Opening games: Hard fought victories v. Easy wins

[Excel]

This is just something I've been thinking about after the first weekend of College Football based on what one of the BTN commentators for the Wisconsin game said:

 

Would you rather have a relatively close first game against an under-powered opponent, like Nebraska, Illinois or Ohio States' games, or an absolute shilacking like Michigan and Wisconsin dealt out? Here's how I see it:

 

Close First Games

With a hard fought game you get to really test your team. Defense's learn how to stop concerted drives and Offenses gain experience in driving down the field and fighting to score. There is a certain confidence and learning that comes from that and a well coached team should improve from it. On the other hand, a close game shows future opponents your teams' weaknesses that could be exploited later and could shake confidence as much as it could help.

 

First Game Blowouts

Basing this only on Wisconsin's game against UMASS, I'm not sure the game was really worth playing other than for the easy "W". UMass's Offense had five drives that ended in three plays or less and ended up turning over the ball twice. What did the UW's Defense learn? They were never truly tested. The same thing goes for Wisconsin's Offense in that it scored four touchdowns on big plays of 50 yards or more. Ohio State and Penn State aren't going to allow four touchdowns like that; against a good team you have to drive down the field and fight, something the Offense isn't going to learn or be comfortable with when they're used to getting easy points against pushovers.

 

That's just how I see it. There are still learning points from shutouts but personally I would rather have a game like Northwestern's (without the turnovers) or Nebraska's (minus Wyoming's two last TD's) than one like Wisconsin's.

 

What do you think?

[commando]

 

What do you think?

 

i think nebraska should be able to hold someone under 600 yards of offense. until i see someone do something to stop the bleeding i am not optimistic about the team doing well.

[I am I]

If we score on the drive TM throws that stupid INT, we get the best of both types of games.

I like blowouts cuz we get to watch good execution and second teamers, it makes me feel good to crush teams.

But I like seeing a gritty win too.

What makes me mad is being up by 16 with a chance to out a nail in the coffin only to watch it slip away against an inferior opponent.

 

[SkerMin8r]

I think you make some thought provoking points for sure. I will say that after last's nights game those things that need to be fixed a fairly apparent, My concern is that these are things we have seen for about 3 games now.

[husker_rob]

i think nebraska should be able to hold someone under 600 yards of offense. until i see someone do something to stop the bleeding i am not optimistic about the team doing well.

 

Pretty well sums it up.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

I would rather the team get punched in the mouth early in the season so they can make adjustments before the meat of the conference schedule arrives.

[NUance]

I would rather the team get punched in the mouth early in the season so they can make adjustments before the meat of the conference schedule arrives.

Yeah, we're just lucky to come away with the win. A loss to Wyo would have been disastrous. But if we can fix some things, we'll recover and have a decent season. Probably not great, but decent. I don't think we will have a great season until our defense gets significantly better.

[Hoosker]

I see your point, but....

 

it's Wyoming.

 

I'm more worried about the fact that we let them back into the game after we'd firmly taken control in the 3rd quarter. We should have covered the spread, but the defense admittedly lost focus and weren't that into the game by the time the 4th quarter rolled around and the offense stalled.

 

Close games are good learning experiences, sure, but it would have been more encouraging to see us not take the foot off the pedal.