Gameday and early games open thread

Submitted by One Inch Woody… on

College Gameday is at Evanston today for Northwestern v. Ohio State at 8 PM on ABC tonight

It looks like the Northwestern crowd is up and into this game, which should lead to a great atmosphere tonight.

Some highlight-ish games for the noon slate:

MSU v. Iowa - 12 PM on Espn 2

  • Iowa looks to be vastly improved from last year and their defense should be enough to stall the MSU offense. The question is whether Rudock can have time in the pocket to find his tight ends.

Maryland (25) v. FSU (8) on Espn

  • Is Jameis Winston for real? Maryland has not yet played a good team and could be used to wipe the floor. On the other hand, Florida State is seemingly slow to start and struggled defensively against Boston College and Nevada to start that game. 

Illinois v. Nebraska on Espn U

  • Nebraska's defense always seems to turn a corner midseason... is this the game where they do that? If not, it's going to be a long day for the Huskers as Scheelhasse in Cubit's offense seems to have found a groove and the Illinois defense can probably do enough to stall the Huskers.
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KBLOW

October 5th, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^

I wonder how much more money could go to breast cancer research if 5hour Energy just simply donated all it spends on that campaign.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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RJWolvie

October 5th, 2013 at 3:01 PM ^

...it's watching the games & believing the facts as you see them. It'd be faith to believe what we want to believe based on no (well, much less) evidence. (Only time it looked like could beat MSU was for that stretch in ND game where Gardner was all-world despite poor line play instead of under-world he's been otherwise & since)

Joined: 10/22/2011

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WMUgoblue

October 5th, 2013 at 3:07 PM ^

Well let's look at the facts then, MSU lost to ND and looked generally awful offensively. We beat ND, shredding the same defense that stymied MSU all game long. Now obviously the transitive property doesn't always apply but, who says MSU will be able to do anything against us offensively? It could be the 12-10 game it was last year, people who claim that it's a sure loss are far off their rocker.

Joined: 12/06/2009

MGoPoints: 12422

RJWolvie

October 5th, 2013 at 3:30 PM ^

...that stretch of the ND game is only evidence looking very positive. & i was emphasizing trends. They started as weak as we looked in last two games but have looked better game by game while we have looked worse & worse. Anyway, hope you're right & I'd rather watch UM now than debate MSU! Sure we agree on that much!

Joined: 10/22/2011

MGoPoints: 4417

alum96

October 5th, 2013 at 2:56 PM ^

why? they have the best defense in the league by a long shot, esp since their DBs can foul every play and its called 2-3x a game usually.  If their offense is even competent they are in every game.  Until today they had a major fraud offense.  Iowa is bad on offense but decent on defense and MSU is doing fine against it.  They also, for all their faults, rarely turn the ball over.  There is no team on their schedule who they cannot play with.  They and Nebraska also both avoid OSU.

Joined: 04/28/2012

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RJWolvie

October 5th, 2013 at 2:57 PM ^

...as D remains every bit as good as advertised & O keeps improving. Practically efficient today, against a decent Iowa defense.

Hope we begin to turn it around today, or 'fraid I can't agree with bielein's bud: they will beat Illinois, & (shudder!) us. We'd be proving week by week that not as good as suddenly hoped after CMU & ND, but rather at least as bad (or worse) as we had feared going in: unable overcome poor lines play (& turnovers not improved from last year)

Joined: 10/22/2011

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alum96

October 5th, 2013 at 3:02 PM ^

If they turned the ball over 3-4x a game they would look as awful as we have the past 2 games.  Turnovers kill a team.  Devin needs to protect the ball at all costs as there is not a lot of margin for error with this young offense.  There is little separation between any of these teams in this divisions - 2 extra turnovers a game will kill any team.  MSU does a lot of stupid things but ball safety is top of their agenda as they play Tressel ball.  The Big 10 overall is sucky and none of these teams are guaranteed wins or losses.  MSU has the one of two consistent units in the divison (MSU D, Neb O)

Joined: 04/28/2012

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KBLOW

October 5th, 2013 at 2:56 PM ^

Since watching the IU game I think PSU's hype (as slight as it's been) is based on nothing. IU's D, that's right INDIANA's defense is messing with PSU big time.  

Joined: 06/30/2008

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Swazi

October 5th, 2013 at 3:03 PM ^

Called it last year. Without Tom Bradley that Penn State defense was going to fall off a cliff once the seniors like Mauti graduated.

Joined: 08/13/2010

MGoPoints: 11892

Needs

October 5th, 2013 at 3:05 PM ^

42-17. There's going to be some heat on the new D-coordinator at PSU.

 

Edit: to be fair, the last two tds have come on 30 and 8 yard drives.

Joined: 08/05/2008

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IPFW_Wolverines

October 5th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^

FSU 63 - Maryland 0
 

And it isn't over yet.

Good call media on putting Maryland into the top 25.

Joined: 10/03/2010

MGoPoints: 2581

meechiganman14

October 5th, 2013 at 3:14 PM ^

Looks like the nightmare scenario of MSU vs OSU in the B1G championship game is a real possibility. With MSU's defense, they only need their offense to not screw up to be a real threat. Cook looked real competent. MSU's schedule is a complete joke with no OSU or Wisconsin so it will take multiple losses to the group of NW, Nebraska and us to keep them out of the Champ game. 

Joined: 06/12/2012

MGoPoints: 509

uminks

October 5th, 2013 at 3:25 PM ^

I thought sparty's OL was suppose to be a real tire fire this season and the offense would score very little points.  It looks like their OL is giving the QB plenty of time to hit their good receivers and opening holes for their RB.

We have two NFL players at tackle and I thought the talent was there along the interior and through the season they would be a solid line.

I wanted to say sparty NOOOOOOOOOOOOO ! Today.

Joined: 11/10/2009

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