stargazer

Academically, I'm willing to bet their student body is as smart as any in power 5 conferences. Not to say they care anything about football.

It really is all about Tommy. He makes great plays to put us in a position to win, and next thing you know, he's keeping opponents in the game with ill advised decisions.

Do you form all of your opinion's based on what you hear from Fox? I'll go with what the heads of Big 10 and ACC officiating say. No one could possibly make an accurate judgement as to what contact occurred, based on the best instant reply angles available. Only the official there, making the call can make that judgement (although from what I can see, it looks more likely that there was contact, particularly when you see the angle the DB ended up taking, in the series of images above, leading him out of bounds as well).

Some MSU fans suggesting that Reilly also pushed off of their DB, while coming back in bounds, which is ridiculous. In fact, that the DB went down, just supports the fact that his momentum by Reilly, which included the contact leading to Reilly going out of bounds, ultimately led to the DB going out of bounds and falling as well. In this little series, you'll note the DB simply losing his footing as he tries to change direction to catch Reilly going inside on him, and even appears to grab Reilly briefly, before losing grip.

He's among those leading the dancing in that video!

"No eligible offensive receiver who goes out of bounds and returns in bounds during a down shall touch a legal forward pass in the field of play or end zones or while airborne until it has been touched by an opponent or official (A.R. 7-3-4-I, II and IV). [Exception: This does not apply to an originally eligible offensive player who attempts to return inbounds immediately after going out of bounds due to contact by an opponent (A.R. 7-3-4-III)]." Forgive me if someone already posted the rule. There's nothing about a 'push', nothing about a DB intentionally doing it, or even being aware of it (commentators obsession with the DB's eyes always being on the ball, irrelevant)... only 'due to contact'. I believe there was contact, and there certainly wasn't enough evidence on any of that video to suggest otherwise.

Yeah, that take down of the TE didn't work so well.

Does any other fan base, stick around after the game, taking it all in, even after a win like this?? I've never seen that from another team's fans.

I assume it's been repeated all over here, whatever they're rated, consider we join only Ohio State and Notre Dame, as teams having beaten Michigan State in the past 3 years.

Funny, they're all freaking out on the Hawkeye boards, worrying about the Nebraska game.

I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have given Wisconsin the FBS rushing record for a week, either.

I think it's funny how many people here still think Bo was fired for not winning.

Remember the Ryker Fyfe who stepped in during the Michigan State game, while we were getting crushed, led the team to a score, sparking the dramatic come back and near win? Yeah, few do.

We're seriously shutting down the run, and we are, albeit slowly, improving in pass defense. Again, it's a very good formula in the B1G. So let's see, the loss to Illinois was on Tommy's boneheaded move, we'll forgive him. We played Wisconsin to a last second loss, after getting blown out last year, and we beat the Minnesota, which we lost to last year. I'm seeing a pattern here. And how about the penalties and turnover margin! GBR! Support this team/coaches.

I don't expect to win out, but I think it's ridiculous to suggest that we have no chance of beating an Iowa team, which played Wisconsin/Illinois, just as tight as we did. Even Michigan State looks beatable, I mean they've struggled with Purdue and Rutgers. Start showing a little support. No doubt the players are approaching these games with every confidence that they can compete.

Defense played far better this weekend, I would guess they had as many pass break-ups against Wisconsin, as they did all season prior. Run defense is good. Give these guys a break, if they weren't on the field so much, following our 3 and done offense, they would have finished stronger. They ARE getting better.

That's rich. Funny, because the knowitallfootball.com blog you think is so insightful, is citing precisely the same thing

I giggled a little when I read this: Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois fans, have endured what we're just now experiencing, for years now. Yet, I'm pretty sure they weren't whining about it on the level we are, calling for mid-season firing, etc. We would have kicked Ferentz out, YEARS ago.

I'm no Bo fan, but we'd be fooling ourselves, if we didn't realize our complicity in stirring up these feelings among the team.

...and I'm pretty sure, they'll tell you they're playing hard for their coaches and themselves as well. More than a few players, thanks to a preponderance of crappy fans, many representatives of which can be found on social media, and forums like this, have expressed explicitly, they're not playing for the fans.

Perhaps that's indeed how the coaches feel, and perhaps it's the right call. But man. Hard to put teams away before the closing minutes, taking that route. Exactly. Whether it was Pelini or Riley, we need a better QB. I like Tommy, he's done some great stuff, but he hasn't shown an ability to make consistently good decisions/high percentage passes (and the 'mechanics' seems to be a favorite topic of the national media, in fact, when hasn't that been the case for a Nebraska QB??), to be a quarterback at this level. I don't think we've had a really good QB, since Joe Ganz. Where's our Joe Ganz now?! I really thought Darlington looked like that guy (well, at least until he gets hit hard, I guess), but apparently he didn't pan out in the Fall?

With Tommy at QB, if you have a lead, best not have him throwing the ball on your side of the 50.

Give it a few more games, we'll see.... even say, when we come back home from a loss in Minneapolis. The boo birds among us, have had a false sense of relevance with these 9-win seasons. We'll soon be separating the fans from the band wagon faction (some will recall the swathes of empty seats during the Callahan era).

Good post.

They are playing hard, and they deserve better than what many of our fans, patrons of this forum are giving them.