Enjoy the Ride

Actually I can say two things..... 1) it was Indiana, hardly a top notch offense. 2) I hope you're right about the surprising part. Edit: To steal a line from one of my all time classic's, if the D turns out to be good by the end of the season "I couldn't be more surprised if I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet".....Just being honest.

But the reason I'm not sure I am pleased even after reading your very decent point is that (1) besides maybe ND, the bulk of the "good offenses" we're going to face this year are still to come, and (2) I don't see any reason why, besides natural in-season improvement (which maybe I'm underestimating) those mistakes will just go away. It's a young defense, afterall. But clearly, I hope you're right.

I found myself defending the d. Our offense was pathetic during the middle of the game. We scored one touchdown between the middle of the first quarter and the middle of the fourth. Our d did allow Indiana to drive on us, but they held tough in the redzone only allowing 2 tds on 7 redzone possesions. That is the most we can ask of our d this year. Allow field goals while our offense scores touchdowns.

I'm going to say he looks at the UFR and facepalms at some of the results. You're nitpicking with all the "if this didn't happen" stuff. The D is mediocre at best. Take out the long run and they still get ~380 yards of total offense. I was impressed with their ability to hold their own in the redzone and their second half adjustments (like EMU), but it's sad they had to be in that position in the first place. They still gave up a ton of yards in the first half. The D isn't very good, just live with it and hope the O keeps putting up big numbers.

It should be pretty obvious that GERG has been able to take ahold of the defense at halftime and completely dominate the second half compared to the first half. He's done this in just about every game this season. Problems with this? 1) Why can't we come out in the first half and look decent on D? That opening drive by IU on offense drove me to the liquor cabinet on a day I didn't plan on drinking. 2) What happens when GERG runs into better offensive coordinators (sorry Charlie) that are able to change their scheme on-the-fly in the second half after GERG's wizardry begins to show? I hope the D can step up and play solidly throughout an entire game this season. We almost had that in the Western game (save for the long TD pass) and I'd like to see something close to it again soon.

if Cullen Christian is licking his chops....or other recruits. DW appears to have the other side locked down, but judging from what we have seen and how "wide open" the other cornerback spot is...if I'm a DB recruit, I'm thinking playing time.

... 467* reasons why I'm not optimistic. I'm hopeful, and I'm excited, but I'm not optimistic. *Number of yards our defense let up to the 9th ranked big 10 offense from 2008. That's 173 yards more than they averaged last year.