Is 7-5 acceptable?

Submitted by m83econ on

Given today's bed crap, last year's regular season is starting to look more likely.  The horrendous defense of last year has become this year's average defense.  However, the offense of last year has become inept & confused and failed to score as many points against Iowa as UL-Monroe or Minnesota had earlier.  At the end of the year, 7-5 would look like same old, same old 2nd half collapse. 

In reply to by coastal blue

Jasper

November 5th, 2011 at 11:04 PM ^

That '08 Florida win in Lloyd's last game (which was, of course, lots of fun and a great way for him to go out) is to the '07 season as that famous SI cover in '97 is to Marcus Ray's career. That is, it's all the simple-minded people remember. (To be fair, there are some Lloyd haters that remember only Appy State.)

But, no, '07 was *not* acceptable IMO. I agree with coastal blue that the 39-7 loss to Oregon was worse than any of RichRod's losses.

coastal blue

November 6th, 2011 at 12:25 AM ^

a team with Henne, Hart, Long, Manningham, Arrington and a defense that would end up 30ish in the country losing to an FCS team at home is around as acceptable as a 3-9 team beating another 3-9 team. The same FCS team that would lose to two other FCS teams before the season was out....

Right.

And yeah we weren't competitive  against OSU and MSU at the end of last season, but looking at the team we threw out against Oregon (i.e. the above team I just mentioned) and getting beat just as badly as we did in those two games with a very incomplete team is a far worse loss in my opinion. 

BigBlue02

November 6th, 2011 at 3:11 AM ^

I remember Jonathan Stewart joking with the press about the Oregon/Michigan game. They were in the offensive huddle in the 4th trying to guess which Michigan defensive lineman was going to give up next. Combine that with the worst home loss in nearly 40 years.....yeah, that Oregon game was worse than any RR was coach for.

magnus_caerulus (not verified)

November 5th, 2011 at 10:28 PM ^

NO, never, ever will be.  This current team should be 9-3 minimum with this roster in this years BIG. 

coastal blue

November 5th, 2011 at 10:29 PM ^

I fear that if we go 7-5, there is literally nothing one can do except accept the outcome. 

I won't be happy with that though. That is a definite regression as a team,which makes no sense because we don't have two out of three incompetent units like we did last year and this year's schedule is softer. 

In all honesty, after our lucky win over ND, 9-3 feels like improvement. 8-4 just means we traded in Wisconsin for Northwestern on our schedule this year. It also means we lost to OSU for the 8th straight time. 

I think Borges gets his shit together, we murder Illinois and then win close ones against Nebraska and OSU to finish out the year. We're still in position to win out and go to BCS Bowl and I'll keep believing till the end. 

Also, the Big Ten sucks this year. 

RickH

November 5th, 2011 at 10:30 PM ^

Before the season, maybe, but now 8-4 is the minimum in my opinion.  10-2 is obviously what I'd like but with three games left, I only want to win at least two.

LSAClassOf2000

November 5th, 2011 at 10:41 PM ^

We've been in spots like this before with established staffs that had been here several years, and people are going to complain about a staff that's been here about 10 bloody months. Sometimes, people make me want to induce a coma by banging my head against the brick facade of my drafty old ranch house. 

Vasav

November 5th, 2011 at 10:44 PM ^

but I don't think that a) it's going to happen, or b) it's the end of the world if it does happen. I'll be disappointed but understand that the transition has been a bit shakier than hoped. And I'll have big expectations for 2012.

MileHighWolverine

November 5th, 2011 at 10:48 PM ^

Given the state of the BIG this year, the fact we returned so many starters on both sides of the ball - hell NO!!

RRod would have gotten to 9-3 with this team even with GERG!  

FML

the_dude

November 5th, 2011 at 10:54 PM ^

Well it's Hoke's first year so I don't think "acceptable" really enters the conversation. It's more what do you expect going forward based on what you know right now?

I don't see us losing to Illinois as Zooker is just not good and their offense struggles against good defenses. We have one of those this year! I don't see us losing to a Nebraska team that just lost to Northwestern. O$U plays good enough defense to slow down our offense but IU just put up 20 on them in the Shoe, while the Huskers put up 34 on them on the road.

