resistance in week 2

Colorado - Saw second half of their game against TCU. They look bad, hard to believe that hiring the OC who failed miserably here didn't fix their crappy offense.

Michigan State - I am just not a believer in MSU. Felt they were overrated last year and think they are this year as well. Was not impressed with what I saw from them in week 1. Should learn a lot about both us and them when we meet in week 4.

Purdue - Needed to run the ball to ice the clock and couldn't. Definition of one dimensional. Think they will be good but I also think we will matchup well against them the way we have the past few seasons.

Illinois - Their RB looks good but this feels like a flawed team that will make mistakes and find a way to lose.

Penn State - Jury is still out on them. They didn't look overly impressive against Purdue but they do have some impressive athletes, especially on D.

Rutgers - Didn't see any of their season opener against BC but know they needed a late score to come back and win. Guessing they will be ok but nothing special.

Nebraska - Have watched a lot of their first 2 games and am thoroughly unimpressed by the Huskers. They have some athletes but they do not look like a good team at all.

Northwestern - Is this the every other year Northwestern that does will in even years....probably not. But need to see more of them to know for sure. Guessing they will be very mediocre but always tough to count them out.

Iowa - Good lord did their offense look bad....I mean historically bad. Defense is going to be strong, special teams will be solid, but if you can find a way to put up points on them they are screwed.

Wisconsin - Big plays carried them against Illinois State. Their defense is still good but doesn't feel as dominant as last year's group. Mertz had a solid game against a mediocre defense but key to beating them still feels like making Mertz beat you.

I don't see a team on our schedule that we can't beat if we play well. Not saying we are going to go unbeaten....just that we should have a shot to win every game this season. Anyone else have some reads on our upcoming opponents?
 


Our defense won’t give up a point until week 4.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Western Illinois - Haven't seen them play but not expecting them to put up much resistance in week 2

Colorado - Saw second half of their game against TCU. They look bad, hard to believe that hiring the OC who failed miserably here didn't fix their crappy offense.

Michigan State - I am just not a believer in MSU. Felt they were overrated last year and think they are this year as well. Was not impressed with what I saw from them in week 1. Should learn a lot about both us and them when we meet in week 4.

Purdue - Needed to run the ball to ice the clock and couldn't. Definition of one dimensional. Think they will be good but I also think we will matchup well against them the way we have the past few seasons.

Illinois - Their RB looks good but this feels like a flawed team that will make mistakes and find a way to lose.

Penn State - Jury is still out on them. They didn't look overly impressive against Purdue but they do have some impressive athletes, especially on D.

Rutgers - Didn't see any of their season opener against BC but know they needed a late score to come back and win. Guessing they will be ok but nothing special.

Nebraska - Have watched a lot of their first 2 games and am thoroughly unimpressed by the Huskers. They have some athletes but they do not look like a good team at all.

Northwestern - Is this the every other year Northwestern that does will in even years....probably not. But need to see more of them to know for sure. Guessing they will be very mediocre but always tough to count them out.

Iowa - Good lord did their offense look bad....I mean historically bad. Defense is going to be strong, special teams will be solid, but if you can find a way to put up points on them they are screwed.

Wisconsin - Big plays carried them against Illinois State. Their defense is still good but doesn't feel as dominant as last year's group. Mertz had a solid game against a mediocre defense but key to beating them still feels like making Mertz beat you.

I don't see a team on our schedule that we can't beat if we play well. Not saying we are going to go unbeaten....just that we should have a shot to win every game this season. Anyone else have some reads on our upcoming opponents?
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Pretty much agree with all your takes. Iowa, on the strength of one game against a pretty good SDST team, looks to be down from the last few years. Petras is just not a good QB and the defense, while stout, is not spectacular when they are not getting multiple turnovers.

It was also interesting that Illinois St. did a resonable job checking Allen except for when he was stopped for no gain yet squirmed out of a scrum and ran 95 yards. His stats looked great because of that long one but for long stretches he was not punishing.
 

Dakota2 said:
Pretty much agree with all your takes. Iowa, on the strength of one game against a pretty good SDST team, looks to be down from the last few years. Petras is just not a good QB and the defense, while stout, is not spectacular when they are not getting multiple turnovers.

It was also interesting that Illinois St. did a resonable job checking Allen except for when he was stopped for no gain yet squirmed out of a scrum and ran 95 yards. His stats looked great because of that long one but for long stretches he was not punishing.
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That one long carry really skews the Badgers rushing stats for the game. They rushed 37 times for a total of 221 yards. That looks pretty solid but if you take out the one run of 96 yards they managed just 125 yards on the other 36 carries for an average of just 3.4 per carry.

Badgers had 3 massive plays
100 yard INT return as Illinois State was driving
96 yard TD run
74 yard reception

I look at it this way. Minnesota and Wisconsin both played bad teams to start the year and both won 38-0. But I think we looked a little more impressive overall in our win. That said, based on what I saw in week 1 the West will be decided in the MN/Wis game at the end of the year because I think those are going to be the 2 top teams in the West.

But obviously there is a long way to go before we get to that point and things can change drastically from one week to the next as injuries pile up and crazy things happen.
 





short ornery norwegian said:
I believe I saw that Western Illinois' defense allowed 577 yards in their loss.

this should be a one-half game for the starters.

hopefully Athan can get a few passing attempts in.
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Western Illinois is 4-27 at the FCS level since 2019. They should be worse than New Mexico State.
 




