Huskers back in the top ten (AP & Coaches) after 5-0 start

So I went ahead and looked at Indiana's record a little closer:

@ Florida International 2-4 (Beat FAU and UTEP)

Indiana won 34-13

Ball State 4-2 (Beat FAU, NIU, Georgia St and e. Kentucky)

Indiana won 30-20

Wake Forest 5-1 (Beat Duke, Syracuse, Indiana, Delaware St and Tulane)

Indiana Lost 28-33

Michigan State 2-3 (Beat Furman and Notre Dame)

Indiana Won 24-21

@ Ohio State 5-0 (Beat BGSU, Tulsa, OU, Rutgers and Indiana)

Indiana lost 38-17

The main thing I am seeing here is the highest score Indiana has accumulated has been 34 against FIU. I honestly expected more out of their offense. They have a strong run game that we have been pretty solid at defending.

Ohio State on the other hand beat OU, which so did Houston that just lost to Navy. They also hung 58 on Rutgers, and now Michigan hung 78 on them. Moral of the story OU was overrated and Rutgers is REALLY REALLY bad at football this year.

I guess since we are really banged up and we have been accustomed to let downs in the past I can understand everyone preparing themselves for a heartbreaking loss. I'm just not tham impressed by Indiana. Sure they are better than usual, but I think if we play smart they will be pretty ineffective. Just my two cents.

 
1995 Redux said:
The main thing I am seeing here is the highest score Indiana has accumulated has been 34 against FIU. I honestly expected more out of their offense. They have a strong run game that we have been pretty solid at defending.
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I think you're going by last year. Indiana is only #80 in the country in rushing this year and #85 in scoring offense. Last year they were #26 and #24. Last year we were #32 in yards per rushing attempt allowed. This year we are #102.

 
knapplc said:
I can't help but think this will stir up even greater gnashing of teeth if/when the Huskers lose to unranked Indiana.

I imagine our doom-and-gloomers are already prepping their hot takes on not being able to maintain a top-ten ranking.
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EXACTLY, and how shocked the announcers will act when we struggle with Indiana who looks a lot tougher than we thought preseason.

fb30 said:
That's awesome. Hope we can stay there.
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I do too but realistically we aren't running the table so the question becomes how far do we fall when we fall and will we still be ranked after the much tougher back end of our schedule.

 
Count 'Bility said:
i should also add that what has happened in college football this year is nothing but perfect reason to completely do away with this AP and coaches poll bs. It's 100% worthless and no reason whatsoever for them anymore. And all they do is generate false perception and assumptions before games are even played, putting multiple teams in positions they dont belong, whether it be too high or too low. I can argue why nebraska should actually be ranked 20. I can also argue why we belong right where we are. But the fact is, it doesnt matter one bit. The committee has the final say.
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I agree 100% the only reason they exist is to pump up tv ratings.

 
RunMickeyRun02 said:
Count 'Bility said:
i should also add that what has happened in college football this year is nothing but perfect reason to completely do away with this AP and coaches poll bs. It's 100% worthless and no reason whatsoever for them anymore. And all they do is generate false perception and assumptions before games are even played, putting multiple teams in positions they dont belong, whether it be too high or too low. I can argue why nebraska should actually be ranked 20. I can also argue why we belong right where we are. But the fact is, it doesnt matter one bit. The committee has the final say.
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I agree 100% the only reason they exist is to pump up tv ratings.
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It's good discussion for fans. There isn't a reason to hate on them. They are relatively meaningless like the polls in basketball.

 
Sorry for all the back to back posts.......

But will any of those teams still be even close to where they are now come last week of the season?

Wisky still has a gauntlet to get through and we have the tougher portion ahead of us. The only team that might stay up there by Iowa time is Michigan and it wouldn't at all surprise me if they get upset somewhere along the way.

 
Once again this week, Nebraska will face the toughest opponent of the year, so far. Themselves. That is the team, other than OSU, most likely to beat the Huskers. I think if they play up to their potential, they can beat just about anybody on their schedule.

 
1995 Redux said:
I guess since we are really banged up and we have been accustomed to let downs in the past I can understand everyone preparing themselves for a heartbreaking loss. I'm just not tham impressed by Indiana. Sure they are better than usual, but I think if we play smart they will be pretty ineffective. Just my two cents.
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A) It wouldn't be a heartbreaking loss.

B) It's possible to think we'll struggle in this game, or that we could lose, without it being attributed to PTSD from past Husker teams.