We can easily win all three games. We may not, but the schedule does work out reasonably well with Illinois on the road and NU and O$U at home. I feel pretty good about us winning 9 games this season. Is that acceptable? I sure think so but I'd prefer 10. I'm just greedy like that.

the_dude

November 5th, 2011 at 11:40 PM ^

QB Rating for Denard this year:

WMU: 132.6

ND: 194.1

EMU: 108.8

SDSU: 69.5(!)

MINN: 188.4

NWU: 176.6

MSU: 86.0

PU: 152.0

IOWA: 102.4

He's had a few stinkers (SDSU, MSU, IOWA and EMU) but he's also had some very solid games. He also wasn't helped out much today with some drops and some interesting rules interpretations by the referees. The offense is evolving to become more of what Borges wants to run.

the_dude

November 6th, 2011 at 11:21 AM ^

QB rating is probably more misleading in RR's spread 'n shred. In Al Borges' offense QB rating is much more likely to represent how a QB performed. Denard still throws too many INTs but in games like yesterday's our receivers certainly didn't help him out by dropping quite a few catchable passes.

the_dude

November 6th, 2011 at 11:19 AM ^

We're playing Nebraska at home. You may have noticed that playing at home gives decent teams a distinct advantage over playing on the road.

Home record

UMICH: 6-0

MSU: 6-0

IOWA: 6-0

WISC: 7-0

NEB: 5-1

O$U: 5-1

PSU: 5-1

ILL: 5-1

PU: 4-1

MINN: 2-3

NWU: 1-2 (!)

IU: 1-5

Here's NU and O$U's road record thus far:

NEB: 2-1

O$U: 1-2

Not exactly murder's row.

denardogasm

November 5th, 2011 at 10:56 PM ^

1. Your comparison to how other teams played against Iowa earlier in the season is worthless.  Just about very team in the Big10 has improved as the season has gone on except Wisconsin and Illinois off the top of my head, so there's no point comparing the scores to earlier in the year.

2. You better secure a good prozac dealer for next year because the road schedule looks like the 7 circles of hell next to this year.

Chuck Harbaugh

November 6th, 2011 at 1:16 AM ^

It's not about orchestrating wins.  It's about taking on all comers whenever, wherever, however.  F*** the CEOs and accountants and their cynical schedluing.   The only reason to be a fan is for "your" team to take on every challenge and give its best.    Otherwise,m the wins are a charade.

That is what i expect of myself and my chosen team.  YMMV.  I would rather lose to Bama than pummel Del State.

GoBlueX2

November 5th, 2011 at 10:57 PM ^

To start 6-0 get to 7-1 and finish 7-5 would not be acceptable, but it isn't unlikely. I believe we will overcome Illinois on the road next week, but I think we slip up against Nebraska and Ohio State. To those who say we're solid at home, the best team we beat at home was Notre Dame and that was somehwat of a miracle win. Our only B1G home wins have come against Purdue and Minnesota - not exactly two teams that can indicate how good your team truly is.

snackyx

November 6th, 2011 at 9:31 AM ^

At the beginning of the season I predicted a 7-5 season, with us losing to ND but winning at Illinois.  That outcome COULD be flipped, and we COULD end 7-5.  Is it unacceptable?  Unacceptable to who?  Of course Hoke will say its unacceptable, but lets take a deep breath a remember this is basically RR's team--Hoke and Company came in in January and did what they could.  Next season Hoke has his recruits coming in--how much can be expected from freshman playing the schedule we have next year is another question--but at least that will start to be Hoke's team. 

Once we went 7-1, you could smell the winds of a cruel finish blowing in--losing the last four games just leaves a bad taste in your mouth, regardless of the competition level relative to the teams you beat to get to seven.  It wasn't the media story of the post-MSMoo loss collapse, its that the schedule was loaded with "better" teams (and in this year of the Big Ten, just what the hell constitutes "better" is anyones guess).  Denard is Denard, and I have said it before:  he will never take you to the promised land.  We can win games, some dramatic, some downright scary, but we will also lose games to good teams, and even lose games that we should have won.  Shit happens.  Give the Hoke regime some time and get the players that Hoke and Mattison and Uncle Fester want to play their system before we get out the pitch forks and torches.

Cheesecake Wizard

November 5th, 2011 at 11:30 PM ^

A big part of the season is the bowl game.  We keep posting about the regular season record.  We work on this record to get to a big bowl game.  It will be a significantly more acceptable season if we WIN the bowl game.