I don't think he's talking about me. Regardless, I coulndt agree more. I feel like I'm sitting at Jolly Pirate listening to old men that haven't seen a game in 10 years talk about how much The Herd sucks.
We win by 10-14 in a modestly scoring game. I'll say 38-28.
If that is directed at me for picking against us Reg, that is ridiculous. I am basing my opinion on the fact that we haven't been ready to play in several weeks, and we fell short of where we thought we should be (ala cusa title game on the road, WKU after rankings showed us behind boise) and with the doc rumors as well. Then you have NIU where the consensus across that whole fanbase is this is one of the biggest football games they have ever played and it means MUCH MORE to their fanbase, as a whole, than ours, in the level of importance of the game. That usually kind of is mirrored in the players feelings behind the scenes too. Its no secret that undefeated and peach bowl was the goal all year from the players side of things.
Remember, NIU was going to be playing a 7-5 arky state in the godaddy bowl. So this is a huge bowl upgrade to them.
That is my take on the effort/mental side of things. -Advantage NIU
NIU is also leaps and bounds better than any team we have played all year, and their strengths on offense counter our weaknesses on defense. They bring one of the best rushing offenses in the nation, against what is our weakness on defense (brought forth by the nickel, if heater runs a 4-3, it could be another story. We will see. Not sure how heater could focus on shutting down what is a very mediocre qb that is basically just another RB and game manager. No reason to run a 4-2-5 here. Ill be really surprised if we dont change our defense up a bit in this game. That being said, im basing my prediction on the fact that we won't change what we have done). They will move the ball on us, score, and while they havent been an offense that controls the clock this season, they may have that gameplan if they are smart.
Their defense is kind of average and balanced. Equally good against run and pass. We will move the ball on them as well in this game. But we are mistake prone and will lose the TO margin IMO, giving them at least 2 more possessions than us.
As far as talent vs talent and man vs man potential, id give Marshall the edge with a healthy Johnson, a push without him.
Overall, i think we start very slow, NIU may take a 14-0 lead and try to run clock. If we can get up, Cato plays well, and Johnson, and we wre focused, absolutely we can win this game.
I don't think the focus and execution will be there. My only problem. If we played NIU week 6, we win by 30 pts. Playing them now in their superbowl and our toilet bowl mentally, it is a tough one for us to win. Thats all i am saying.
For the record, if we were playing Arizona in the fiesta, i think we beat their (@/:; by 20 pts. I think this all comes down to the mental part of the game.
My thoughts are far from some old man that hasnt seen the team in 10 years. Its a middle aged man thats been to almost every game for 15 years. Same reason i said UAB would be a scary game when everyone thought that was no problem. The mental aspect is also why we lost vs WKU. They simply wanted it more than us and it showed. Without DJ, physical talent alone wasn't enough to win that game. With him, it wouldn't have mattered.
For the record, this team (being healthy) is the most talented team we have ever fielded IMO. And its not even close.
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