C) It's fine that you're not impressed by them. Let's compare their numbers to Nebraska's:

Indiana

• @ Florida International 2-4 (Beat FAU and UTEP) - Indiana won 34-13
• Ball State 4-2 (Beat FAU, NIU, Georgia St and e. Kentucky) - Indiana won 30-20
• Wake Forest 5-1 (Beat Duke, Syracuse, Indiana, Delaware St and Tulane) - Indiana Lost 28-33
• Michigan State 2-3 (Beat Furman and Notre Dame) - Indiana Won 24-21
@ Ohio State 5-0 (Beat BGSU, Tulsa, OU, Rutgers and Indiana) - Indiana lost 38-17

PPG - 26.6 (81st)
PAPG - 25 (55th)
Opponent's Combined Record - 18-10
Strength of Schedule - 57th


Nebraska
• Fresno State 1-5 (Beat Sacramento State) - Nebraska won 43-10
• Wyoming 4-2 (Beat Illinois State and Colorado State) - Nebraska won 52-17
• Oregon 2-4 (Beat California-Davis and Virginia) - Nebraska won 35-32
• Northwestern 2-3 (Beat Duke and Iowa) - Nebraska won 24-13
• Illinois 1-4 (Beat Murray State) - Nebraska won 31-16

PPG - 37 (33rd)
PAPG - 17.6 (17th)
Opponent's Combined Record - 10-15
Strength of Schedule - 82nd




We are definitely a better team on paper. Nobody is disputing that. But the amount that we're better is open to some interpretation, and doesn't have any super compelling evidence either way. Given that this is a sport (aka something where you don't know what will happen), that it's the B1G, that they played OSU tough, and that we have hardly played anyone with a pulse to test the true merit of our own team, it's not unreasonable to expect this game to be a dogfight.
 
drfish said:
Once again this week, Nebraska will face the toughest opponent of the year, so far. Themselves. That is the team, other than OSU, most likely to beat the Huskers. I think if they play up to their potential, they can beat just about anybody on their schedule.
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Excellent post, I would add that because we are our own worst enemy we have the capability to lose to just about anyone too.

With Indiana I fear we find ourselves in a shootout and then it just takes one pass, one bad lateral, a drive killing holding penalty and we're sunk. On the positive side we're also shown the ability to chew up unreal amounts of clock keeping their O and more importantly our D off the field.

Seeing what I've seen so far I wouldn't be as devastated by a loss to Indy as I would have been if you had told me before the season.

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
1995 Redux said:
I guess since we are really banged up and we have been accustomed to let downs in the past I can understand everyone preparing themselves for a heartbreaking loss. I'm just not tham impressed by Indiana. Sure they are better than usual, but I think if we play smart they will be pretty ineffective. Just my two cents.
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A) It wouldn't be a heartbreaking loss.

B) It's possible to think we'll struggle in this game, or that we could lose, without it being attributed to PTSD from past Husker teams.

C) It's fine that you're not impressed by them. Let's compare their numbers to Nebraska's:

Indiana

• @ Florida International 2-4 (Beat FAU and UTEP) - Indiana won 34-13

• Ball State 4-2 (Beat FAU, NIU, Georgia St and e. Kentucky) - Indiana won 30-20

• Wake Forest 5-1 (Beat Duke, Syracuse, Indiana, Delaware St and Tulane) - Indiana Lost 28-33

• Michigan State 2-3 (Beat Furman and Notre Dame) - Indiana Won 24-21

@ Ohio State 5-0 (Beat BGSU, Tulsa, OU, Rutgers and Indiana) - Indiana lost 38-17

PPG - 26.6 (81st)

PAPG - 25 (55th)

Opponent's Combined Record - 18-10

Strength of Schedule - 57th

Nebraska

• Fresno State 1-5 (Beat Sacramento State) - Nebraska won 43-10

• Wyoming 4-2 (Beat Illinois State and Colorado State) - Nebraska won 52-17

• Oregon 2-4 (Beat California-Davis and Virginia) - Nebraska won 35-32

• Northwestern 2-3 (Beat Duke and Iowa) - Nebraska won 24-13

• Illinois 1-4 (Beat Murray State) - Nebraska won 31-16

PPG - 37 (33rd)

PAPG - 17.6 (17th)

Opponent's Combined Record - 10-15

Strength of Schedule - 82nd

We are definitely a better team on paper. Nobody is disputing that. But the amount that we're better is open to some interpretation, and doesn't have any super compelling evidence either way. Given that this is a sport (aka something where you don't know what will happen), that it's the B1G, that they played OSU tough, and that we have hardly played anyone with a pulse to test the true merit of our own team, it's not unreasonable to expect this game to be a dogfight.
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A) Losing to Indiana would break my heart, theres just no reason for it.

B) We have struggled at one time or another in every game thus far, it's not unexpected.

Their body of work is only impressive because they kind of hung with Ohio State for a while, the game was over by the 4th quarter. If we emulate the Buckeye gameplan a bit we should be fine, 4th quarter is our best quarter. It's not going to be a cakewalk, but I don't expect a dogfight either.

 
killer cacti said:
You're not back. You start thinking you're back too early and you'll be humbled.
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It's clear from this that you've not read many of the threads on HB. Not only is nobody saying this, there has actually been quite a bit of hand wringing and criticism over the past couple of weeks[SIZE=12pt]—[/SIZE]especially since a couple of the teams we beat have themselves gone on to lose more games. Sure, we're not close to being "back" when you consider where we were 20 years ago. But I say let's enjoy the unblemished record while it lasts. And if the coaches and AP writers both want to put us in the top 10 for the time being, well, all the better!
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