Plato said:
Predicting the season on the basis of one or at the most two very early games has the relevance of predicting the future by examining the innards of a pigeon.
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it might if Minnesota was playing conference opponents. Early games in 2023 and 2024 with North Carolina will tell us some things. But New Mexico State and Western Illinois won't.
 


It's really difficult to get a solid read after Week 1, but from what I saw (and it wasn't a lot) the West looks really even and it's going to boil down to who can play the most solid football (Duh!). Illinois and Nebraska have some really nice athletes, but both teams seemed to trip all over themselves. Iowa's defense is always tough and I expect the same from the Badgers.

If our new O-line shows out, I think we can be there at the end and it's nice to have Ciarrocca back. I think he can incorporate some things into the game plan that can counterpunch the other teams' defensive schemes. Sanford's Permapress offense (no wrinkles) put us behind the 8-ball last season at several junctures.
 



Plato said:
Predicting the season on the basis of one or at the most two very early games has the relevance of predicting the future by examining the innards of a pigeon.
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Yep, which is why the point of this thread is just to take a quick look at our upcoming opponents based on week 0 and 1.

As we sit here today, I like our chances against the teams on our schedule but lots can and will change over the course of the season.
 



Plato said:
Predicting the season on the basis of one or at the most two very early games has the relevance of predicting the future by examining the innards of a pigeon.
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Then quit wasting your time looking at pigeon guts.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I don't see a team on our schedule that we can't beat if we play well.
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Well, look at it this way, Ohio State could say that with absolute confidence every year but they don't often get through the regular season without at least one loss. I don't see the point of fans of a team like ours saying that.
 

cjbfbp said:
Well, look at it this way, Ohio State could say that with absolute confidence every year but they don't often get through the regular season without at least one loss. I don't see the point of fans of a team like ours saying that.
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So you think it is a bad thing to look at our schedule and not see any obvious mismatches on it? Because to me it is a sign of where we have come as a program and hopefully where we are headed.

In the past there would have been multiple games on the schedule where we would look at it on the surface and say we would need everything to go right to have a shot at winning. Ohio State last year was a prime example of a game like that.

Right now there is no team on the 2022 schedule that I look at and say we can't beat. Doesn't mean we are going to win them all, in fact we will almost certainly drop a couple along the way. But we have seen a shift here in recent years which some fans are still struggling to embrace. We have moved from being an also ran to a contender and when you are a contender it means you have a good shot at winning the vast majority of your games on a yearly basis.
 

Plato said:
Predicting the season on the basis of one or at the most two very early games has the relevance of predicting the future by examining the innards of a pigeon.
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I predict the pigeon won't survive this method.
 

cjbfbp said:
Well, look at it this way, Ohio State could say that with absolute confidence every year but they don't often get through the regular season without at least one loss. I don't see the point of fans of a team like ours saying that.
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What? Is this serious?
 

MNVCGUY said:
So you think it is a bad thing to look at our schedule and not see any obvious mismatches on it? Because to me it is a sign of where we have come as a program and hopefully where we are headed.
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We all know how far we've come. I don't think any of us need reminders.
 

cjbfbp said:
Well, look at it this way, Ohio State could say that with absolute confidence every year but they don't often get through the regular season without at least one loss. I don't see the point of fans of a team like ours saying that.
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There is no Ohio St or Michigan on the schedule. I agree there is not a game that looks like a for sure loss at this point. That’s not a prediction Minnesota sill go undefeated in regular season. We will know a lot more after Michigan St.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
What? Is this serious?
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Yes, it's serious. What's the point of trying to say that we could be undefeated if that's unlikely to happen? If that does happen, let it be a wonderful surprise. Take it game by game as the cliche goes.
 

I watched the first of Colorado/TCU and thought the Buffs were greatly improved, looked faster on defense to me. Woke up the next morning to learn that TCU throttled them in the 2nd half. Colorado is a much better than than last year, Gophs should win though.
 

cjbfbp said:
Well, look at it this way, Ohio State could say that with absolute confidence every year but they don't often get through the regular season without at least one loss. I don't see the point of fans of a team like ours saying that.
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What it means is, we don't see an obvious loss to a team with superior talent.
 

cjbfbp said:
Yes, it's serious. What's the point of trying to say that we could be undefeated if that's unlikely to happen? If that does happen, let it be a wonderful surprise. Take it game by game as the cliche goes.
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We could go undefeated.
 

cjbfbp said:
We all know how far we've come. I don't think any of us need reminders.
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So what are we allowed to post about?

this thread is a quick look at our upcoming opponents based on the first game or 2. No predictions no guarantees of victory just a recap of my thoughts from seeing a lot of these teams in action. Something to talk about on a football message board.
 

It is going to come down to a battle of attrition between the top contenders in the race for the B1G East title in the stretch run.
 

The guys look really athletic. Whether that translates into winning is a question mark but outside of maybe WR this is best looking team I can recall. Hard to predict anything at this time as the guys looked pretty rough in say, 2019. Some of our opponents could turn out to be better than we think, eg Northwestern, Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue.
 

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